How Many Fish Should Be In Any Given Lake?

[mono_mono]

The bite here is SLOW...I mean SLOW, right now. My neighbor has the "It's been fished out" theory. I do not agree with him and told him I guessed there were thousands of each species in the lake we were on when the discussion came up (177 acres, Bows, Brookies, all the pan fish and both Bass)

177 acres is a pretty big lake, does thousands of each species seam high? I think not. The lake has 80 feet and is generally deep everywhere. You can find 18' no more than five steps from shore. Can  a small farm pond be fished out with constant pressure? I guess we would have to define fished out.

My theory is the same as deer hunting, the fish and game play at night, humans play during the day. Most of the daylight hours are the inactive period for fish and game. That said, I think it would take a 1000 guys a 1000 days to "fish out" a 177 acre lake.

[fowl_language]

That question is crazy huge.

Best answer I can think of it all depends...on a bunch of things. Aquatic environments can support X number of fish based on space, food, predation, competition, nutrients and multiple other factors.  Generally to assess how many fish are "supposed" to be in a given area, fish biologists and limnologists need to conduct a lot of in situ experiments and/or analyses to determine the carrying capacity of a specific system. Many biologists have come up with "shortcut" assessment methods that give state agencies the ability to quickly assess specific areas to gauge the productivity of a water body.  With that information they can then hazard a guess at it's carrying capacity.  These methods occasionally work really well and occasionally they fail miserably.

I look at recommendations for fish numbers in lakes similar to a recommendation you would give someone for a rod or reel, you thought it worked great but you're buddy gets a bad one and it breaks first trip.  You had no idea he would get a bad one but none the less there's a chance he blames you for the recommendation.  Hypotheses are just guesses, really well supported guesses (should be anyway) but they are still a shot in the dark. If everything was cut and dry every lake in the world would be the best place to fish!

Depending on the species of fish it can be very easy to over harvest or it can be near impossible to over harvest.  Some species are very productive and have extremely high fecundity (reproduction) these species are hard to over fish.  Some species can't establish natural reproduction and are present only due to stocking efforts.  As you can imagine, these fish can be over harvested rather quickly.

[lefty2053]

Mid season slow down everywhere. It happens every year and will get better soon. My wife used to think the lake was fished out also. But when you have a lake the size of the one I fish. 9000 Acres and is stocked with tens of thousands of fish and has a depth of 330 Feet. It would be hard to fish it out especially when fish breed yearly also.

[WANNAKETCHUM]

That question is crazy huge.

Depending on the species of fish it can be very easy to over harvest or it can be near impossible to over harvest.  Some species are very productive and have extremely high fecundity (reproduction) these species are hard to over fish.  Some species can't establish natural reproduction and are present only due to stocking efforts.  As you can imagine, these fish can be over harvested rather quickly.

Just spread the word where the Crappie are spawning on one of your favorite small waters and see how many people show up. Then you'll find out how vulnerable a given specie is in a given (small) body of water. I've seen it happen... that's why I keep my yap shut!!

WK

[Osage]

I am in the middle of an interesting book on Icefishing.One chapter the author speaks of overpopulation,carrying capacity,and daily limits on several bodies of water.After interviews with DNR,and those responsible with setting limits,the author states that over harvesting a healthy body of water is actually very difficult,and not likely to ever happen.
   The reasons given for limiting harvest were not to prevent over harvesting,rather to insure that everyone would have a reasonable chance of having success in taking sizable fish on any given lake.I am not scientific enough to say for sure one way or another,but having owned and fished a few ponds and small lakes in my life,and allowed many in the community to catch and take  freely,never have we had any of our waters fished out.
    At one of our ponds,my dad contacted DNR,for recommendations on how to control our overpopulation of fish.Their recommendation ( which we did) was to drain the pond,and restock.I know this subject can have several opinions,I can only tell about our dealings with high fishing pressure and overpopulation.I have much doubt any healthy sizable body of water,fished by normal means,( rods and line ) could ever be over fished.........But hey,the next guy will tell you different.

[mono_mono]

Good stuff Osage - Can You give the name of the book? Thnx

[chasdc1]

Osage,
You post from WV?
If that's West Virginia, what kind of ice fishing season do you have?
If you are in Wyoming, and the WV is a typo, then I get it.
Chas

[adipose]

The bite here is SLOW...I mean SLOW, right now. My neighbor has the "It's been fished out" theory. I do not agree with him and told him I guessed there were thousands of each species in the lake we were on when the discussion came up (177 acres, Bows, Brookies, all the pan fish and both Bass)

177 acres is a pretty big lake, does thousands of each species seam high? I think not. The lake has 80 feet and is generally deep everywhere. You can find 18' no more than five steps from shore. Can  a small farm pond be fished out with constant pressure? I guess we would have to define fished out.


your bite is slow because your fishing the worst possible time of yr. and month.

as far as your statement about deer and fish playing at night,...well....fish and deer are a lot different. Fish play at night and day and everything in between. Deer play at night mostly due to human pressure. Now if you want to talk about different age classes of deer and fish....thats a whole other topic. Just my two cents worth. Let me know how your fishing goes in 19 days


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[Dirty P]

i know that in wyoming some lakes get 300 to 400 stoked some days and other lakes get 10,000 to 30,000 stoked that is on top of whatever fish are still in the lake. I would think that there is so many more than just a couple of thousand of each speices, just based on stocking. with natural reproduction the number will sky rocket up. i  think the lake isnt fished out but more like mid winter shutdown.

[GrizlyGarou]

The oxygen level gets low this time of year, so the fish slow down or move to places with more oxygen in the water. They're still in there, find a deep spot or an inlet and you'll get on them again.

[Swift]

It's midwinter, the bite tends to change. Oxygen levels have changed due to weeds dying off, with snow on the ice light levels are lower and species reproduction is still a ways off. They're there they don't migrate south for the winter. Can a lake be thrown out of balance? Sure, but regardless of its size you cant' find them all. Look for them, they often change to a different food source in a different place and time. With the light changing they often bite more towards midday since phytoplankton doesn't get as active at dawn as they once did and may be doing it out deeper, the oxygen needs of the fish needs of the fish means they're crossing paths much deeper and later. Pre Dawn, before even the hint of light is my personal preference this time of year

[Osage]

Good stuff Osage - Can You give the name of the book? Thnx

Ice fishing East and West.

Osage,
You post from WV?
If that's West Virginia, what kind of ice fishing season do you have?
If you are in Wyoming, and the WV is a typo, then I get it.
Chas

      Haha!No typo,I live in WV,our season is often minimal,makes one have his gear packed and ready to go at all times.

[jethro]

Get yourself a fish camera. You will be amazed at what you see. I can be fishing for hours, catching nothing, sometimes not even see anything on the fish finder, but drop the camera down there and all you see is fish eyes looking back at you. It's amazing.

[Foxy78]

I fished my first overnight last week and it was amazing how many fish I pulled out of the exact same 3 holes I'd fished during the day time. I stayed out until noon and sure enough, the bite dropped off again. So I'd say timing does play a big role