What effect does bad year class spawns have on your trade? Or are there usually enough fish present to carry through a bad spawning year?
From the pics already this year, it appears the southern lakes had a good spawn two-three years ago.
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What effect does bad year class spawns have on your trade? Or are there usually enough fish present to carry through a bad spawning year?
From the pics already this year, it appears the southern lakes had a good spawn two-three years ago.
Bad shad hatch has more effect! No much bait, not as good of fishing or growing season.
more about the shad. I have found that catching fish is better when there are less shad. But, the size and health of the fish are less. About five years ago I remember one of the lakes I fish had a serious shad kill after severe cold. Dead shad everywhere. That spring we caught huge amounts of fish, mostly large fish. But, they were thin and really hungry. The larger fish seem to be harder to catch when there are large amounts of shad available for them to eat.
One of the local lakes here was known for having good quality crappie. It was not part of the river system, but an impoundment and wasn't real large. Anyway, the lake had a couple of good years of hatches. Now, you can catch a limit of fish easily, but it is very hard to found even one serious quality fish in the lake. Wonder if the small fish are just eating all the bait. Will be interesting to see how this pans out over the next couple of years.
Many experts, whomever they are, claim that shad and hatch each year keep the other species growing, bass, crappie and walleye. Without the healthy population and hatch each spring the game fish suffers. bruce
Can't really say as of yet. Haven't been guiding long enough to express an experienced view. However, it does stand to reason that a poor spawn would make a future year more difficult.