UL white bass today(12-7-12)

[SBennett]

A buddy and I fished the west side of UL today and caught over a 120 white bass in a little over 2 hours.
We were in a boat and used small white and tan jigs on 1/8th oz. lead heads.
Some were near the 12" mark but the majority were at 9".
Cast right up to the shore and retrieve just fast enough to keep your jig from snagging the bottom.
Good luck and go get them, the ice that will keep you from launching a boat is not too far away.
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[danielc]

Nice WB report for utah lake cant wait to get them through the ice soon.
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[wyoguy]

I assume this is part of trying the new boat out? Sounds like a great day.
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[Blueboy22]

How fun, Never used white or tan myself, I'll have to try it.
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[wagdog]

Were they pretty healthy or on the skinny side? I caught some white bass on the west side of the lake last month. The smaller dudes were skinny. I caught quite a few that were 12-13 inches. They were big enough to snack on baby white bass. They had shoulders and didn't look like they were missing too many meals. Just curious as to what condition they were in.
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[wiperhunter2]

Nice report Shane, sounds like you guys had a fun couple of hours. Were you tipping the jigs with anything?
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[SBennett]

Nope, just plain little jigs.
They were very hungry and we were happy to oblige!
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[SBennett]

Hi Gary,

Yes, it was the maiden voyage and UL was the target as I did NOT want to get skunked on the first trip out!
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[SBennett]

Smaller ones were a little skinny but once the 10" mark was crossed it did seem like they must have been able to find a decent food source.
If only they could get to the 16-17" mark.
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[wagdog]

Man I hear ya. There are bound to be a few like that crusing around. They are definitely few and far between though. The biggest I have personally caught out of UL is a 14" whitie. A buddy of mine got into some bigger females last year and had one go 15.5. Thanks for the info.
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[Fin-S-Fish]

Unfortunately I'm truly sorry to disappoint you, but there's more than likely, bound, not to be any white bass out there right now over 14 inches. I catch a lot more white bass than the average angler and in 17 years of fishing utah lake and its tributaries, I have only caught one authentic 16 and a half inch whopper white bass there. Up until that time the biggest remained at 14 inches. 13 inches I would consider top end size in the lake, about 98 percent die after hitting 13 inches. Seems like maybe 2 percent at most will ever reach 14 inches and there's only a certain area of the lake where more than one 14 incher will be found in a like 500 fish. I don't anticipate finding anything over 14 inches again ever to tell you the truth LOL. I have landed no less than 2938 white bass since Jan 1 this year and absolutely none over 13 inches. Will probably hit 3000 mark in a day or two the next trip out. They are running extremely skinny all year. Some type of plankton shortage, a very serious one right now. There are plenty young of the year white bass so no reason for them to be so skinny but they sure are. This is throughout the lake. Water level still fairly high too so can't explain the plankton shortage, but perch are record skinny as well. I anticipate a huge winter die off this year as some of the whites are too skinny to go on much longer. Some are mere skin and bone anorexic fish. It takes a lot of those paper thin fillets to make a decent fish fry.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]You whitie killer. You are probably singlehandedly responsible for the terrible shape of all those white bass. They are so worried about your relentless onslaught that they don't dare take time to even eat right. Shame on ya.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As a fellow whitie lover I also have quite a few years of history on the big brown pond. I agree with your assessments. Very rare for a white bass in Utah Lake to ever exceed the "footlong" range. 13 inchers are always whoppers. Anything beyond that is trophy sized.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I do not claim the total numbers of white bass for the year that you do, but I have put in some time on them...at various venues around the lake. My observations, along with input from some Utah Lake biologists, leads me to some of my own conclusions.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]First, most of the current low populations and poor health among the predator species in the lake is directly attributable to the current low water. Last year was a record high water level year, with good spawns, good recruitment and plenty of food for all. That was after record snowpacks the winter before.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Last winter was a dud and the runoff was pretty much over before it is normally really getting started. Going into the "spring fling" there was less water in the tributaries and the lake level was 2 feet lower than the high water line of the previous year. It has continued to drop throughout this year and is another three feet lower than the first of the year. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]That has left the shoreline structure and reed beds high and dry and has reduced the depth in most of the harbors to about 3' or less. Spawning and recruitment for all species took a hit. But because there was no sheltering nurseries for the young they were more exposed. The problem for the predators was that the food sources were not concentrated in normal hunting areas and they had to search wider areas of the lake to get a meal. This was further complicated by having murkier water most of the time because of the wave action on exposed muddy shoreline. Sight feeding predators could not search out congregated schools of prey fish and feed efficiently.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]White bass are at both the top and bottom of the food chain. They eat anything that doesn't eat them first...but they provide a major part of the protein for their own survival and that of other species. When the white bass have a poor spawn and recruitment all species suffer. That was painfully evident towards the end of the last drought when the walleyes were snakes and many died under the ice that last winter.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As many of us have observed, any white bass under about 11 inches is very thin and unhealthy right now. Only the footlongs or bigger are large enough to still be able to eat the young of the year white bass. And most of the larger ones I have caught recently have been chunkier and have often had whitette remnants in their gut.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Last fall, the white bass I caught in several areas had all been feeding well. I did some CSI autopsies on those I brought home and found baby perch, crappies, white bass, bluegill and fathead minnows in a high percentage of the whities...of all sizes. This year it has been rare to find food in any of them except for the very largest ones.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The whities typically rush inside the harbors and protected areas this time of year...both before and after iceup. They like to forage under the ice because it dampens the wind and allows the water to clear...making foraging easier. But this year there is likely to be less leftover whitie chow for them so it remains to be seen whether they will come inside, stay inside and/or provide any kind of ice fishing...if we ever get a good fishable cap.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The only upside to all of this...for anglers who simply want to catch a few fish...is that the white bass are ravenous and competitive. If you can find them in the shallower water you can catch a lot. The downside is that unless you boil them up in a soup there is not much use in taking them home. No meat on the bones.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Sad. But part of the cycle of life in Utah Lake. There have been many cycles over the years. It would not hurt Utah Lake at all to "thin the herd" and start anew after a couple of better years of snowfall. It always bounces back.[/#0000ff]
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[fish_fear_me2]

