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Lack of cats on my data or on angler observations?
It was angler observations that started this study, I believe you mentioned. I know it’s in it’s infancy, but I thought you might have some initial observations.
Probably too early to tell anything specifically on the St Croix. I don’t have enough angler diaries to tell me much. One thing I DO know is that it is much easier to sample catfish in the Mississippi than the St Croix. No gill nets were run in the St Croix this year so it is unknown if the apparent decline is continuing like the last 3 gill net surveys were showing. Will probably take some time to see if there are any trends.
If I had to make some predictions…I think there are going to be some differences with the length-at-age data between the St Croix and Mississippi. So far, the Mississippi River fish look like they are growing slower, and that surprises me. I don’t think these populations are mixing a whole lot. Tissue has been sent in for the genetics work, but I don’t know if there will be major differences. I expect there will be enough differences that we could identify stocks of fish based on genetics, but I don’t think that means any real differences in the populations. I’m sure occassional fish make long runs and mix, but I think the catfish in the metro rivers aren’t moving a whole lot. If past trends continue, 2010 might produce a huge year class of channel catfish. Large year classes have been correlated with floods. I don’t know if the same holds true for flatheads. Then again, I might have to revisit this paragraph point by point in the next few years and say “This is why I was wrong.”
Hopefully this project has legs. The really cool stuff might not be evident for several years as some of these little 10 inch fish that have been tagged grow up and show up in who knows where.
