Small mouth bass and peacock bass diminishing...

[Peggy Puskar]

Over the last three years, I have noticed the wildlife diminishing in and on our small lake here in Sunrise. And I noticed the Snakehead fish population has increased. We normally have many families of water birds raise their families on the water, but not last year and none so far this year. Normally the mullets are jumping out of the water, and you can see the assorted bass and other small species through the clear fresh water. Now I only see snakehead fish. I believe they have eaten the fish and eat the baby  widelife....ducklings, soft shell turtles, young iguanas, and anything that may fall in the water. 

When Irma left, the water level rose by 8 feet on to the grass. The Snakehead came upto the edge eating the insects in the fresh grass. The weird thing was as we looked at them, they stared at us, making eye contact, and followed our movement. As the water resided, they wriggled around the edges.

Unfortunately, we do not have enough people fishing our lake. Anybody interested in fishing snakehead?

Signed,

Missing the wildlife

 

 

[Drew03cmc]

Where are you from? I can't think of a single place where smallies and peacocks overlap. 

[A-Jay]

Hello Peggy and Welcome to Bass Resource ~

Interesting first post.

A-Jay

[MDBowHunter]

Closest your going to get to a smallie in FL is going to be a spotted bass, I've never heard of or seen a smallie in Fl at all. 

 

[slonezp]

Call your local DNR and let them know what you believe is happening.

[geo g]

State wide we need to kill every snake head we catch.  They are a top predictor and breed quickly guarding the nest from predation.  They will decimate the native fish and unlike peas,!dint die off with the cold.  It will not eliminate them but just help keep them in check.

[Drew03cmc]

If i may play devils advocate for a minute, the snakehead being here, along with asian carp are species we have to deal with.

[BrackishBassin]

In my opinion, the fear surrounding snakeheads is somewhat unfounded. We’ve been dealing with them here for quite a while. I think that concerns about their effect on small isolated ecosystems containing threatened species is warranted, but worrying about them in larger bodies of water is overkill. Studies done locally have shown that they haven’t had quite the impact that everyone thought they would and in fact, their numbers are on the decline. If I had to venture a guess, I would say that there are other factors at play in the lake that could have contributed to a decline in the fish population there. Aquatic ecosystems are very delicate things. Small imbalances in micronutrients can cause drastic changes (consider the red tides Florida coasts have dealt with this year). Anyways, just my two cents. 

 

I’m having difficultly providing the link to the study on snakeheads locally, but you can shoot me a PM if you’re interested and I’ll get it to you. 

[MDBowHunter]

10 minutes ago, BrackishBassin said:

In my opinion, the fear surrounding snakeheads is somewhat unfounded. We’ve been dealing with them here for quite a while. I think that concerns about their effect on small isolated ecosystems containing threatened species is warranted, but worrying about them in larger bodies of water is overkill. Studies done locally have shown that they haven’t had quite the impact that everyone thought they would and in fact, their numbers are on the decline. If I had to venture a guess, I would say that there are other factors at play in the lake that could have contributed to a decline in the fish population there. Aquatic ecosystems are very delicate things. Small imbalances in micronutrients can cause drastic changes (consider the red tides Florida coasts have dealt with this year). Anyways, just my two cents. 

 

I’m having difficultly providing the link to the study on snakeheads locally, but you can shoot me a PM if you’re interested and I’ll get it to you. 

Spot on, most people just don't understand them and are playing into the hype and mass hysteria.

 

[Bluebasser86]

I'm much more concerned about the Asian carp than the snakeheads.

[Darren.]

Welcome aboard, Peggy!

[bigbassin']

5 hours ago, Drew03cmc said:

Where are you from? I can't think of a single place where smallies and peacocks overlap. 

I think I've read Hawaii has largemouth, spots, smallies, and peacocks.  Not sure if they're all on the same island or spread out though.

[BASS302]

1 hour ago, bigbassin' said:

6 hours ago, Drew03cmc said:

Where are you from? I can't think of a single place where smallies and peacocks overlap. 

