A Three Day March

[jthomascarter]

I'm not into killing animals, almost not even mosquitoes (if you can believe that), but I love to kill lots of fish and eat lots of fish, especially goldens. Yummy.

[Ozark Flip]

Some awesome fishing reports to read after having been off-line for awhile. Gorgeous fish and thanks for the pics. No need to explain yourself to me, I too get bank photos of fish I eat. Another great report as always Matt....I will be up there in Sept!!

Right on with the right on,

Flip

[CSF]

very nice! I hope to catch some trout that size eventually, haha. thanks for sharing!

[rlown]

You all know that the basin around puppet is really one of the places that the DFG would like to see frogs return. And if they're not stocking it and it's not self-sustaining, every fish taken is one more step to frogville.

I'm not against taking fish that are too injured to release, which becomes dinner. At least pick lakes that are self-sustaining or stocked, and harvest from there.

Somewhere in the future, Puppet and other non-selfsustaining lakes will just go away.

Looks like there'll be a healthy HST contingent up there in Sept, and a myriad of others as well.

Russ

PS: Still a great report..

[windknot]

Interesting point. Although a cessation of fish stocking in lakes which depend on plants to sustain their fisheries means an eventual die-off of all the fish, this transformation into a fishless lake seems like it would be accelerated by the taking of fish that are caught. Does it matter in the long run? No. Might it matter for those people who wish to fish the "dying" lake? Possibly. I'm interested to hear what people think of this. Personally I never have a problem with people taking fish provided they do so legally and responsibly, even in a case such as this. However, I've now had the luxury of fishing Puppet so my opinion isn't influenced by my desire to fish it before the fishery dies.

Matt

[rayfound]

despite the fact that the fishery will slowly die without air drops, my feeling is that the effects of angler pressure would be small compared to natural attrition. That being said, puppet lacks suitable spawning habitat... the others in the basin that I've seen look to have potential spawning grounds, so puppet may be the only loss.

[rlown]

In the discussion with the DFG biologist, they would like the whole "puppet" basin for frogs.

So.. yes, it's a dead end basin, for fish.. From what i've saw just on the forum on the take, If not SS, you can quickly doom that lake to death, just by taking. That doesn't include the others not on this forum.

Past example: The numbers quoted from Virginia lk in Yose out of Glen Aulin were that there were 249 fish at netting. It was apparently not SS before gillnetted. I actually knew some of those fish by sight every other year. But, we ate one a year for a 4 day trip?

All I was saying is, if you have a lake you like, and you know other's like.. Respect it as a resource. Fish it, of course. And release what you can.

[rayfound]

In the discussion with the DFG biologist, they would like the whole "puppet" basin for frogs.

So.. yes, it's a dead end basin, for fish.. From what i've saw just on the forum on the take, If not SS, you can quickly doom that lake to death, just by taking. That doesn't include the others not on this forum.

Past example: The numbers quoted from Virginia lk in Yose out of Glen Aulin were that there were 249 fish at netting. It was apparently not SS before gillnetted. I actually knew some of those fish by sight every other year. But, we ate one a year for a 4 day trip?

All I was saying is, if you have a lake you like, and you know other's like.. Respect it as a resource. Fish it, of course. And release what you can.

Fair 'nuff. You certainly won't be helping anglers any by removing fish from the lake.

I think for the other lakes in the basin, they will have to be netted to get them out. I've seen fish and habitat in the creeks... but not puppet, it has that long, shallow, semi-submerged boulder-shore... with all the stagnant water that would be great for tadpoles, but prevent the trout from reaching the outlet stream, and there is no surface tributary (besides seasonal snowmelt).

For what its worth, I haven't eaten a trout in years... though I did keep a brookie last year for a couple hiking with us... I HATED Bonking that beautiful fish with a rock... it'll be a long time before I do it again.

[Bad Man From Bodie]

Funny thing how gill netting works. If DFG wants to rid fish from Puppet, they need to poison the entire basin. There are way too many lakes nearby with golden and way too many disgruntled fisherman out there to keep coffee canning from happening. I don’t care what anyone thinks or what side of the fence you are on. A person could nearly throw a fish from Star into Puppet. Furthermore, although there is no perennial stream feeding Puppet, there is an outlet and there are springs. Both of which provide a venue for spawning. In other words, yes, I did see spawning golden in Puppet. Matter of fact there is a large spring with sandy gravely bottom which many large fish were battling over. I left this spot alone, but there is no way Im telling where it is because it is for sure a honey hole! There is a sandy/gravel shelf which could support spawning.

I understand why Puppet is on the list (habitat wise), but think it will be a waste of time. Plus it ticks me off they would even consider such a place when there are numerous other locations with suitable habitat and no fish (especially goldens that average over 12'') just gland I made it up there before DFG did with their nets. I hope you guys who are planning to go in September don’t find a bunch of nets in Puppet. Its not like DFG is going to advertise or publicize their gill netting plans. Seems like they just go and do it. I have pics of them gill netting several lakes this summer of which we had an idea they would net them at some time, but they never came out and said they were actually going to net them or when. Just assume those lakes on the do not plant list will be netted for frogs.

As for keeping fish, I throw back 98% of the fish I catch. If I want to keep some, I never keep more than I/we can eat. My opinion means nothing, but I belive the fish are here for us to eat so thats what Im going to do is eat them. As far as management, I tend to side with Russ and GB on most things. I dont have much patients for stupidity or missuse of the resource and figure Im a good stuart of the land so if I keep a few from Puppet or Star of L Lake or wherever, I figure Im helping the resource. At least I got them before the frog folks did

[rayfound]

Both of which provide a venue for spawning. In other words, yes, I did see spawning golden in Puppet. Matter of fact there is a large spring with sandy gravely bottom which many large fish were battling over. I left this spot alone, but there is no way Im telling where it is because it is for sure a honey hole! There is a sandy/gravel shelf which could support spawning.

I Hope you're right, and its not unheard of for rainbows (Biologically equivalent to goldens) to successfully lake spawn, though it is very, very rare. (Crater Lake in Oregon comes to mind)

The fish will surely Spawn, the question is weather or not enough eggs will become fry, to become fingerlings, to become sexually mature - in great enough quantity, to sustain this cycle. Time will tell. I certainly hope you are right.

[richlong8]

Awesome trip! In my July trip to this area, I think I averaged about 10 fish caught a day. In general, if I can catch 10-20 fish a day,I don't worry about eating one for lunch or dinner. Usually, 1/10 fish will take the barbless hook deep in the throat, and more often than not, that's the one I eat, but that is just my practice, for what it is worth.