.......takes place today. Trying to see if they can reestablish them in their native habitat. Lack of water flow was deemed to be the problem so they have improved water flow to simulate the natural flow before the corp of engineers screwed things up. Lots of press coverage.
Cool fish.

I hope it works. I have never caught one, but have seen some monsters get hauled out below the spillway of Truman Lake in Missouri. It is a really amazing fish. I hope they gain a foothold at Caddo.

Fingerlings were released about 20 years ago but it's assumed they didn't thrive. I don't believe there has been a recorded catch or sighting in the past 20 years.

This release by the Caddo Lake Institute is a lot more sophisticated. They are bigger fish, all with micro-transmitters attached. They have even built receiver towers around the lake to track the fish.

They are releasing at two points. The boat launch in the state park and in the bayou at Jefferson.

Cool, hadn't heard about that.

A kid on TexasKayakFisherman.com posted pictures of a paddlefish he foul-hooked and released below the Livingston dam last weekend while white bass fishing.



http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=211286

Wonder if he saw it and purposefully fouled it...

Snagging is generally how they are caught, using a big ol' treble hook.

Great news!

That picture (of the fish) reminds me of one of my ex girlfriends.

Also, just recently learned that Caddo was Texas' only natural formed lake. It kinda blew my mind.

quote:

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OnlyForNow
posted 11:56a, 03/05/14



Wonder if he saw it and purposefully fouled it...

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It doesn't sound like it.

Cant say Ive ever seen one in a lake. They are very common in the rivers in La.

I grew up on Caddo...what an awesome place! I haven't been on it in several years, but my dad says that the invasive vegetative growth has choked out large parts of the lake. Tough to access and impossible to fish in a lot of areas. I hate to hear that and hope they can find a way the remedy this issue.

Really cool project. I'd be interested to hear more about their radio tracking system, and particularly why they didn't go with hydroacoustic telemetry.

Quick update. All 47 paddlefish arrived alive in two specially built circular tanks. There were a few bleeding noses where they obviously bumped the tank a bit hard. Press came from local stations and papers, DMN, Washington Post, NPR, and AP. The paddlefish were 2 years old and about 2 feet long. Good luck paddlefish!!

Video of the release here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1QnBcCKXjo

quote:

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Paddlefish were at one time very abundant in most central U.S. river systems, but populations have declined greatly due to overharvesting, sedimentation, and river modification. One of the major reasons for declining paddlefish numbers are the dams constructed on many major U.S. river systems. Paddlefish avoid fish ladders because of the metal rebar used in construction, which disrupts their electro-magnetic sense organs. The dams block paddlefish migration routes that are very important to the fish for spawning.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddlefish

I was wondering why the paddlefish didn't re-populate Caddo from the Red River drainage. That (assuming the wiki link is accurate) would be the reason

If they ever build more fish ladders in the future, they ought to be using something like this:

http://www.fiberglassrebar.com/why_composites.html