Utah Lake Carp Removal

[Bama_Boy]

Just saw on Facebook where the DWR was doing their carp removal from Utah Lake. They had some pics of some pretty nice other species, including a northern pike. Thought that was cool. Never fished in Utah Lake personally.
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[fish_fear_me2]

When they do it trough the ice its a pretty cool operation. Its worth going to see in person.
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[Bama_Boy]

I hear it is. I wish I could get out there, but time and distance make it very difficult.
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[fish_or_die]

Kill em all!

Cant wait for things to melt so I can remove a few myself!
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[flygoddess]

Absolutely!
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[MasterDaad]

[quote Bama_Boy] including a northern pike.[/quote]

Wow...

Score another for the idiot bucket brigade -- apparently they may be establishing if they are showing up in gill nets.

As a reminder, the DWR has a kill mandate for any Northern Pike caught in UL.
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[Bama_Boy]

As a reminder, the DWR has a kill mandate for any Northern Pike caught in UL.

Although I have never fished there, I was aware of that. For anyone that has Facebook, here is the link to the pics and info. Yesterday they pulled out 60,000 pounds of carp from the lake.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=...749&type=1
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[MasterDaad]

Thanks for the link! I was looking for it.
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[Fish-or-die]

Couple of questions maybe Tubedude or someone can answer? Why through the ice? or is is a year round operation? Also are they staying ahead of the reproduction of the carp? Lastly some of those fish looked a little on the "been handled too much" side, think they'll really all make it? Thanks for posting the link.
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[MR.PIKE]

"Idiot bucket brigade"?
Do some homework, the DWR planted Northerns in Utah lake decades ago. In a similar post last summer a retired biologist admitted to have helped plant them right here on BFT.
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[Therapist]

This is part of the June Sucker Recovery program. You can go to their website and get the details.

What is happening is that the idea is to remove 8,000,000,000 pounds of carp a year for 5 years. The theory is that by doing so, they will lower the population enough so that the population reaches the "tipping" point. That means that the recruitment each year will not replace the number that die, eaten, etc, and the population is permanently reduced, reducing the negative effects that carp have on Utah lake !! This is the 3rd year of the project I believe.

They net year round, but it is more dramatic under the ice due to the technique they use. Even more interesting than all the different fish they catch is the Eagles, both Bald and Golden, that show up for the free meal !!

A couple of years ago when they were doing this, they had over 2 doz eagles hanging out to pick up the carp as they fell off the wagon as they were being transported to the truck on shore.

[Flyfishinglover]

I'm pretty sure you would like more pictures like this one of a carp destroyed!!!
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[Jordanporritt]

I saw that on facebook today. They had some really nice looking walleyes too! I'm gonna have to fish Utah lake more this year.
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[Fin-S-Fish]

Yep many "by catch" game fish die in those gill nets. All white bass do not have to be released. They are taking channel cats as well. In my opinion, this carp removal project is one example of how American tax dollars are wasted. I am unwittingly contributing to this since it is automatically deducted from income. I don't feel bad when the government says they have a fiscal cliff or can't fund this or that. If they would cut out such useless projects a huge amount of money would be saved. There is no point to eradicate carp. That sucker is merely an elongated carp and when Ut Lake becomes full of them, anglers will have no use for that lake anymore. I don't buy into the idea that carp removal will equal more game fish......they will remove those sucker predators next.......esp white bass.
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[MasterDaad]

Do some homework, the DWR planted Northerns in Utah lake decades ago. In a similar post last summer a retired biologist admitted to have helped plant them right here on BFT.

Decades ago that may have been the case. But Pike disappeared decades ago.

The current crop is almost certainly the result of illegal planting.

Source:
http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/ar...16aeb.html
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[Jazzperch1]

i also heard of some guys that have got small northerns on the jordan river near lehi, its just hearsay since i havnt seen any pics but i think somebody on BFT got one i want to say over a year ago before ice but i could be wrong. You never know if they were replanted or have come from the ones that were there in the 70's, its a big lake but you would think more would be caught if they were real abundant. I personally think there are some from back when they planted it.
It would be cool to catch one there though[].
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[GEEZER]

Since northerns are primarily sight feeders, they probably won't get to be a major issue as long as the lake stays turbid like it does when the ice is off & wave action stirs it up. Once enough carp are removed for vegetation to reestablish, the water clarity will almost certainly improve. They could then become a real problem. For the benefit of the UL fishery, the only good northern is a dead one and the same goes for carp. Now, somebody is gonna rant about walleye and white bass being predators as bad as northern pike. Rant on. I've seen first hand what destruction northern can have on a fishery, Comins lake south of Ely NV to be specific.
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[pookiebar]

From your own article:

Northern pike were documented in Utah Lake this year for the first time in 30 years when three of the fish were caught there. That has state officials alarmed, said Drew Cushing, sport fisheries coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. Officials are not sure if cleaning the carp out of Utah Lake is allowing a latent population to explode, or if the fish are new. A single northern pike was documented in Utah Lake in the 1970s but none have been seen since.

Strange things happen when we mess with mama nature. We screwed things up by putting the carp in. Now the cleaner water, or some other factor may have allowed the few surviving northerns to come back. In my experience a large lake will have territory that fits into any given species habitat needs. For every fish you see/catch you have to know that there are many many fish you don't. The sheer size of Utah Lake, 150 Square Miles, means that a few Northern Pike could have survived for a very long time. Pike can reach the reproductive stage in a year, females being 30 cm, males 19 cm. Pike normally live 5 to 15 years, but can be as old as 30.

To me there is enough intrinsic evidence here that the pike have been there for 30 years, and something recently has made it so they are suddenly seeing a more successful recruitment. Probably the removal of the egg eating, nest rading carp.

Your argument is like people saying the chubbs in Strawberry or Scofield were introduces by bucket biologists. The truth is a very few of any species can/will survive. Mother nature has a way of being extremely resilient.
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[one8sevenn]

I fished Comins Last summer and it is pike city.
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[MasterDaad]

Yeah, I read the whole article.

If you wish to believe that in all the samples taken of UL fish population in the last 40 years yielded zero Northern Pike that were in present....

And that in a magical coincidence of Nature as nerby Yuba has grown in popularity as a Northern Pike fishery, that somehow they show up Utah Lake now, go ahead.

I'm with the conclusion of the article that the "latent population" view is highly implausible (though possible) and it is much more likely illegally planted fish by someone who wanted to move their Yuba experience closer to home.

We can agree to disagree. That's fine.
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