One of our own in the mentioned in the TIMES/FREE PRESS

[Pointer 78]

If anyone caught the article on electrofishing by TVA in today's TIMES /FREE PRESS, you might have read the comments by Gary Fomby who, along with his son Gabriel, went along to help. Gary is our very own Biofisher.

 

[JerDog]

I did not read the article, what was the jist of it? Any good info on what they found?

 

[WLG]

Myself and drc followed along Wednsday with TVA for a little electrofishing also. It was pretty cool. The most impressive to me were the HUGE crappie they shocked up. I didnt realize that they didnt get very far off the banks either and it is AMAZING whats holding up that close to the banks. Very interesting!!

 

[Biofisher I]

Gabriel and I really enjoyed tagging along with the TVA crew. Here is the good and the bad after two days of electro-fishing. We have a healthy and thriving largemouth fishery on chickamauga with a lot of keeper size fish. There was also many smaller bass and a good population of 3 to 5 pounders. At the top end of the scale there were 4 ten pound bass measured as well! Which really surprized me. With one day to go. ( So far chickamauga has the largest bass measured this year by the TVA Biologist) Now for the not so good. The crappie population is really down. There are a few larger crappie out there but not a lot of smaller crappie. I was really surprized at how few crappie we saw in comparison to the bass population. This could mean further changes are ahead for the crappie fisherman. We will have to wait and see on this issue. I did not go nor did I recieve a report on Thursday's results. Some of the results mentioned above could be altered as a result of Thursday's findings. I hope to get a final Report from Mr. Lowery (the head Biologist) some time in the near future to pass along to our group.

 

[rsimms]

Biofisher I - 3/23/2007 4:29 PM
At the top end of the scale there were 4 ten pound bass measured as well! Which really surprized me.

Are you serious? Have they really shocked up four 10-pound bass?

 

[Biofisher I]

Yes sir they did. There were also a few 6 and a 7.

 

[rsimms]

Good grief.... don't guess I'd be surprised at one that broke 10, but four! It's been a very LONG time since I've heard of anybody catching a 10-pounder. Also FYI, I've followed their Spring Surveys for a while. While it is great way to track longterm trends, their timing and methodology has a lot to do with each year's success rate. Yesterday afternoon we caught more than 150 crappie in four hours... from 4-inches up to 14-inches. I saw several boats around me doing the same. While we were in Wolftever Creek, I doubt TVA shocked where we were fishing. In other words, I'm not worried about the crappie.

 

[Biofisher I]

I'm glad to hear that. I know that you guys are keeping an on the crappie. I felt like they were missing most of the crappie due to the depth that they were shocking in. Given our recent cool temps at night. I know that most people trolling are still catching good numbers.