I also catch my share of whities and have to agree 100% with TD. The bigger fish have decent fillets and seem healthy. The smaller fish are skinny and you can read the newspaper through the fillet. The fish are moving in and out of harbors more than a normal water year in search of food. I am hoping the ice comes on soon and I can find a few of the bigger guys. Last winter we caught a lot of fish and many were in the 11-12 in class with a couple that pushed 13. They had a healthy year. This fall I am finding a lot smaller and skinnier fish.....Ice fishing might be a little disappointing as far as size this year. Hoping we get a decent water year but it is lookin to be mediocre at best. Let it snow let it snow, let it snow[laugh].
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[wagdog]

No disappointment here. I take what I can get. I also don't operate under the premise that there are a shload of bigger whities that are somewhere I can't get my float tube to. I really should have said that you never know but we can always hope (even though that dream may never be realized). Heck, I'm not prejudiced. I'll take a mess of 11-12 inch white bass any day. There may be larger ones than 14 inches but they most likely are cruising around solo and not in schools (and rare). However, I haven't caught nearly as many as you have and you have fished UL waaaaaaaaaay longer than I have. Thanks for the info.
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[Fin-S-Fish]

Hahaha you're totally hilarious! So did you have fun on your "date" with Tonya? hahahaha, j/k. Read ur bear lake post lol. She's pretty fun to talk to. I met her at good ol willow pond when she was there all last summer.

