What’s the last year the state stocked Lake Sadawga?
2023-02-17
Dear friend,
What does a State Representative do?
Vermont's government is here for all Vermonters, but it's also big and complex and hard-to-navigate.
Your legislators are not here to solve your problem, but we can try to get you the answer or connect you to a resource. As a resident with a need, the squeaky wheel does not always get the grease. But in this world we live in, a non-squeaky wheel never gets it.
Here in the sausage factory, "constituent service" is a whole set of non-legislative tasks that we have little time and resources for. We do our best and hope that folks understand.
I heard from two Whitingham residents last year that they thought Lake Sadawga is understocked. Is the popular fishery feeling pressure? I seized on a chance meeting in the State House hallway last week to get an answer.
Lake Sadawga this winter - Photo Blake Janovsky
Justin Stedman, Game Warden Colonel and Director at the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR), Department of Fish and Wildlife, informed me that ANR does not stock Sadawga at all. The stocking done in Vermont by ANR is mostly trout, and that population doesn’t fit this lake. Colonel Stedman told me, “The lake is managed as a warm water fishery (bass specifically) and putting top predators (trout) into waters with a healthy population of top predators (bass) doesn’t work.”
I followed by asking if ANR is monitoring the fishery, and how it's doing.
Stedman referred me to Lael Will, M.S., Fisheries Biologist at the Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, Fisheries Division.
Will emailed me this:
Sadagwa is managed as a warmwater fishery and was only stocked once back in 1936 with bass. The water body is closed to bass harvest in the winter, a special regulation under the new revision that took place a couple of years ago. We routinely sample the lake via standardized electrofishing and numbers appear to be steady (see graph). We also conduct routine creel surveys, and our data shows that most anglers practice catch and release of bass, a factor that went into the decision process when we relaxed the regulations. So no we do not think the waterbody is being overfished. From my experience it’s hard to wipe out a bass population, usually it’s the other way around where there is not enough food, not enough being pulled out, so you end up with stunted populations. This tends to happen down south where the growing season is much longer. That said I do think more outreach is needed to encourage folks to release fish they do not intend to use.
I hope you found this helpful.