Steve:
It was great meeting you all yesterday, and it’s good to know we’re all on the same page regarding trying to keep the lake healthy and usable. I analyzed our data from yesterday and it looks very good for the fisheries. I attached an image file that is a graphical representation of our ‘Habitat Suitability Index’ for the last week, which basically grades the lake on a scale of 0 to 1 depending on what conditions certain fish prefer. Anything over a 0.6 or so means that the lake ought to provide the fish with a robust enough habitat to thrive.
Some bullet points to sum up the conditions:
- Bluegill and Crappie are loving the warm temperatures and conditions for fry are good. Their numbers should remain high throughout the summer.
- The rain has been good for shiner conditions, they like the water a little more murky (probably why you see a lot of them in the outlet river).
- Redears (Shellcrackers) are limited by the shallow depths of the lake that we are currently seeing. We anticipate water levels to rise with onset of the rainy season and Shellcracker populations to follow suit in the fall.
- Overall I’d grade the waters a B+ for overall habitat quality. This doesn’t necessarily guarantee great populations of fish at the moment (or that monster catch), but it bodes well for their continued survival and natural life cycles.
I hope this information is insightful!
Aaron Rogge
Resource Projects SIP
Southwest Florida Water Management District
Phone: (352) 796-7211 x4872
M.E. Environmental Engineering Student
University of South Florida
Posted: July 12, 2010
From: Phillip Rhinesmith; Senior Scientist, Southwest Florida Water Management District:
July 15, 2010
Hope all is well. You might want to share this with your guests and listeners for tonight’s show. Please let them know we appreciate their patience as we develop the management guidelines for the lake.
After allowing the Lake for go to its natural low level this spring and early summer, the recent rains have increased lake levels over the last couple of weeks. We regained much of the eelgrass that we lost last summer and the lake health is great. To capture available flows, the Wysong-Coogler structure will be raised late this week or early next week and water levels will begin to increase over the next couple of weeks in Lake Panasoffkee. If you or your guests notice any changes in fishing or other observations, encourage them to pass them along to you or they can contact me.
We’re also looking for a local outlet, in addition to the pod cast to publish the information on structure operation and management decisions for the lake. Is there a local fishing publication or local paper that we could post a weekly update? Thanks for all your help and please stay in touch,
Philip