10-21-2005, 06:43 PM
I don't think bass will have much of an impact on the rainbow fishing at Devil Creek. LMB will probably have some effect on the kokanee and will almost certainly hurt the cutthroat.
IMO most of the rainbows that the F&G plant don't last more than 6 months and the catch rate reflects what has been planted recently more than what compitition with other fish in the reservoir is like. The F&G planted 10,000 rainbows at the end of September which probably made up almost all of the fish that you caught on your last trip.
If a bucket biologist only dumped a couple dozen LMB in Devil Creek then it will take 4 or 5 years before there are very many bass over 10 inches. If there were very many bass in Devil Creek this year then I think we would have heard more about them. If conditions in Devil Creek remain favorable over the next 10 years then I think there will be a population of LMB comparable or slightly less than Deep Creek had before it was drained. If I remember correctly the F&G salvaged as many bass as they could when Deep Creek was drained and then planted them in Glendale. I could be wrong but I don't believe the F&G treated Deep Creek with rotenone so there is a very good chance bass survived in the creek when the reservoir was drained. I've heard a couple rummors of bass being caught in Deep Creek over the past couple year but I'm not sure if any of them are true.
I think there is very little natural reproduction taking place at Devil Creek. For about the last five years almost all of the rainbows that the F&G raise to plant are triploids which can't reproduce. The F&G have tried to promote the natural reproduction of cutthroats at Devil Creek but currently I think there are very few if any cutthroats over 12" in the reservoir.
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IMO most of the rainbows that the F&G plant don't last more than 6 months and the catch rate reflects what has been planted recently more than what compitition with other fish in the reservoir is like. The F&G planted 10,000 rainbows at the end of September which probably made up almost all of the fish that you caught on your last trip.
If a bucket biologist only dumped a couple dozen LMB in Devil Creek then it will take 4 or 5 years before there are very many bass over 10 inches. If there were very many bass in Devil Creek this year then I think we would have heard more about them. If conditions in Devil Creek remain favorable over the next 10 years then I think there will be a population of LMB comparable or slightly less than Deep Creek had before it was drained. If I remember correctly the F&G salvaged as many bass as they could when Deep Creek was drained and then planted them in Glendale. I could be wrong but I don't believe the F&G treated Deep Creek with rotenone so there is a very good chance bass survived in the creek when the reservoir was drained. I've heard a couple rummors of bass being caught in Deep Creek over the past couple year but I'm not sure if any of them are true.
I think there is very little natural reproduction taking place at Devil Creek. For about the last five years almost all of the rainbows that the F&G raise to plant are triploids which can't reproduce. The F&G have tried to promote the natural reproduction of cutthroats at Devil Creek but currently I think there are very few if any cutthroats over 12" in the reservoir.
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