04-11-2016, 07:50 PM
[#0000FF]I got an email from Chris Penne of DWR confirming the successful transfer of some crappies from Willard...and the planting of the sterile walleye fry from the spawning of Willard walleyes. Here are the details.
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We conducted our crappie transfer last week for Red Fleet and it went fairly well. We moved about 125 healthy crappie that ought to make for good brood fish for Red Fleet. George Sommer from the Blue Ribbon Fisheries Council took some good pictures during the project and posted the pics on the Blue Ribbon website. See this link for a look [url "https://www.facebook.com/BRFAC/"]https://www.facebook.com/BRFAC/[/url] . We would have liked to have transferred a few more, but our trap nets we'rent particularly effective last week during this prespawn. I think we should have a bit better luck this week when were doing the transfer for Gunlock Reservoir.
The walleye spawn was a great success. I just got some final numbers from our hatchery personnel in Springville, so here is a summary:
[ul][li]A total of 507 female and 229 male walleye were spawned. (we only need 3 males for every 5 female fish) [/li][li]An estimated 29,736,685 eggs were taken during the spawn [/li][li]Female walleye from Willard produced an average of 63,310 eggs per female.[/li][/ul]
As you probably saw, one batch of 100% sterile fry has already been stocked in Red Fleet Reservoir. As more eggs hatch, those batches of fry will be tested to assess the success of the sterilization process. We were very pleased to see that first 100% sterile batch of fish and hope to see many more of those. On that note, our aquatic research biologist, Randy Oplinger, posted a good blog on our website about the sterilization process. That can be found here [url "http://wildlife.utah.gov/blog/2016/stocking-sterile-fish/"]http://wildlife.utah.gov/blog/2016/stocking-sterile-fish/[/url] . Willard Bay should be getting its share of fertile walleye fry in the next couple weeks. I'm looking forward to doing the chemical marking of those fish and am eager to see how well they perform in Willard again this year. Hopefully we'll see another good year of walleye recruitment from the fry stocking.
That's all the news I've got for now. I'll share more as the updates roll in.
Chris
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PS...I mentioned to Chris that we are having some discussion on the board about this year's wiper sizes and numbers...and the potential influence of the heavier harvest rates by bait anglers. He will likely have a helpful response soon.
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We conducted our crappie transfer last week for Red Fleet and it went fairly well. We moved about 125 healthy crappie that ought to make for good brood fish for Red Fleet. George Sommer from the Blue Ribbon Fisheries Council took some good pictures during the project and posted the pics on the Blue Ribbon website. See this link for a look [url "https://www.facebook.com/BRFAC/"]https://www.facebook.com/BRFAC/[/url] . We would have liked to have transferred a few more, but our trap nets we'rent particularly effective last week during this prespawn. I think we should have a bit better luck this week when were doing the transfer for Gunlock Reservoir.
The walleye spawn was a great success. I just got some final numbers from our hatchery personnel in Springville, so here is a summary:
[ul][li]A total of 507 female and 229 male walleye were spawned. (we only need 3 males for every 5 female fish) [/li][li]An estimated 29,736,685 eggs were taken during the spawn [/li][li]Female walleye from Willard produced an average of 63,310 eggs per female.[/li][/ul]
As you probably saw, one batch of 100% sterile fry has already been stocked in Red Fleet Reservoir. As more eggs hatch, those batches of fry will be tested to assess the success of the sterilization process. We were very pleased to see that first 100% sterile batch of fish and hope to see many more of those. On that note, our aquatic research biologist, Randy Oplinger, posted a good blog on our website about the sterilization process. That can be found here [url "http://wildlife.utah.gov/blog/2016/stocking-sterile-fish/"]http://wildlife.utah.gov/blog/2016/stocking-sterile-fish/[/url] . Willard Bay should be getting its share of fertile walleye fry in the next couple weeks. I'm looking forward to doing the chemical marking of those fish and am eager to see how well they perform in Willard again this year. Hopefully we'll see another good year of walleye recruitment from the fry stocking.
That's all the news I've got for now. I'll share more as the updates roll in.
Chris
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PS...I mentioned to Chris that we are having some discussion on the board about this year's wiper sizes and numbers...and the potential influence of the heavier harvest rates by bait anglers. He will likely have a helpful response soon.
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