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[cool][#0000ff]Just got out of the December meeting of the Utah Anglers Coalition. Good turnout, including Jim Karpowitz, Walt Donaldson and Roger Wilson of DWR. Their presentation was a "good news vs bad news" kinda thing. On the good side, fishing has never been better, statewide, for all species. And, with over a million pounds of trout being produced in hatcheries next year, it should be good for trout fans in 2007.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The big downer was that there is a new "bug" in fisheries management around the country. A fast spreading and deadly disease called [url "http://seagrant.wisc.edu/fisheries/Default.aspx?tabid=1586"]Viral Hemorragic Septicemia[/url] (info link) is already epidemic in the states of the upper midwest and other states (like Utah) are in mortal fear that it will reach them too.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Unlike whirling disease, it affects all species. And, unlike whirling disease there is high mortality within any age group that gets it...old fish, young fish, etc. Nasty stuff.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]How that affects Utah is that we get our tiger muskie fry from a hatchery in Minnesota. They have a clean record so far, but Utah would rather put a halt to any imported fish until a warm water hatchery can be set up with our own disease free fish...or to work in partnerships with such hatcheries in neighboring disease free states. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Whatever the remedy, it is going to be some time before we have new tiger muskies to put into designated Utah waters. At the very least 5-7 years. So, the current populations will continue to decline...through harvest and mortality. There will be fewer muskies, but they will get big if they stay alive. Muskies have a long life span.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]DWR is still evaluating the situation and is not sure if they will have to modify the regulations to sustain a fishery. They claim that there is little actual harvest of the tigers...mostly C&R. However, because these fish cannot withstand rough handling, or being out of water very long, there is a mortality rate among those released. We need to make sure that all who fish on tiger muskie ponds know how to take care of the fish they catch, especially if they plan to release them.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Oh yeah, more bad news from the meeting. I was voted into the UAC for the express purpose of taking over the position of secretary. Oh boy! More work. At least I will be in a position to both hear and present discussions on angler concerns and to pass along anything our BFT members might like to know about. There is some good stuff coming up after the first of the year.[/#0000ff]
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Wow.... Sounds like quite an eventful evening Pat. It will be nice to have an advocate for us fisherman helpin run the show. Congrats man! [  ]
Kinda  to see the tiger info though. They are a fun fish to catch... I hope they stiffen the regulations on them even more. On the bright side I think it will really help the smallie and panfish fishery up there. It would be nice to have a high producing crappie lake close to home once again. [cool]
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Thanks for the update! Let me be the first one to congratulate(?) you on your new position of responsibility. I hope it doesn't take too much time away from fishing. Too bad about the tiger muskies planting being put on hold. I hope we can use BFT as a medium to spread the word about proper handling of them tigers.
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[cool][#0000ff]Thanks...I think.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As an angler who "experienced" Pineview in the "olden days", I fondly remember the times of lots of largies and unlimited crappies for the taking. That was before they got to messin' widdit.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The current "balance of power" in Pineview is not attributable solely to the top predator...the tiger muskie. True, they munch a bunch of fish, but they are often not selective. They might ordinarily prefer perch, but they will not turn down bass, crappie carp or bullheads. Equal opportunity munchers.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]If I were to point a finger of blame, for the decline in crappie numbers, I would assign combined blame on the perch and the smallies. Perch spawn before crappies and their young are just waiting for the eggs and newly hatched fry of the crappies. Smallies are right behind the crappies in spawning, but their young also suck up a lot of the zooplankton and other invertebrates that all fry need to make it to the next level. And, they grow faster. Smallmouth grow about twice as fast as young perch and crappies and begin eating the other guys as soon as they get big enough to pull it off.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]So, in addition to having big muskies to eat the larger crappies, there are hordes of competitive perch and smallmouths that compete and eat in the smaller stages. If there is only so much fish chow to go around, something's gotta give. Crappie are more fragile and they often are the losers in the survival game.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Same story in Willard. Before shad and wipers there were vast schools of crappies all over the lake. Now the baby shad eat the zooplankton that crappie fry need to survive and wipers eat those that do make it to munching size.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]It's a jungle down there.[/#0000ff]
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Good info to know Pat. Thanks for your hard work. Too bad about the fish diseases putting the kiabosch on getting more musky though.
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Pat,
I now have an in with the DNR? Do you realize what this means? With your brawn and my brains we can now rule the fisheries of Utah! We can start pumping salt out of the GSL to feed the lakes of the Wasatch Front. Imagine Grouper fishing at Rockport and Lost Creek!
Reds and Bonefish on the "flats" in Willard. Throwing top water for Snook in Deer Creek. Tarpon fishing in Flaming Gorge.
It's a brave new world my friend. Hope you have asbestos underwear! I do.
I'll trade my lawn for all of it. Afterall, we can import freshwater from Canada, I hear they have tons.
