Share the lunker

[TheFishinPollock]

Ok it is about time for Michigan te get into the share te lunker program liek we have here in florida.    Wouldn't be a bad idea to introduce the florida strain largemouth into a controled enviorment .  Say at a hatcherie and studie over a 5 year period how it affects the growth rate in the northern states.  Mabye introduce a few females for the florida strain into a coupla lakes to se ehow it works in a natural enviroment. Either way a share the lunker program woudl really benifite the state and provide a large , faster growing strain of smaillies and largies

[djkimmel]

Not much confidence shown by biologists that Florida-strain largemouths will do well in the far North range like Michigan. I believe I have seen studies that have show Florida-strain largemouths have done poorly in the northern-most stockings and have actually harmed the 'native' northern largemouth stock by introducing a less hardy strain for our cold waters. The real problem would be once you let the genie out, you can't put it back in the box.

I don't see why we couldn't try to identify very large bass from Michigan and use their offspring to seed other lakes in limited studies. Maybe smallies too. There's been a lot of talk about genetics in bass in Michigan, but in the earlier parts of the last century, bass were stocked in many places in Michigan from many sources in Michigan and outside of Michigan, so I question many concerns about genetic 'purity.'

But I think we need to be cautious not to introduce bacteria and virus from other waters into new waters by stocking bass, especially 'private' stockings done by anglers on their own. A very risky practice. It may also be that some bass have already adapted to their local environment and the population could be put at risk by plantings that aren't well thought out and reviewed carefully.

You've touched on an idea that might have some application in Michigan. I can add it to my list of possible partner projects in the future.

[TheFishinPollock]

Yes. It is about time that Michigan starts "working" on this issue. You hear alot about the walleye and salmon projects but rarely hear about work on bass or the planting there of. At east thats what I have found.