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Hey Don,
Thanks for attending the meeting and being our voice as you have over the years! It has been an issue before, but why the the WDFW never post their tiger musky stocking dates and numbers online? I have never been able to find it and no one has ever been able to provide me with that info?
Secondly, does the WDFW have a long term stocking plan by lake or do they figure it out annually? If so, what generates the decisions? i.e. water levels, available forage, number of squaw fish, etc.
Thanks again,
Hi Craig, I don't know but my guess is WDFW has higher priorities when they work on improving their website. I've collected some stocking data over the years, which is posted below. In the early years, when WDFW saw tiger muskies as a way to control squawfish and sucker populations, the stocking numbers probably were related to field biologists' assessments of the target prey populations. However, for some years now WDFW has stocked tiger muskies solely to provide a recreational fishery, and at present the "long term stocking plan" consists of aiming for hatchery production of 6,000 fingerlings a year, and then divvying up however many come out of the hatchery between the 7 permanent tiger musky lakes, probably based more on lake size than anything else. Hatchery production varies every year and that plays a role, too. Beyond this, I suspect there's no method to it, and it's just a seat-of-the-pants decision every spring. Tapps is a special case right now because of last winter's water level problem. This winter's snowpack accumulation is off to a good start, so Tapps should have plenty of water next year, but I think what Bruce is saying is that it may take another year for Tapps' tiger forage base to recover. He was very definite, though, that Tapps will receive tiger musky stockings in the future.
Merwin (these figures are from the Daily Columbian newspaper edition of 3/25/2010, p. 35): 1995 - 1,209, 1996 - 375, 1997 - 1,331, 1998 - 3,662, 1999 - 1,273, 2000 - 2,096, 2001 - 0, 2002 - 694, 2003 - 0, 2004 - 500, 2005 - 1,000, 2006 - 1,500, 2007 - 900, 2008 - 900, 2009 - 700. These are my own figures that I obtained from WDFW: 2010 - 2,000, 2011 - 1,800, 2012 - 1,566, 2013 - 2,000.
Silver Lake (figures from WDFW): 2002 - 1,000, 2003 - 231, 2004 - 200, 2005 - 400, 2006 - 300, 2007 - 250.
Mayfield Lake (figures from WDFW): 1988 - 1990, I don't have figures; 1991 - 616, 1992 - 1,150, 1993 - 375, 1994 - 255, 1995 - 0, 1996 - 1,103, 1997 - 700, 1998 - 863, 1999 - 477, 2000 - 500, 2001 - 0, 2002 - 700, 2003 - 0, 2004 - 600, 2005 - 1,000, 2006 - 1,100, 2007 - 800.
2011 distribution - Merwin - 1,800, Mayfield - 1,400, Tapps - 1,150, Newman - 700, Curlew - 400, Silver - 350, Evergreen - 300.
2012 distribution - Merwin - 1,566, Mayfield - 1,100, Tapps - 1,000, Newman - 600, Curlew - 400, Silver - 350, Evergreen - 250.
2013 distribution - Merwin - 2,000, Mayfield - 1,200, Tapps - 1,400, Newman - 975, Curlew - 425, Silver - 325, Evergreen - 300.
This information is incomplete, and also, WDFW experimented with some one-time stockings; for example, Seattle's Green Lake received 150 tiger musky fingerlings in 2000, so over the years some of the fingerlings went to lakes that aren't on the permanent stocking list.
Don, I fished Tapps a lot this summer and there are lots of fish around. The Smallmouth were plentiful, got some nice Largemouth, a big trout as well as having my best year ever on the lake for Tigers. Saw bunches of Bluegills, perch and Crappies. There was no evidence of any kind of fish kill from the lowering of the lake. It seems to do the lake good to have it lowered.
Thanks for the update Don! Also, have to agree with Mike - we need tigers in Tapps this year, not next. Especially since it appears the forage base is still available and adequate.
I spoke with Bruce at WDFW this morning about Lake Tapps stocking. He clarified how stocking decisions are made. He makes recommendations, but the regional biologists make the decisions for lakes in their region. Bruce said it's still too early to predict what will happen with Lake Tapps next spring. This will depend to some extent on analysis of the fall netting survey data. If you're seeing plenty of forage in the lake, then I would expect the survey to support a spring stocking. To the best of my knowledge, this is where things stand right now.
Thanks for the update - it sounds like there is still hope and i am glad to hear they are relying on the biologists to validate the stocking recommendations.
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