IFG
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Just my luck. It takes me 3 years to learn how to fish for them and now its put on hold for a while. Same thing happened 2 summers ago when I went to Yellowstone for the first time for the infamous yellowstone river flyfishing opener in July. "...I don't know what has happened...you should have been here last year!" is all I heard. Now I understand that the whole foodchain up there has been disrupted due to the lake trout in Yellowstone Lake. I'm always a day late and a dollar short.
...But then again, Strawberry has been better the last 2 or 3 years than it ever has and that is one of my favorite destinations.
Its all about timing.
Congratulations on your new calling!
Randy
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I used to N.ot have E.nough T.ime O.ff to go fishing. Then I retired. Now I have less time than I had before. Sheesh.
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Didn't take them long to put you to use did it? Congrats. Good to have "one of the guys" in there.
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[cool][#0000ff]Huh? Do I know you? Do I owe you any money?[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]One of the conditions of becoming involved with a quasi-official organization like that was having to have 2/3 of my brain removed. That enhances the ability to sit through mind-numbing meetings, but it also messes with memory.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You see, I have already "crossed over". I still may be "one of you" in terms of membership, but the microchip they implanted at the time of the brainectomy helps them control my thoughts and actions away from the meetings. Whenever anyone tries to use past friendships or associations to curry special favors, I am programmed to sneer in derision. If the request is accompanied by begging and groveling, the sneer turns into insidious laughter.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]So, while your creative suggestions on Utah fisheries enhancement sound interesting, I am physically and mentally unable to rationally process such ideas. However, you may care to take them through the RAC process. Too bad you missed the secret session held two years ago that would have been necessary for you to get any consideration. The next is not scheduled until you are able to ice fish in Hell.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Thanks fer yer support.[/#0000ff]
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Gutsy statement for a guy in a balloon boat.[  ]
Where are those darts?
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[cool][#0000ff]I'll call your silly darts and raise you one RPG and one surface to surface missile. That should put you "all in".[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]And, by the way, I gots armor plating on my "balloon boat". Gotta have that stuff for kitties, wipers and other stickery fishies.[/#0000ff]
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Conmgrats or my deepest condolences on the position TD. To bad to hear about that nasty little bug. Hope they can find a way to treat it and get a resident stock of Tigers going here as i would love to have a chance at one. Does this also apply to the Northern Pike or does Utah grow there own?
Thanks
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I was wondering when this issue would get out into the public...this bug has me worried too, but my bet is that the DWR figures something out soon--they are already working on a warm-water hatchery. The popularity of the tiger musky has really grown; I know the DWR would like to continue using them. Because we have wild populations of pike in the state, we don't have to go far to get a brood stock of pike...to make muskies, all we would have to do is purchase some disease-free fish from another state and keep some in the hatchery as brood stock for eggs and milt. I don't think this issue will last too long.
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[cool][#0000ff]W&B pretty much answered your question on the northerns. Already enough (too many) here and plenty of brood stock if DWR wants to "enhance" other waters.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Northerns are not a consideration for the waters that now hold tiger muskies. The tigers are a true sterile hybrid and there is absolutely no risk of a breakaway population due to spawning. That is not true of northerns. Put a boy and girl northern in a lake and within a couple of generations they can take over. There have been experiments with producing "triploid" (sterile) northerns, like they do with some trout species, but the results have never been 100% effective and DWR does not want to risk experimenting on Utah waters.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I also agree with W&B that there will be plenty of energy put into this situation and it will not really be that long before Utah again has a source of tiger muskies...either home grown or next door neighbor tradeoffs. We already have reciprocal arrangement with neighbor states to exchange surplus eggs or fry for several species.[/#0000ff]
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I hope you guys are right. Tigers are my favorite fish to hunt.
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[url "http://wildlife.utah.gov/news/06-12/tiger_muskie.php"]http://wildlife.utah.gov/news/06-12/tiger_muskie.php[/url]
From the article, it sounds as though the DWR is already working on solving this problem....hopefully, they get it figured out soon!
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hopefully the population thats in there now, will holdup until they come up with a fix. they are a fun fish to catch. later chuck
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Just a quick question: Doesn't the DWR use a hatchery down by Lake Powell to produce tiger muskies for the state? Do they not do this anymore?
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They produce wipers there.
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[cool][#0000ff]cat_man is right. They truck white bass down there and introduce them to stripers...Bingo! wipers.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There are a couple of locations being pursued for warm water hatcheries in the state but nothing is real close yet. Utah has been buying catfish out of state because the only instate hatcheries that produce them charge more than the out of state sources. Being able to generate even just catfish will be a big help to the annual fish stocking budget.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As stated in a couple of previously provided links, Utah has been buying fingerling tiger muskies from that place in Minnesota. With the rapid spread of that nasty new fish disease, we will likely never see another Minnesota fish in Utah.[/#0000ff]
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