Fish Eating Zebs

From today’s Pioneer Press:

[/url]=http://www.pioneerplanet.com/seven-days/tod/news/docs/111250.htm

J.

guess it shows everythings is good for SOMETHING….. even sheepshead!! it figures sheepies would eat zebes…. heck.. what wont they eat? now the question is will it hurt the zebes more than the sheepies?? or will the next title be Zebes eat fish!……

I like this line from the article: “The sheepshead fish in Lake Champlain seem to be learning that zebra mussels are food,” Let’s all hope the Sheephead in the Mississippi are “smart” enough to figure out the same thing. Perhaps take some of those Champlain Sheeps and plant them in Pepin so they can spread the word!!

J

Sounds like an excellent reason to quit “planking” all those sheepies! Thanks for the article notice Jon!

Next time you catch a sheepie don’t swear, just give it a kiss and gently put her back. Bill

If you read the whole article the end states that the fish aren’t getting any bigger and that they receive no nutrients or what have you , from eating the zebes. The goby of lake superior is the only defense so far, so they say.FISH ON!!!

I did read and the sheepies results are not yet determined. Remember the part about not being able to net any sheepshead yet? The other nutrition data was regarding white fish…………………..so until they can determine it’s relativity, I’m shaking a few pom-poms for the sheepshead. Drum are found all over the globe so I’m hoping the two species already co-exist somewhere else and this may, after all, have some benefit. Also, gobies present problems for other native species, much like the zebes do, so I’m not sure that’s the answer or alternative we’re looking for either. It’s still a mess!

Odd that it took researchers years to figure out something many have known for quite awhile…. sheepies munch the heck out of zebes! How do I know you ask? I guided a guy that keeps sheepies for use as trapping bait. Says the strong odor or something from the sheepie meat draws mink, etc. from the next county over or some darn thing. So we’re fishing and he’s releasing the walleye and begging me to allow him to keep any and all sheepers we catch. I say “no prob” and we put a half dozen big sheepers in the livewell for the day.

To make an already long story as short as possible….. sheepers, under the stresses of being caught and tossed in a livewell, disgorge the crushed shells of the zeebes they’ve recently eaten. A half dozen big sheephead tossed up enough zeebe shells to completely cover the bottom of my livewell.

They’ll never thin the populations down to a tolerable level without a bunch of help from numerous other species but at least the zebes are getting some attention from predators as a food source.

James Holst

Moving Waters Guide Service

http://www.movingwaters.net

I also read once that blue cats like to munch on zebs, maybe we could get lucky and have the dnr introduce those to minnesota. Then we would have all three species of the greatest sportfish here in the greatest fishing state.