Crappie in Mantua

[KokaneeReaper]

I know I will get yelled at for this but i want to propose this to you guy and see what you think. If the DWR at mantua wood add some crappie to the pond Northern utah would finally have a place for panfishing other then pineview they allready got the perch and blue gills why not top it off with some nice fat Crappie now that would be great for us panfisher men and it would help stablillize the perch pop. [cool] Now I understand what they are trying to do with the Rainbows there but in my opinion the pond is to small to produce a really good trout fishery any way (that is just an opinion) now if they keep the size restriction on the trout it should still produce fish at the same level. And personally i don't think northern utah has enough panfishing options there are other fish then trout out there to cach, And before any one tells me about willard bay being one i will agree with you they have a nice Crappie pop but they don't manage for them very well i would like to see a lake managed just for crappie,gills,and perch. Well tell me what you guys think
Don
p.s. sorry about my spelling in a hury
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[PREDATOR]

It has been my expirience that the cahce valley and northern wasatch front area has historically been good for panfish, the problem is that it hasnt been consistent.

By that, I mean to say that places like hyrum used to have great perch fishing. Newton used to have great gill, crappie, and bass fishing. Cutler is still largely overlooked by most anglers and holds some great fishing. Of course, you mentioned willard and pineview.

Mostly what I see is that these places have at one time had thier great moments, but they faded as the fish were overharvested, or as the habitat was ruined, or as the water dried up.

I personally could care less if there were crappie in mantua. Dont really care for the perch in there either. I am just still ticked off that they destroyed that fishery by poisoning the lake so they could try thier self admitted "failed" expiriment with kamloops.
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[maniac]

Don't even think about it! there are plenty of places that have crappie! We don't need to add to the problems that already exhist at Mantua. The first time they poisoned Mantua, there was crappie in there, they were part of the problem. we have crappie at pineview, willard bay, cutler reservoir, and Newton. I would think that is a pretty good try at crappie. Don't screw up another fishery with those Da^^^ things.
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[KokaneeReaper]

I told ya i would get yelled at[] What i am trying to say is it is a screwed up fishery to begin with and since that is the case why not try and make something decent from it. Sounds to me they may try killing it off again, i agree all of the places mentioned have had there day in the sun for panfish but what bugs me is they rise and crash rise and crash while the dwr dosn't do anything for these lakes to help the situation out. I hate the fact that so many lakes are neglected around this area, they stalk fish but other then willard they will not put any bait fish to sustain them which in turn makes the fish eat other game fish wich then defeats the purpose of the lake (look at pineview) besides that since all the resivors are so low right now they should probably take the oportunity to build some habitate to help hold the bait fish and fry Yuba was a good excample of that! And willard bay is a pathetic bathtub of a lake with no underwater structure what so ever other then a few islands and the dike. they could be doing more and I still think Mantua would be a good place for Crappie becuase of the weadbeads and if the fish and game would plant some bait fish to go with it and support the game fish it would be great for all the fish involved []
Don
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[maniac]

Crappies don't make a good bait fish for predators. Pineview had better bass fishing when there wasn't any crappie in there. I'm not saying that we shouldn't have crappie I'm just bringing up a good point, as you are. The DWR doesnt want to manage with bait fish because that might actually cost money, and they don't want to spend money on warm water fishing for some reason. Your also right about the cover, we need more trees put in the lakes. like cedar trees not christmas trees, that rot out in three or four years. Just my two cents. I wasn't trying to get an argument going!
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[fish4fish]

I think that the only place that i want a crappie is in the john[], but seriousy i think that this state needs some diversity in the avable fishing around me i have 20 trout waters and one the same 1 lake i have pike, bass, and cat fishing. i think that this is alittle one sided. I hope to get to lake powell this year and try for some different species of fish, i am getting bored with slime rockets, maybe if i could just catch a darn tiger trout it wouldnt be so bad, but all i catch is weeds and 'bows
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[KokaneeReaper]

I see your point about the dwr wanting to spend money on bait fish and i didn't think you were trying to start a argument, It isn't so much about the mantua thing it seams to be this way all over the state (except for a few stand out fisheries) there is so much fluctuation in are panfishing areas and also the walleye and bass areas too like willard, pineview, hyrum you could go on and on. I would like to see a couple of these areas managed like they should be for all fish not just trout the dwr can be single minded some times but what they don't seam to understand is if you build a resivoir with enough cover, food , and area to grow then it would be cheaper in the long run because the resivoir will sustain its self. And not crash as hard as some have I just thought Mantua would be a good area for panfish i mean they allready put the bigest egg eating fish in there (blue gills) and why would they put Kamaloops in there any way they won't reach there full potential in that lake it is to small.
I don't mean to bore you with my Rant guys i can be single minded also
Don
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[KokaneeReaper]

