wlai wrote:For example, maybe they are planting the cats in some out of the way lakes as an experiment, because they might have a better chance to become a sustainable breeding population before they are all caught by anglers? Or perhaps they are trial plantings to debug the issues before they plant them in other lakes?
Or they can all just be idiots, I suppose.
If this is the case, then I suspect they would do what they did with I-82 pond #1 in Yakima County which is listed as "Closed waters - Pond 1 is used as a walleye research project."
MarkFromSea wrote:
On a positive note: Did you see that report on the Potholes that was just posted? I think it was FishinChristian, had a heck of a good time with those cats in the Coulee arm! Caught 11 cats various sizes on 4 pound test...... Jeez! 4 lbs test busts so easy,,,,,,, LOL
Might be the state stuffed some cats into a mud hole since cats don't breed well in WA waters, I read. The lower Snake area, ok, the rest of the state, not so good. Maybe the mud hole lake is a test of sorts. It's a preferred fish by a few anglers, a few wetside anglers are willing to drive to E WA to catch them. I think it's good that the state threw a few whiskers our way, here, on the wet side of the state, just for the variety. 60 miles is shorter than 150............... X 2 for the roundtrip. Been a year since I caught the cat pictured above, I was in WI visiting my daughters....... Caught it on a big mepps rooster tail looking lure,,,,,, Never expected something like that out of the Flambeau River on a lure.....Caught two that day, nearly identical!
Hope Y'all have some fun out there!
Noted: Some above posts redacted
First of all I would say that the Potholes reservoir sysytem is probably one of the 5 biggest lake type fisheries on the Eastside along with Banks Lake, Long Lake, Lake Roosevelt, and lake Chelan(kinda in the middle). This is an excellent place for people to experience catfish in a lake environment as I noted in my previous post. It also has a large mainly volunteer trout rearing program. Its also relatively close (for the Eastside) to 4 of the 5 major population areas, being Yakima, Walla Walla, Tri-Cities, and Moses Lake.
I can say that "cats don't breed well in WA waters, I read. The lower Snake area, ok, the rest of the state, not so good."
Is inherently incorrect. I have caught cats over 5 pounds in the Yakima river. I have caught many cats over 10 lbs on the Snake River, Columbia River, and the state record 36+lb Channel cat was caught out of a 10 acre pond I routinely caught 10-15lbers out of, as well as limited on trout, just about every time I went which is I-82 pond #6 less than 100 yards from I-82 between Yakima and Toppenish.
And to say that only a "perferred fish by a few anglers" IMHO is only because of lack of access and exposure to what is a great fish. How many transplanted Eastsiders that are now Wetsiders like myself have just had to give up because of lack of opportunity. A "where to go "catfishing" seattle" search brings up 331,000 search results, granted many not valid.
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