Commorants!!!!!!!

[bassislife]

I don't know if your area has filled up with them yet but Wright County has more now then they ever did and I know guys in Carver County that say the same.

Since they pushed them out of the Leech Lake area they just moved into different areas of the state and now our Walleye and other fish populations will be at stake.

They need to start controlling these good for nothing fish eaters statewide!! Open a season or a bounty!!

[tweedlap]

They are still way too many on Leech. Are they still thinning them out up there. If not, they had better get back to it.

tweed

[broken_line]

yeahh there are some around here. i would hunt them if they opened a season... your right the only thing they are good for is well NOTHING!

[Muddog]

Down in Le Sueur Co, it isn’t so much the “Cormorants!!!!!!!” But the Bald Eagles and Ospreys, they’re out of control! Don’t even get be started on the King Fishers, to bad it is Federal law that controls them and the state of Mn, has no control over it what so ever. To bad all they eat is Walleyes!!!!!

[Neighbor_guy]

WHAT!!!! You mean nature is bigger than man?????? I would have never beleaved it.

Mabe we should stop stocking the walleye's. Take away the easy food soarce and they would move on, in theory anyway's. If it's not them it will be another thing. We are all part of the food chain.

But then who would eat all of the stunted perch????

Wait for it....

[Heartman]

Do they nest on any islands? If so, release two or three pigs on the island in the spring...guarantee your cormorant population will go down - the pigs will eat everything.

And if anybody asks, they just appeared on the island one day...

[Jim Uran]

And those pesty Blue Heron, and Pelicans!!

[Big Buck Buster]

Just look at what they did to Pelican lake off of hwy 15 by Dassel. There is nothing left of the trees on the island.

[Drewski]

Good for nothing, and ugly to boot. I'd definitely take part in an open season for them!

[jigginjim]

A warden in Canada told a guy that shooting is not legal. But as long as he does see it and the birds are floating around died in the lakes he's not going to say a thing.

When I worked for a bait dealor we could shoot them if in minnow ponds. Shot and hide the black fish eating birds.

[nofishfisherman]

So I hear these birds were really hurting the fishing on Leech lake and now since they have started controlling them the fishing has gotten better. I've read many reports coming from Leech lake the last year or two about how great the fishing has been. While I was up there last year thats all anyone would talk about is how great the fishing has been for both size and numbers.

So if these birds were eating all the walleye how can you explain the increase in large walleyes being caught? THese fish were there for many seasons growing each year as the cormorants were supposedly destroying the population. If the fishing has been so great for big fish that must mean that the birds left plenty of walleye to grow to good size.

Why weren't these fish biting before during the cormorants peak?

Has anyone noticed a huge explosion in small walleye being caught? If so I can see that as being a direct cause of reducing the bird population but if all we are seeing is a better fishing for the larger fish I don't see the direct effect that killing birds would have had on that.

[PierBridge]

It's far from conclusive that Commorants were the cause of the Leach Lake walleye decline/collaspe. More then likely they had little or no effect...

Goodn Points Nofish~

[HossFisher]

There are thousands of them that nest on the island on Lake Waconia.

[AaronM]

I would love to hunt these. Any chance of it ever happening?

[jigginjim]

SSSSHHHHHH (There is always that shot in the dark) moonlite hunt. Any guesses how long it will be before all the trees on the island are dead?

[bassislife]

So if these birds were eating all the walleye how can you explain the increase in large walleyes being caught? THese fish were there for many seasons growing each year as the cormorants were supposedly destroying the population. If the fishing has been so great for big fish that must mean that the birds left plenty of walleye to grow to good size.

Why weren't these fish biting before during the cormorants peak?

FYI: When they set out to restructure the walleyes in Leech... not all were fry or fingerlings. They also stocked it with adults walleyes!

Shoot them Fish eating crows!!!

[nofishfisherman]

I doubt they dropped in enough adult walleye to take the fishing from a bust to a boom in just 1 or 2 seasons. Stocking efforts take time and i just don't see how this sudden turn around in the catch rate of adult walleye can be attributed to the birds or stocking efforts. The bulk of those fish had to have been there for many seasons already.

I'm not saying the birds are not a problem I just think that the evidence doesn't seem to support the idea that they were destroying the walleye population. If that were the case the fishing would slowly improve as the bird population declined and the stocking efforts did their job. When what seems to be the case is that one season was terrible for fishing and then the next it sounds like it was the best anyone can remember.

[Neighbor_guy]

I am telling you guys.... It HAS to be the muskies. There is no other explanation to it.

Btw, from what I hear, Commorants taste like Eagle, or Loon for that matter, after all, they all feed mainly on fish.

[creepworm]

I dont think the cormorants directly affected the walleye population on leech. I think they indirectly affected the population and size structure of the walleye by eating large numbers of bait fish. Therefore, when the numbers were controlled and there was large numbers of baitfish again, the walleye were able to grow quicker than usual because of the larger than normal numbers of bait fish.

[Chode2235]

Armchair biology is one of my favorite past times.

[nofishfisherman]

I also call it bar room biology because many discussions seem to take place at the end of the bar and the solutions start sounding better and better with each beer you drink.

[BigWadeS]

I am telling you guys.... It HAS to be the muskies. There is no other explanation to it.

Btw, from what I hear, Commorants taste like Eagle, or Loon for that matter, after all, they all feed mainly on fish.

I agree it has to be the muskies as they are known for the decreasing walleye and other species population decreases..

[broken_line]

the "3 sss" shoot, shovel, shut up! well think about it.. a cormarant has to eat 3 fish perday roughly? so if you have 1000 ick birds thats 3000 walleye gone in one day..hmmmmmmmmmm

[Heartman]

I'm not kidding...the pigs really work. Pelicans and herons nest in trees - only cormorants will nest on the ground - that's why they call them colonies.

[jerkbait]

Actually on Leech the larger walleyes were always there, it was the smaller waleyes that were disappearing. You could look at the data, I seen an article in the OD news that showed this very noicely, as the cormorants population increased the population of the smaller walleye started to decline. It became hard to catch any keeper walleye under the protected slot when that was put in place. That is why you are seeing alot of bigger fish, really Leech always had alot of big fish. We had friends of our that use to own a resort on Leech and had to sell it becuase of the downturn, they would see it other resorts would see and the guides would see it. I know Woodruff even found one on the corms with a 17" walleye stuck in it's throat, he had a picture of it. We are seeing alot of corms up here on LOW also. Arnesons found a corm with a walleye stuck in it's throat not to long along.