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[quote Gemcityslayer]What year did that go into effect?
When I was a kid and dad and I fished Willard the limit was 6. It makes sense that the popularity of mussel fishing early in the year has caused an increase in harvest. I would have to think the majority of them are harvested by trolling boaters even with the increase in mussel use.
I agree it sucks to see people abusing the limits. Sure wish there was more of an effort to stop that.[/quote]
I'm not trying to dispute what TD is saying but I'm remembering this a little different and I'm likely wrong[:/] but it seems to me the 6 wiper limit was only in effect for 4 or 5 year before they when back to what it was originally at 3. When the first planted wipers in Willard the limit was 3 and I was thinking they changed it back to 3, last year but Pat is likely right.
During the early part of any given year, there are way more wipers caught by shore fishermen than boat trollers. This is mainly true because of the water temp(WT) and wipers not wanting to chase lures until the WT gets into the mid 50's. I'm not saying you can't catch them trolling when the WT are lower, just that most trollers are not as successful when the WT are lower. Then the WT hit 55* that starts to change and trolling really starts to improve at 60*.
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[#0000FF]When I make my "shrimp-rice" stuffing recipe, I often just open a can of the little cocktail shrimp. Very flavorful. But if I am doing something like the "surf and surf" I use either fresh whole shrimp...peeled and deveined...or some of the cooked, peeled and deveined packaged frozen shrimp. We watch for good buys on that stuff and buy a couple of bags. They are individually frozen with a resealable top so you can just take out whatever you want for a serving.
We also do a lot of our fish in the oven...baked fillets in a glass baking dish. And adding a few shrimp really kicks it up a notch. That is about the only way we cook trout anymore...filleted, skinned and with the line of flesh bones cut out. Top them with the butter and seasonings and you can easily imagine it is prime salmon from Alaska. Here is a link to one of my past posts on [url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=235668;#235668"]FILLETING TROUT [#0000FF].[/#0000FF]
[/url]With the shrimp-rice thing, you cook the fish, shrimp and other goodies on top of some precooked rice. Then the juices drip down and flavor the rice real nice (rhymes). Below are a couple of pics...one right out of the oven. The other plated up. Good stuff.
[inline "SHRIMP RICE FISH BAKE.jpg"]
[inline "7. PLATED UP.JPG"]
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[#0000FF]I keep copies of the PDF files for the Utah fishing regs each year. I have them going back to about 2010. I seem to recall the limit was 6 when I started fishing for them about 2005. The first year it went back to 3...in the regulations...was the 2012 proclamation.
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Wow, that looks and sounds good, I'll be giving that a try this week[  ], thanks for cooking info Pat. Also, on that smoking wood thread, you mentioned coming up this way this week or next. If you make it up here this week, I'd be happy to take some of that hickory sawdust off your hands. If it turns out that I like it, I'd be happy to return the favor when I buy some. Thanks for the offer.
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[#0000FF]Weather looks tube-iffy this week. Will probably be next. But will be glad to bring some dust...if you can show up on time.
Stay in touch and I will let you know. Sorry, can't send it by email or PM.
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Weather tomorrow doesn't look too bad. It's Wednesday and beyond that is frightening.
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Tubedude, you have some great looking recipes.
Has anyone got or tried the poor man lobster recipe for Wipers? I have heard talk about it, but never officially seen or tried it. Poached Wiper fillet in sugar water, dipped in garlic butter. I hope someone has some feedback. Might save me some expensive dinners..... [  ]
Back to the over harvest issue. I saw a post yesterday of literally 60 wipers in the back of a truck. There was 3 generations of a family fishing in the picture, but seriously....... I will guarantee that they will do it several more times too. It wont take long to have a depleted population with harvest like that.
I have also noticed that the average size seems to bee way down from years past. Two years ago, one wiper could feed four people, but this years average might feed half that. Any insight? A result of over harvest of last years fish?
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"Has anyone got or tried the poor man lobster recipe for Wipers? I have heard talk about it, but never officially seen or tried it. Poached Wiper fillet in sugar water, dipped in garlic butter. I hope someone has some feedback. Might save me some expensive dinners...."
[#0000FF]I have been making "pseudo shrimp" for years...out of many different kinds of fish with suitable mild white flesh. Wipers are great. Ditto for perch, crappie, white bass and even walleye...if you wanna waste some otherwise delectable fillets.
