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Lake Carroll News, March 2017
Fish Identification:
Bluegill: Have blue gill tab, and a black spot at the end of their dorsal fin rays.
Redear have a red tip at the end of the blue tab on their gills. They do not have the black spot on the back of the dorsal fin rays.
Pumpkinseed have a bright orange spot at the end of the blue gill tab and they have a iridescent blue radiating lines on the cheeks. They, like the red ear, do not have the black spot at the back of the dorsal fin.
Lake & Natural Resources
Zebra Mussels and their Predators…
As we enjoy unseasonably warm weather, I’m hearing the buzz about the lake for the upcoming fishing season. We’re very excited to get the boats in the water and wet a line! As many of you are aware, for the past 6 years, we’ve been conducting an aggressive stocking program in attempt to reduce the impact of the invasive zebra mussels. To date, this stocking program has consisted of redear sunfish. These fish Joe Rush look similar to the bluegills you are accustom to catching, but Lake Manager have some physical variations that allow you to distinguish them apart. This article is to help you understand the differences between bluegill, redear sunfish, and the newly stocked pumpkinseed. But first of all, I’ll explain the reasons for the redear and pumpkinseed stockings. Originally, redear were proposed due to their ability to utilize mussels in their diet. They have very strong jaws with pharyngeal teeth used for crushing snails, clams, and mussels. Since they are capable of crushing these shells, they are able to utilize a food resource (zebra mussels) that our other desirable game fish species cannot. Pumpkinseed sunfish are capable of crushing these shells as well. However, the preferred range for the redear is more southern, and we’re at the very northern range of their preferred climate. They also (generally) use deeper water habitat than our bluegill or even pumpkinseed sunfish. Either way, both species are capable of eating the zebra mussels, this is the native range for both species, and they are both capable of producing some very good fishing opportunities for anglers at Lake Carroll. Now let’s discuss the differences between redear and pumpkinseed and why we are shifting our stocking efforts to pumpkinseed sunfish from redear. Much of our zebra mussel perceived problems are in the shallow areas of the lake. The mussels attach to docks, boats, lifts, buoys, and any other hard surface in the lake, like rip
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rap. These hard, sharp shells of the zebra mussel can be difficult to work with as they can cut you, weigh down boats, and clog boat motors. These zebra mussels are also very effective filter feeders and seine out important zooplankton and phytoplankton that is the beginning building blocks for our fish community. It’s the food our young game fish need to survive and grow. While no chemical options for large-scale lake treatments of zebra mussels currently exist, we believe we can reduce some of the impact through stocking predators for these invasive zebra mussels. While we are seeing some return on our redear sunfish (collections while doing fish surveys and anglers reports) redear can be difficult to capture due to their desire for deeper water and their difficulty to catch. Ultimately, redear are hard to consistently catch outside of the spawning season. However, they can grow to very large sizes and be a true trophy for any angler! Pumpkinseed, on the other hand, prefer shallower habitats and studies have shown they actively feed on zebra mussels, when available, and zebra mussels make up the majority of their diet in those conditions. They don’t reach the physical size that redear will, but catching fish up to 8 inches in length is common. Due to their aggressive attitude and use of shallower habitats, they are easy to catch for even the novice anglers. Since we are stocking these fish for a purpose (zebra mussel control) we have placed harvest restrictions on the redear and the pumpkinseed. They are a ‘catch and release’ species. Since they do look similar to the bluegill, we are placing some pictures with this article with some descriptions on how to tell them apart. It is our responsibility as anglers to understand the game laws and to properly identify the game we keep. Our signs and creel limit cards have been changed over the years to provide pictures to help our anglers. If you don’t know, let it go! Hopefully you’ll have the opportunity to wet a line and enjoy catching some of these fish, but remember to let them go so they can continue to do their ‘job’ on these invasive zebra mussels!
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