I would like to know why the Fish@Game Does not salvage the perch at Lost Valley Resivor and plant them in a place like Salmon Falls Res. were the Walleye pop. has cleared them out pretty much this would make a good forage base for these fish . would it not be cheaper to do this than to poison them? Just wondering! Thank You!
Answer:
Hello, thank you for your question about yellow perch.
Lost Valley Reservoir is managed as a coldwater trout fishery. Yellow Perch can be a problem for producing quality trout fishing, especially when the become overabundant and small.
Idaho Fish and Game does salvage fish in some cases. But, collecting enough yellow perch and transfering them somewhere else to improve the trout fishing would be extremely expensive. It would be very difficult to net enough perch to reduce the population close to zero. Transfering that many fish would take a lot of boats, trucks and manpower. This effort would need to be repeated every year to keep up with the perch population as they come back, and then you never really are rid of them.
Salvaging fish does make sense in some cases. In the case of yellow perch and Lost Valley Reservoir, it is just not an economical solution for the perch management there.
Thanks!
Martin Koenig
Sportfishing Program Coordinator
Answered on:
Thursday, January 14, 2016 - 4:32 PM MST