I used to say things like;
"people are overreacting to snakeheads."
"they don't do that much damage, they just fill another space in the apex ambush predator role."
"it's not their fault they're here, and it's not their fault they're better at being bowfin here than actual bowfin."
the wakeup call that changed my mind about all of this was like a horror movie. or Jurassic Park or something.
I was fishing at the lake I usually fished around the time, and had been fishing for around 13 years prior. I'd caught or seen almost every species in that lake, and seen many more that were dumped there by aquarists. I saw a big bala shark when I was younger, that was pretty interesting to see in the lake since I had one around the same size at home at the time. The fall prior, there were reports of a few being caught on one side of the lake. That lake was always slow for me because we didn't have a boat, so the introduction or thought of the introduction of something faster growing, bigger, more aggressive, shallow dwelling, and easy to spot (thus being easier for me to catch) was exciting. I did not think they could take over the lake because of the presence of things like blue and flathead cats, bass and muskie. But then the fall after that, I was fishing for snakeheads in a spot my friend had caught one. Then I saw a tiny 3 inch juvenile wriggling in the grass beside me. I picked it up and put it in my bait bucket for observation purposes.
this is the exact fish from the grass:
Then as I looked at the water, right in front of me, a huge school of fry passed a few feet away from the shore. No parents were present. I saw them come up for a breath, and that made the water look like it was boiling. Then another one of those boils popped up. Eventually I could see eight fry balls, in an area between two docks, about the size an average single family home.
I no longer fish the lake because it seems the boredom of quarantine has drawn more people to it than there was before quarantine. It is too crowded to shore fish, and people have some strange addiction to throwing rocks from the rocky beach by the handful into it. Not just skipping, I mean baseball pitching handfuls into the lake. You can imagine the fish are nowhere near the shore as a result. Either way, the whole numerous fry ball thing goes to show the extent of how fast these things reproduce and spread. And then the one I found crawling up the grassy shore goes to show how they get where they go.
"people are overreacting to snakeheads."
"they don't do that much damage, they just fill another space in the apex ambush predator role."
"it's not their fault they're here, and it's not their fault they're better at being bowfin here than actual bowfin."
the wakeup call that changed my mind about all of this was like a horror movie. or Jurassic Park or something.
I was fishing at the lake I usually fished around the time, and had been fishing for around 13 years prior. I'd caught or seen almost every species in that lake, and seen many more that were dumped there by aquarists. I saw a big bala shark when I was younger, that was pretty interesting to see in the lake since I had one around the same size at home at the time. The fall prior, there were reports of a few being caught on one side of the lake. That lake was always slow for me because we didn't have a boat, so the introduction or thought of the introduction of something faster growing, bigger, more aggressive, shallow dwelling, and easy to spot (thus being easier for me to catch) was exciting. I did not think they could take over the lake because of the presence of things like blue and flathead cats, bass and muskie. But then the fall after that, I was fishing for snakeheads in a spot my friend had caught one. Then I saw a tiny 3 inch juvenile wriggling in the grass beside me. I picked it up and put it in my bait bucket for observation purposes.
this is the exact fish from the grass:
Then as I looked at the water, right in front of me, a huge school of fry passed a few feet away from the shore. No parents were present. I saw them come up for a breath, and that made the water look like it was boiling. Then another one of those boils popped up. Eventually I could see eight fry balls, in an area between two docks, about the size an average single family home.
I no longer fish the lake because it seems the boredom of quarantine has drawn more people to it than there was before quarantine. It is too crowded to shore fish, and people have some strange addiction to throwing rocks from the rocky beach by the handful into it. Not just skipping, I mean baseball pitching handfuls into the lake. You can imagine the fish are nowhere near the shore as a result. Either way, the whole numerous fry ball thing goes to show the extent of how fast these things reproduce and spread. And then the one I found crawling up the grassy shore goes to show how they get where they go.
