Quote Originally Posted by indiana boy View Post
Mike if someone put the shad back in then where did all the carp come from, did someone stock those as well? If I remember all the streams and creeks were supposed to be killed out around the lake to kill all shad and junk fish is that true? You might want to do a little more research instead of pointing your finger at one person!
First, I did not point my finger, and certainly not at one person. If you read my posts here and feel that you are being singled out, that may have more to do with your conscience than my comments. I agree, however, that more research is needed. Some of that needs to be directed at how to discourage future illegal stockings.

Yes, the 1994 renovation did sample all tributaries and farm ponds in the watershed to look for gizzard shad and carp. Any such water body that was found to contain target species was killed out and restocked in the project.

After the 1994 renovation annual fisheries studies found Gizzard shad for the first time in 2000, and their numbers and age indicated they were one year olds. Carp were not found again for a few more years, indicating a later introduction date. I am not sure how the carp got back in, but at least two reports indicated that a local man was bragging about putting some in sometime around 2001. And during the battles over the development of sewer service to prevent septic tank effluent from impacting the lake, several anti-sewer folks often repeated the charge that the algae blooms were caused by the previous removal of carp. These statements made in public meetings correspond in date with the return of carp in the surveys.

There is more that I don’t know about some of this than what I do know. But as long as the angling community continues to refuse to accept that some of their own are doing some things that harm the resource, the next West Boggs renovation, and the great fishing that we know results, is still a long way off.