Giant Goldfish in Tahoe.

One good way to solve a lot of problems at Lake Tahoe is to raze the Keys and return that area as best we can to its natural state. What a fuggin' disaster.

Dear ignorant researchers (you can play with that until it accurately conveys your message of indignation),

I have recently seen news reports about warm water fish invading Lake Tahoe. I have been fishing Lake Tahoe for (number) years and I can assure you warm water fish, including gold fish, have been there for at least (number) years. I have known fishermen to use gold fish as bait for at least (number) years, often discarding the remaining fish into the lake at the end of the day. This seems like a far more likely source of these invasive fish than "emptying aquariums."


From the news reports (insert the actual news report if you can... that's called "referencing your source") it appears you are stumped by the behavior of bass during the colder winter months. From my experience bass in the keys simply sink into the thickest cover available for the winter- tules, cat tails and any other aquatic weeds can be used mostly for balance in a hibernation mode. There they will lay in a dormancy of a sort, only taking in a small meal every few days as their metabolism is all but shut down by water temps and ice overs. Just like they do in mason valley NV as it too freezes over yet the fish remain year after year. (they can test this)

As long as there is oxygen the fish will survive until the water warms into the low 50s and their activity picks up. Based on an 8 year study i did on LMB, crappie and bluegill at Mason valley (again, cite where they can find details of this study so they can go back and look at what you actually did), they will spawn any where from 55 to 65 plus degrees- depending on the water and clarity. In any given pond largemouth will tend to eat a good 70% of their own offspring before they reach four inches in length. (they can test this, if they haven't already... I think they probably have, but I'm sure they would love to read about your 8 year study)

As for the fish you have lost radio contact with, look in either a mackinaw or a pelicans body. Perhaps a heron gutted it, or a Fisherman caught it and filleted the bass. Theres thirty pound macks in the lake- the same ones that ended the LCTs in the lake after being planted in the 1800s. You can easily test this hypothesis by slaughtering them all until you find the transmitters.

This news report (cite it) claimed a "new number one predator" when talking about bass, which made me laugh.. since MACKS are the numba UNO..Followed closely by browns..Only in the keys are bass a predator- other wise you probably wonder why in the hell they wandered out of the keys to begin with! (this is also testable, but I suspect if they made the claim, especially in any scientific article/report/conference, they have the data to back it up. if the claim was made by the news story, proceeded by "possible" or "potential" or similar word then talk to the news folks about that.)

Giant Goldfish in Tahoe

The latest clarity study revealed today that Tahoe is clearer TODAY,, than in has been in 22 years.. Nearly seventy five feet of clarity..

And isnt all these studies, attempting to "blame" clarity problems in Tahoe on a few wandering warm water species sounding even more ridiculous at this juncture? Isnt the idea of eradicating the keys of its treasured fish a bit questionable at this juncture?