Campground is not open yet, but signs of activity. Good news is that there were only 4 cormorant to be found on the lake. Bad news is that I only graphed a little more than a couple dozen fish in about 6 hrs on the water, absolutely no bites. When I do my fish counting, my electronics puts up a grid sector on the screen and I count the number of hits as I move through each sector. Normally I will get at least 10 pings per sector, way more when there is structure or pockets holding fish, I can adjust the electronics to ignore or include certain size. What this tells me is that my initial gut reaction to the massive invasion of the cormorants that came in December and only recently left have devestated this lake. I believe the only good thing to come from this natural disaster is that Leland will become once again a premier bass lake. I am sure a few smart Crappie have survived but it will take a couple years before we see signs of their presence. What erks me the most is I alerted WDFW about this and they did not so much as call me back, lesson learned! I now have a brand new crossbow and cormorant sized targets for practice...

cjmarthaller

4/4/2011 9:03:00 AM

there are some lakes that DFW shouldn't bother stocking with trout...all they are accomplishing is a Cormorant feeding program. After a DFW stocking on Lake Sacajawea in Longview, the cormorants get so full they can't even fly off the lake. Very frustrating. Do they even have any natural predator to worry about? If DFW keeps the cormorant feeding program going without some kind of population control plan, we're going to be overrun with them!

tfguy

4/4/2011 1:20:00 PM

I have a friend that oversees the Region 6 trout planting for WDFW. I talked to him about the Cormorant problem at Leland as I really like this lake. Said there is not much they can do, Migratory Bird act; etc. They wait until the birds move out, usually by the end of April. Won't plant until the birds are gone. No plan for bird control. Very knowledgeable guy, avid fishermen himself, and is just as frustrated about it as anyone. Gave me tips, best big trout lakes right now, Kitsap and Nahwatzel.

BMGW

4/4/2011 2:53:00 PM

You know folks the day is coming, and not long off when we will take matters of governmental affairs into our own hands... Lets just say I am getting ready for that day!

tfguy

4/4/2011 3:50:00 PM

Oh well, I'm into fishin, not politics. Life's too short!

The Jigmiester

4/4/2011 4:11:00 PM

BMGW. Moses Lake in region 2 instituted a coordinated commorant "Hazing" program where volunteer boats harassed huge flocks of them greasy devils off of Moses Lake. I don't know why they couldn't do that there. There should be exceptions to the Migratory bird protection act if the problem birds are caught in the act of uncontrolled fish predation or deemed to be an economic or enviromental nuisance, there should also be an official approach to doing something legally about Lelands commorant infestation problem. Jiggy

BMGW

4/4/2011 6:17:00 PM

Yep, now who was that great socialist that said: "all it takes for evil to exist is for good men to do nothing"???

kevinb

4/5/2011 11:08:00 PM

Thats a bummer to hear about the birds getting an easy meal. I got your email,I've been working some ot and I'm half asleep but appreciate the headsup and will get back to you ASAP. Thanks for the report,hoping to make several trips there this year

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