12-16-2005, 08:53 PM
A few thoughts:
Perch---The problem with Perch is we either have tow many or two few in Utah. rarely, if ever, are they in balance in Utah.
Walleye are most definately a major part of the perch problem. They eat the perch out of house and home and for the most part walleye do that to any prey base in Utah. The reason is simple, our lakes are very different from lakes in the midwest where walleye are from. Our reservoirs tend to have less cover, fewer types of prey species (if you don't believe me take a look at the fish in utah page on the dwr website, notice how many non-native minnows have been planted in willard bay in hopes of providing more prey) and as a result in almost every case walleye have out eaten their prey base.
Starvation Reservoir was brought up by a couple of people. The walleye introdcution was not illegal in Starvation. It was planned. The plan was to use the Walleye to control the chubs. It worked so well the chubs can no longer get an ageclass through. Last summer Stonefly recieved recognition for the help we have given the dwr on Colorado Cutthroat Restoration. At that lunch, the dwr also awarded an individual who goes out for the dwr and nets walleye nearly everyday as they dwr tries to get the #'s of walleye down enough to allow the forage to recover. In my view waht a waste of manpower. So as some say, yes the dwr has been bucket biologist, but I can also say that these same dwr employees also realize that walleye in Utah waters are basically a mistake. Knowing what we know now, starvation could have remained a coldwater fishery with a combination of Brown Trout, Bear Lake Cutts, Eagle Lake Rainbows and you probably could still have the smallmouth. In my view rotenone is the only solution to fixing that lake and after the rotenone hits turn it back to a coldwater fishery. This lake would have more people using it and it would provide a far better fishery than it does now, it would certainly have more use.
Think of Deer Creek once the walleye got illegally stocked in deer creek, use dropped into the toilet. A lot of you guys are walleye fisherman, I understand that, but what you got to realize is that walleye fishing is really an elitist sport. It may not embrace elitism, like many fly fisherman do, but it is a specialized sport that requires special equipment and is done by very, very few fisherman. If I can remember the angler days correctly it seems that before walleye hit Deer Creek angler use was well over 100,000 angler days a year. I think it dropped to down around 30,000. Why should the dwr ever convert any existing trout fisheries to STOCKED warmwater fisheries as some of you are proposing?
If the dWR must stock a lake the easist way to do it is to stock fingerlings and let the lake grow them. It's called put grow and take. Unfortunately, when a lake is illegally stocked by bucket biologist it makes this scenario not possible. In the end this means fewer fish for all our waters.
Once again the best way to preserve our fisheries is to protect natrually sustaining populations of native fish in native waters. While we may never reach it, it should be our goal. If we can do that than we know we have preserved our ability to sustain our fish populations for generations to come.
[signature]
Perch---The problem with Perch is we either have tow many or two few in Utah. rarely, if ever, are they in balance in Utah.
Walleye are most definately a major part of the perch problem. They eat the perch out of house and home and for the most part walleye do that to any prey base in Utah. The reason is simple, our lakes are very different from lakes in the midwest where walleye are from. Our reservoirs tend to have less cover, fewer types of prey species (if you don't believe me take a look at the fish in utah page on the dwr website, notice how many non-native minnows have been planted in willard bay in hopes of providing more prey) and as a result in almost every case walleye have out eaten their prey base.
Starvation Reservoir was brought up by a couple of people. The walleye introdcution was not illegal in Starvation. It was planned. The plan was to use the Walleye to control the chubs. It worked so well the chubs can no longer get an ageclass through. Last summer Stonefly recieved recognition for the help we have given the dwr on Colorado Cutthroat Restoration. At that lunch, the dwr also awarded an individual who goes out for the dwr and nets walleye nearly everyday as they dwr tries to get the #'s of walleye down enough to allow the forage to recover. In my view waht a waste of manpower. So as some say, yes the dwr has been bucket biologist, but I can also say that these same dwr employees also realize that walleye in Utah waters are basically a mistake. Knowing what we know now, starvation could have remained a coldwater fishery with a combination of Brown Trout, Bear Lake Cutts, Eagle Lake Rainbows and you probably could still have the smallmouth. In my view rotenone is the only solution to fixing that lake and after the rotenone hits turn it back to a coldwater fishery. This lake would have more people using it and it would provide a far better fishery than it does now, it would certainly have more use.
Think of Deer Creek once the walleye got illegally stocked in deer creek, use dropped into the toilet. A lot of you guys are walleye fisherman, I understand that, but what you got to realize is that walleye fishing is really an elitist sport. It may not embrace elitism, like many fly fisherman do, but it is a specialized sport that requires special equipment and is done by very, very few fisherman. If I can remember the angler days correctly it seems that before walleye hit Deer Creek angler use was well over 100,000 angler days a year. I think it dropped to down around 30,000. Why should the dwr ever convert any existing trout fisheries to STOCKED warmwater fisheries as some of you are proposing?
If the dWR must stock a lake the easist way to do it is to stock fingerlings and let the lake grow them. It's called put grow and take. Unfortunately, when a lake is illegally stocked by bucket biologist it makes this scenario not possible. In the end this means fewer fish for all our waters.
Once again the best way to preserve our fisheries is to protect natrually sustaining populations of native fish in native waters. While we may never reach it, it should be our goal. If we can do that than we know we have preserved our ability to sustain our fish populations for generations to come.
[signature]