I am attaching a portion of a writeup I did on "Waste Free Wipers" a while back. It shows saving the trim parts of a large wiper and poaching it to get the meat off the bones and then dipping it into garlic butter sauce with some shrimp flavoring added. But I have used that for whole fillets from several species. The hard part is finding a good powdered shrimp bouillon any more. Usually have to shop in the Mexican food section of some stores for the Knorr soup mixes...bouillon cubes..."Caldo de camarron" (shrimp soup). Then you can grate that or just dissolve it in a bit of hot water...or even in the butter, in a microwave.
Attaching the pictorial recipe.
About the sizes and numbers of wipers. There has been a noticeable decline in the average sizes of the wipers this year. That is likely because of a low or missing year class for the wipers planted the year before the smaller ones we are catching mostly this year. Typically we would be catching a lot more 3 year old fish...18-20 inches...or larger. But some year classes have problems with survival and growth rate for reasons of weather patterns, water quality, food availability...or a phenomenon known as year class suppression. That sometimes happens when a larger year class out-competes a younger year class for available food or habitat.
DWR has maintained a steady planting program but for reasons beyond their control "stuff happens". A high percentage of the total numbers of wipers planted each year are "sac fry"...tiny tykes only a day or so out of the eggs, with yolk sacs still attached and not yet able to feed. Bad timing or poor environmental conditions (food availability) can result in a much higher mortality rate. Even the larger fingerlings planted later still have to survive the gauntlet of hungry predators and have to be able to find enough food to get them up the growth ladder.
In case nobody noticed, Willard has been really low for the last few years. That totally disrupts the ecology and messes up the food chain. Once the fish get large enough to feed on shad...and if the shad have been able to spawn well...then they can usually make it. But there are a lot of things besides "mussel chuckers" that will influence the supply of angler-preferred size wipers.
That being said, there can be no denying that there is an increased wholesale harvest of wipers over years past. Before the last couple of years of musselmania there were very few wipers caught by anyone besides the trolling floatilla. Those fishing from shore with worms or minnows caught an occasional bonus wiper, but there were not the hundreds of fish caught per day in some of the popular spots.
How is that going to affect the wiper fishing this year? Next year? I think we will see a change in the numbers taken by boaters later this year. And I think the netting surveys in the fall will reflect some changes too.
But...that's not my yob. (job)
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Yep. Gonna have to try it!!!
Thanks Tubedude!
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I was reading on Facebook that people were using bacon on a large cheese hook and doing really well. I saw another post that caramel popcorn is working as well. Ha, ha bring your box of cracker jacks! I went last Friday and caught 4 wipers with my son using rattlin rapala's. I prefer to troll, but there sure was a lot boats just outside the north marina using mussels.
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[#0000FF]There's no end to the baits and lures folks will try to catch fish. No denying the mussels though. The wipers do love 'em.
My best story along those lines goes back a few years...on a fishing trip to Irvine Lake, in southern California. I was fishing with a buddy who made his own "power bait"...a dough mixture with cheese, salmon egg nectar and some anise (licorice) scent. It was mixed with flour and a bit of cotton to give it "holding power" on the hook. It came out a brownish color...unappetizing to look at but the big trout in that lake really liked it.
We were bringing in and releasing a lot of nice fish and were surrounded by other folks in boats that were not catching much. When they asked what we were using we held up the small Skippy peanut butter jar in which we kept the bait. And they could see us rebaiting out of that jar. When they asked how we kept the peanut butter on the hook we told them about mixing in some flour and cotton.
The "rest of the story"? A couple of weeks later we read in an outdoor newspaper that people were using peanut butter on Irvine Lake...and were catching both trout and catfish on it. Go figure.
Stripers have the reputation of being finicky and preferring live or fresh bait. But while I was on a temporary work assignment in the New Orleans area I was shown how to catch river-run stripers on "aged" chicken guts...the stuff usually used for no-class cats. Go figure.
No surprise that wipers[/#0000FF][#0000FF] go for the mussels. I also know they go for anchovies. I'll bet they would also slurp up some squid.
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TubeDude,
You inspired me to cook up some of my wiper last night. I did not try the poor man lobster. You had said that you prefer it fried, so that is what I did.
Tempura Fried Wiper. Amazing. Just a little pepper, dill and creole seasoning in the batter. Made a little soy, ginger, garlic and honey sauce drizzled on top.
My wife also did some kind of shrimp stack of rice, cucumber, avocado, shrimp with a little oyster sauce, and sriracha mayo and sesame seed on top (mine has additional sriricha
You have got to give it a try! I will definitely be doing it again!!!
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