Merganser Marauders

[greenghost]

Fished lower Special Regs on Laurel Hill Creek today near Humbert. Water conditions were ideal. Good flow. Temp in lower 60s. Saw many BWOs, a few caddis and even a stray drake or two. (Yes, I'm sure.) Under those circumstances, I always see rising fish in certain stretches. Today, nothing. I switched to a pheasant tail nymph. After an hour of hard fishing, I finally got a small brownie. Something felt wrong. Then, as I was working a faster section, a flock of Merganser ducks flew by and landed in slower water below me. I saw one chasing a fish near shore and catch it. Looked like he caught a small fish of about 7 or 8 inches, not sure if it was a trout. But I'm wondering if the flock wiped out much of the fish population in that stretch of stream? I hear each duck can consume a pound of fish per day. I'm guessing A flock of 8 can do some serious damage and was the reason for the fishless water. Anybody else know anything about these ducks and the damage they can do to fish populations?

 

[Mike]

You can't judge a trout population by a single day's fishing experience. The extreme example of that is that 70% of all anglers in Pa go fishless on opening day in stocked trout waters.

There are mergansers on the stream that I often fish and I don't give them or any other predators, such as the eagles, osprey, and mink that frequent the stream a second thought. They are just a welcomed part of nature and add to my fishing enjoyment.

 

[Maurice]

I agree with Mike, when I see predators fishing the same stream as me I think to myself the fish population must be pretty good to attract a species who relays on trout to survive.

 

[fter]

Exactly what Maurice said. Plus, let's be honest, when we fish, are the mergansers encroaching on our stream or are we encroaching on their stream (unless mergansers are invasive and I just don't know that)?

 

[Aducker]

There's not a lot of data on Mergansers and how much trout they will eat on trout streams mainly because they are not the "glory" ducks that get most of the research attention such as Mallards, black ducks and teal.
It is true they can eat 1/2 to 1 lb of fish per day each.

I guess if you do the math. 8 ducks x 1/2 lb per day for a few weeks could put a dent in the fish population. But add in all the other predators and I would say its all a normal life cycle on a stream.

Most Mergansers should be headed back north by this time. Lets hope the ones you saw were just fattening up for the flight back north and are not taking up residence.

 

[Mike]

We have breeding pairs on Pa streams and rivers, perhaps even in urban Allentown, where pairs of adults are regularly seen.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Exactly what Maurice said. Plus, let's be honest, when we fish, are the mergansers encroaching on our stream or are we encroaching on their stream (unless mergansers are invasive and I just don't know that)?

Neither. Man is also apart of nature and the ecosystem.

 

[KGStine]

I fish Pine Creek several times a year, and there are always several groups of Mergansers present. From my observation, they eat more chubs and fallfish then trout.

 

[moon1284]

Mergansers have greatly diminished populations of wild Brown trout in at least two streams in New York.

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/lcn01/birds-take-a-bite-out-of-oatka-creek-fishing-20160106&&?gallerydate=2017-03-23Z

I do not like seeing them at all.

 

[greenghost]

I agree with NY. I think they can devistate populations. Of course, nothing can be or should be done. But it's a bit frustrating when stocked trout are in essence duck feed.

 

[foxtrapper1972]

Predator populations of all kinds are booming. We have way more foxes,owls,eagles. cormorants, herons,mink, otters. Osprey, etc. these days than in the years I was growing up. And yes Mergansers do breed in PA and have lot's of young. Duck hunters don't shoot them because apparently they have high levels of toxins and are no good eating. I've seen flocks just scouring the Delaware River and coming up with little trout in good numbers.

 

[troutbert]

I don't recall seeing mergansers in the 1970s and 1980s. Were there numbers low back then, and their populations have come back post DDT like the eagles and ospreys?

 

[Aducker]

troutbert wrote:
I don't recall seeing mergansers in the 1970s and 1980s. Were there numbers low back then, and their populations have come back post DDT like the eagles and ospreys?

The current data on mergansers only goes back to 1990. Their population is about the same for the past 25 years. There was a spike in the population in 2003.

There is a slight upward trend right now in the Merganser population.

 

[RLeep2]

>>. Duck hunters don't shoot them because apparently they have high levels of toxins and are no good eating>>

I don't think toxins is what it's about. While all ducks are omnivores to a greater or lesser extent, Mergansers are among the least omnivorous and rely on fish for the great majority of their diet. Their serrated bills are even designed for it. The good eating wild ducks like mallards, teal and woodies, for example, have a lot more grain/nuts/etc. by percentage in their overall diet.

If you want to know the main reason Merganser are not considered good eating, try roasting one. Your nose will make the nature of the problem plain to you in short order...

 

[bigjohn58]

People don't hunt mergansers because they eat a lot of fish and tend to be fishy tasting. Not so much because of levels of toxins. They just don't taste good. That goes for most species of ducks that their main diet is fish.

When the PAFBC stocks fingerlings on Fishing Creek you can tell because the mergansers will come. There was a flock of about 30 of them the other year that stuck around because of all the fingerlings. I'm sure they just weren't eating the fingerlings either. Also otters will appear at times too when they do this. I've seen it a few times. I honestly feel that the fingerling stockings on Fishing creek may do more harm then good because it invites all the predators.

 

[moon1284]

They devastated the two best wild trout streams in western ny. Historically, they weren't in those locations. It is speculated they moved there because 2014 and 2015 were extremely cold and lake Erie and ontario were almost covered with I've and since those streams are spring Fed/influenced they were the only open water around. If you could hunt them in those areas fisherman would have hunted them.

The best example I could give would be to imagine big spring creek losing close to 90 percent of its trout population - that's pretty much what these birds did.

 

[Zak]

Mergies or GBH can and do put fish down for a little bit though. To me there is nothing worse then coming around a bend and seeing a flock of mergies run up the stream or a GBH take off and fly low over the water a great distance. You can expect to catch just about nothing for the next 30 minutes in either case. That said, I don't think either make much of a dent in a trout population unless you have a small pond in your back yard hahaha.

 

[Zak]

I shoot every Mergie I can legally. I would all but extinct the species if I could lol. GBH too. I loathe their existence on this planet. Hate them. Wish I could shoot them all.

 

[Prospector]

Troutbert, your question about not seeing Mergansers in the 70's and 80's. My experience is seeing a lot of family groups on Kettle Creek when I first remember from 1975 to 1986. They had 7-10 young ones. We'd see them all of the time in the first few weeks of June.

As far as hunters not shooting them. You can take 6 ducks and in addition 5 more mergansers. That makes it more palatable, but to get them you really need to hunt on Lake Erie. So not many people set up for them.

It has been amazing in recent years how many streams that common mergansers are showing up on. But I have been seeing lots of adults with no young, which wasn't the case when I was young. There were 9 adults hanging out together last week and I did see 1 female with 8 young.

Something else to keep in mind is even if trout have a decent chance of getting away. As the water warms up, any chase is going to stress trout to the point they could get caught or might be stressed from the chase. Not a good thing.

 

[evw659]

I shoot every Mergie I can legally. I would all but extinct the species if I could lol. GBH too. I loathe their existence on this planet. Hate them. Wish I could shoot them all.

They fit in to the food chain just like everything else. Do you want to slaughter trout for gorging on mayflies, caddis, etc.? What about bald eagles? I guess anything that disrupts your fishing should be removed.