How many trout do these diving birds really eat?

[Gollum11]

Thanks for the info and stories everyone. They really don't rile me up too bad, I just thought it was an interesting question to ponder. What I really found fascinating was how fast they got there after the truck left!

[oelgnal1]

I heard about this last year down in South Carolina, they had a season on cormorants and over 11,000 were eliminated because of the effect they have had on the fishery and I believe they are a concern on Oneida.

[acaravaglia]

Those damn things eat all day. The state needs to step in. They were never in NJ when I was a kid.

[acabtp]

Originally Posted by Jedhead

I could only wish that the state would open a year long hunting season on those birds.

i honestly don't think that would help that much. even if there were a season, none of us hunters like to eat fishy tasting birds. and if somebody were to just shoot them to throw them away, they could be ticketed for waste of game.

no easy solution.

[Almaink]

4 birds? Come on over to Lawrenceville at Colonial Lake and see 40 or 50 of them go at the stockies!
They also ate all the bass fry in there because I haven't seen or caught a bass in that lake since they moved in. Go take a look in the Delaware River from the Morrisville bridge. Hundreds of them gorging themselves on the herring we can no longer fish for. I saw one in the D&R Canal the other morning with a fish in its mouth. Way past time for these birds to get thinned out. I'll bet they taste like crap too, I hear most fish eating birds do.

[justin1982]

theres nothing worse than seeing those birds coming up with facefulls of trout. I actually saw one attack a pickeral, it couldn't get it down so it just slapped around and killed it...

[Gerry Zagorski]

They are evil and smart...

Was down in Florida fishing on a boat in Pine Island Sound. As soon as you stop the boat, they come to check you out to see if you're going to fish. If not, they move on, if they see a fishing pole they are going to hang out in the distance and see if you catch anything.


As soon as you catch a fish and try and release it they are on it like a Hobo on a muffin. These birds don't miss. They are not shy either... We tried yelling casting stuff at them etc and they would not leave. I'm thinking a paint ball gun might work

[Jigman13]

I caught a few largies in colonial last yr, about 2 lbs each, on white spinnerbaits ripped along the bank by the boat launch. There was a bunch elsewhere cruising around but wouldn't take.

You are correct on the number of cormorants over there. For a lake of that size, it has easily got to be the most densely populated with those birds. They'll wipe out half of the stocked fish by tomorrow...if not more.

[phil]

i did a driveby today, I counted at least 12, and 2 ospreys hovering over everything, never saw them dive on anything though, was really hoping to see that

[Suntzu]

Saw them cleaning up at Echo lake today, not one a mile down the road at nomahegan weird
They do love stockie trout