Good response tube and i don't want to argue with you on this one.
1. you probably now more about it then me
2. you can type a heck of alot more then me []
But in my defense i am not looking to the dwr for a magical fix and i do understand the drought we are in but i kinda see that as an oportunity too enhance are habitat without having to drain are resivoirs, I have lived out of this state and have fished some great areas ND,Min,and Canada know i have fished these areas years so it isn't just hersay that i go by, you brought up several good points but here are a couple for you

DWR will plant bait fish with nothing to sustain them or places for them to spawn (some spawn twice a year) or difrent strains will spawn at difrent time's so the game fish would have to times in the year and not just one to cash in on a new bag of groceries also having more then one type of bait fish is important incase the other species has a bad spawning year this way you game fish do not have to realy on one source of food for there survival

Some of are lakes are starile and that could be changed by lake vegitation planted in draught years to help out shinners and baby game fish when you have vegitation on the bottom you will have food for baitfish and game fish you need to mach the vegitation to support the lake
not drowned it out some bait fish are planted just to mach the type that is planted, and the game fish that will inturn harvest them are all took into acount before just throwing them in the pond and waiting to see what happens not saying the DWR does this... Okay i still think they do it anyway

I will allways question were my money goes that I use toward fishing and hunting you should never sit back and not become involved or be informed, Utah has some shady practices when it comes to are hunting and fishing dollars being placed in a big pot and then only a small percentage comes back to are outdoors as a whole, I hate to say this but with prices rising for are hunting and fishing rights and not being able to see any improvements to are hunting and fishing areas I think
you would agree that we are throwing are money into things that don't even help are habitate or the game we hunt and fish for. where is this money going and what is it doing for us and are sport. We do have a voice and should use it instead of just living with it.

I have been out debated before and plenty have made good points so i will drop the subject it seams it has turned into a difrent isue any way then what it started out as.
Good fishing
Don
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[Fishrmn]

I'm not going to say the DWR is always right, but sometimes you have to play with the cards that you are dealt. Look at Yuba right now. We don't have a hatchery that produces perch or walleye. We do have hatcheries that produce trout. The DWR has put perch back in Yuba. (At a pretty high price per fish) They have put tight restrictions on the perch for several years in an attempt to stave off the crash of the perch, and now prohibit the possession of perch until they can rebound. Even catching the perch this time of year can kill them. In the mean time they have put trout in Yuba to give someone something to catch while the perch and walleyes recover.

It is marginal trout water in many respects. It can get too warm. It is very turbid. It has little or no spawning habitat or options for spawning trout. But it is producing 20 inch trout. It will produce 24 to 28 inch trout this year if they don't all get harvested. This is after only a year and a half of water being back in Yuba. The trout fishery will be short lived though. So enjoy it while it lasts. The perch will be back next year. There will still be a very limited harvest allowed, if any. But the seeds have been sown. There will be enough perch to sustain the population by next year. And then the walleye will come back, and that will be the end of the trout fishery, unless the DWR decides to plant trout big enough to avoid being forage for the walleyes.

Utah has to deal with reservoirs mostly. We don't have a lot of lakes. We don't have plentiful rains in the summer. We have runoff in good years, and droughts quite often. If we had more lakes, and more consistant water levels we could have more diversity in a lot of our waters. We don't have what it takes to make every water what we would like, so we make do with what we have.

I can think of only one or two bodies of water within 2 hours of my house that are over a couple dozen acres in size that contain only trout. The rest are either very small, or they have at least one warmwater specie in them. It seems to me that for a state that caters to trout, and trout fishermen, we've got more waters that have some trout and some warmwater species, rather than those that have only trout.

Fishrmn

[DrewT]

Black Crappie are already in Mantua - although not in great numbers yet. As are smallmouth bass and green sunfish. That makes the running total in Mantua:

1. LMB
2. SMB
3. Bluegill
4. Yellow perch
5. Green sunfish
6. Rainbow trout
7. Cutthroat trout
8. Black crappie

The SMB and black crappie were illegally introduced (same as perch). Green sunfish are often mistakenly stocked when bluegill are stocked (their fry are almost impossible to tell apart so if some are mixed in, you have no way of knowing). Craig and the biologists in the northern region have confirmed all of these species in there - in fact while fishing with them last spring, we caught every species except trout - which we were not targeting. The SMB were small (<=6") and can often be mistaken for LMB - especially in a lake not known to have SMB.

Anyway, I don't think that some of these species will do very well in there, but they are there.

One final note: Both black crappie and smallmouth bass have been confirmed in East Canyon as well.
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