troutdude said:
Not to hijack...but, a few years ago (2-4 as I recall)...a 50 Pounder was hauled out of Corvallis. It was bagged where the Mary's River spills into the Willy.
I too, am not convinced that there are ANY cats in Waverly. It's the first one that I have ever heard of.
I thought the same way, TD. However, last year someone caught a 14 or 16 pound channel cat out of Timber Linn Lake. ODFW has stocked channel cats for years in Bond Butte Pond near I-5 exit 209, Walter Wirth in Salem and ponds 5 & 6 at the St. Louis Ponds up by Gervais. They even built special structures at the north end of Bond Butte trying to get the channel cats to spawn. This was all done before ODFW found out that channel cats need sustained 70+ degree water temps for about three straight months in order to spawn. So ODFW continues to stock baby channel cats since there are zero waterbodies in Northwest Oregon(the Willamette and Northwest Zones)where the water temps get that warm for that long.
Now, you say a 50 pounder was caught at the mouth of the Mary's River? I'd sure like to read that article and see that photo. ODFW did tell me they stocked the Willy years ago with channel cats, from Corvallis to Portland.
Gary Galovich is the warmwater fish biologist for the Willamette Zone, and his office is at the Adair ODFW building. Give him a call(541-757-4186) and he will be glad to talk. He does underwater surveys to count fish. I asked him where the biggest largemouth bass might be found locally and he told me that the Garden Lake Ponds near Creswell have huge bass in them, which he saw while scuba diving there.
I find it hard to believe a 50 pounder came out of the Willy at Corvallis. But you never know.......
BFF