Caroga Lakes Fish Study

A big thanks to board member Al Zeina, who facilitated a fish study of our lakes! This study was performed back in 2018, but the information is still very valuable for future stocking efforts. Check out the study documents below as well as a summary from Al:

The lake study was completed using gill nets of both lakes and the two attached documents below outline the results and how he feels we should proceed in the future with West Caroga Lake.
Our lake has a large population of bass especially the smallmouth bass which self regulate meaning they can reproduce easily and sustain themselves. It would be a bad use of funds to put money into stocking bass at this point he said not to put anymore bass in.
I asked why crappies weren’t good to stock in our lake and our contact replied they don’t coexist well with splake just like the walleye. He further stated he wouldn’t approve a permit for them anyways as someone illegally stocked them in East Caroga in the past.
I also brought up the low numbers in sunfish this year as they weren’t near my dock like in years past and the fishing wasn’t that good this year in my opinion, he said it was because of the warm weather the fish are in deeper water.
I asked what the best fish to stock is and he said keep putting trout in the lake. They don’t self regulate well, meaning they don’t reproduce well, and that would be our best use of funds for our lake in its current state.
I asked if he has an idea of another species we could put in there and he said Chris Powers is the new Biologist for Fulton county and he would talk to him and see what he thought since he is taking over.