I think I've read Hawaii has largemouth, spots, smallies, and peacocks.  Not sure if they're all on the same island or spread out though.

@bigbassin'

The OP mentioned Irma and Sunrise.  There is a city in Florida named Sunrise, and a Hurricane Irma hit Florida last year.  Therefore I think the OP is from Florida.  But as @Drew03cmc mentioned.  I don't think there are smallmouth bass in Florida (unless they are in an aquarium).  But didn't Florida just have a really cold spell?  That may have reduced the snakehead population (and a bunch of other animals (and unfortunately oranges?))

 

[davecon]

There are no verified catches of smallmouth in Florida. The oranges have been decimated by a disease called "greening" and the growers association is spending literally millions of dollars trying to combat it to no avail. Personally lost two orange trees and a lemon tree in my back yard. All the citrus trees in backyards in my neighborhood have been killed by the greening. Would love to replant but won't until some kind of cure for the disease is found.

 

Don't know about snakeheads as they have not yet been reported in the areas I fish (not complaining).

[soflabasser]

There are no smallmouth bass in Florida and the closest fish we have to smallmouth bass are Suwannee bass and Shoal bass which are located in some rivers of North Florida. Smallmouth bass where stocked in some Northern Florida rivers( Chipola river) in the early 1900's but they did not successfully reproduce and died out. There are smallmouth bass in Northern Georgia and South Carolina, which is the closest smallmouth bass waters to Florida. The peacock bass population is doing exceptionally well in South Florida with lots of +6 pound peacock bass caught every year by many South Florida fishermen ( I am included in this group). The bullseye snakehead are not having much of a effect on bass populations and baby snakehead are prey for peacock bass and largemouth bass. In fact I catch more largemouth bass and peacock bass while fishing for bullseye snakehead than I do catch snakeheads and I am specifically targeting snakehead when I fish that part of the state.

On 1/28/2018 at 10:40 AM, Drew03cmc said:

Where are you from? I can't think of a single place where smallies and peacocks overlap. 

 The island of Oahu of Hawaii has largemouth bass, peacock bass, and smallmouth bass and people are known for catching all 3 in the same day. There are also other introduced species of freshwater fish to catch.

[soflabasser]

On 1/30/2018 at 8:06 PM, davecon said:

There are no verified catches of smallmouth in Florida. The oranges have been decimated by a disease called "greening" and the growers association is spending literally millions of dollars trying to combat it to no avail. Personally lost two orange trees and a lemon tree in my back yard. All the citrus trees in backyards in my neighborhood have been killed by the greening. Would love to replant but won't until some kind of cure for the disease is found.

 

Don't know about snakeheads as they have not yet been reported in the areas I fish (not complaining).

 

The asian citrus psyllid is well known for spreading this nasty disease. I went to Home Depot recently and the citrus they where selling was loaded with asian citrus psyllids and many of the plants showed signs of greening. There is no cure for greening and this disease is can kill a citrus tree in less than 6 years of being infected.

[davecon]

A friend of mine raises citrus commercially. Asked him if It would be OK to replant a few trees in the backyard. He told me it would be a waste of time and money right now. Asked him what he does to combat it, he said they spray the he@# out of it but they do it on a large scale and told me it would not be worth it for a homeowner. 

 

After decades of having oranges and lemons in the backyard it sure hurts to have to buy them in the store but what ya gonna do ?

[InFishingWeTrust]

Snakeheads arent as bad as they seem. I was reading in the Potomac the snakehead population slowed down and the large mouth bass level has actually risen. I say enjoy them as the next game fish. 

[soflabasser]

8 hours ago, InFishingWeTrust said:

Snakeheads arent as bad as they seem. I was reading in the Potomac the snakehead population slowed down and the large mouth bass level has actually risen. I say enjoy them as the next game fish. 

Snakeheads are a game fish, there is no doubt about that. They are much stronger pound for pound than a bass of equal size and they love to hit topwaters lures, which is probably the most exciting way to catch a fish.