But yeah I'm thinking those whities probably wanted to commit suicide. They were like please, please try to fillet me and put me outta my starving misery. On the contrary, I found many of these big 12 and 13 inch whites to have a paper thin pale white fillet. Weirdly enough, the one year olds with 2 summers of growth.....at about 8 inches, had the most girth in comparison to the big fish. It was pretty ironic on the provo area, where it met the lake, every cast at dusk in Sept. was met with tandem young of the year at 4 to 5 inches, yet even with so many thousands of them, the big adults were skinny. Of course I only fished it ten casts and when it was nothing but tiny things, I moved up to find the big thin adults that ran upriver. Every day them adults would run up, on my special moon phase days, thousands would run up. Each day, my favorite spanish competition would crowd that river and clean them up faster than I could LMAO. I'm pretty egalitarian and I don't like to complain but they were not using legal methods to harvest those white bass. I wake up late so basically all I got was leftovers lol. This year there were enough fish left to bother fishing it lol. However some of the whites escaped all the fishermen but I within a week of fighting the current would get to be just skin and bone and then succumb to a huuuge ich infestation that would cover the entire skin. I saw tons of them finally exhausted, float up and swim aimlessly then go belly up.

I think that with the continued thinness of the fish in the main lake, some of them will die this winter for sure. There's already a much delayed ovary development in both male and female whites I've analyzed in filleting so far. A poor spawn this spring for sure. What gives me hope is that there's a huuuge number of 1 year olds that will hit age two this spring. Those are healthy still and if we get water this winter, everything will be fine. There are pockets of extremely well fed big fish at 12 and 13 inches in one location I've finally located so there are some fish that are finding food it seems. The majority are not though. Even lmb are thinner than usual and there are tons of the young of the year in every harbor to feed them.

Yeah you are dead on. That water level makes a HUUGE difference! Hey on the upside, maybe it'll lead to another crazy walleye every cast bonanza year lol. As for the harbor winter movement surge, I have a pretty good idea what is going to happen, but I'll pm you on that one lol. It's 12 46 so I'd better hit the sack for now. haha
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Tonya is a hoot. I scored points with her right off the bat by observing that any of Adam's shows with her in them are much improved. Mainly because there is someone on screen without facial hair. She had a good (inappropriate) response to that too.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]That whole white bass thing is a real classroom in Utah Lake ecology. Few people have any idea how big the whitie biomass is...and how much food it requires to keep them all healthy. They are like drug addicts...with food...they constantly cruise around looking for their next meal (fix). And it sometimes makes them crazy.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The upside is that they are truly omnivorous and feed on just about anything and everything. They prefer little fishies (sushi) when they can get them but readily accept all kinds of invertebrate (tofu) substitutes when they are hungry. Lots of leeches and larvae in Utah Lake...during normal high water times. But with the lake levels down, reeds and vegetation high and dry and fertile mud flats drying out in the sun their grocery stores can't keep them fed. There are still isolated pockets of greater abundance but most fish ain't finding them.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You referred to plankton shortage. That is also a biggie. That's what the fry of all species need to survive to grow large enough to avoid incessant predation. If the water conditions are such that plankton cannot proliferate, the tiny tykes starve out and the bigger fishies get no sushi.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Walleye? Both the wallies and the kitties are still doing quite well, thank you. They dine well on the stunted whities and on the stressed, dying and dead ones. I'm sure you have noticed that any silly misguided walleyes that stray from the buffet table to take a lure are all fat and sassy. Lots of internal fat. They will survive the winter just fine and should make it through at least another year without food shortages. But if there is a combination of whitie dieoff and another year of poor spawning we may see a return of the "fishageddon" conditions of the last prolonged drought.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I am sorry to see the current state of the white bass herd. I much prefer to catch bigger and healthier fish. But I got no pride. I'll still drop by to give them some exercise...hoping to find a few that aren't so anorexic. Getting harder.[/#0000ff]
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[Therapist]

I agree with what has been said about forage in Utah Lake and problems that result in small fish and low growth. I also wonder how much of it can be attributed to genetic stunting due to stressful conditions for years and years. I know that is some ponds, bulegills, bass, catfish, etc will stunt due to overpopulation and it becomes a genetic trend, even in times of plenty, the fish just don't have the ability to grow !!!

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]I have read several studies on aquaculture and raising fish in closed environments. The info that I have gathered shows that "stunting" can happen within one generation...and rapid growth to large sizes can occur in the next generation...if the food resources are there. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Stunting problems are more often a result of chronic poor feeding conditions than anything genetic. But, on the other hand, stunting through several generations CAN result in offspring that are already genetically programmed to survive under adverse conditions and to be able to survive and mature at smaller sizes.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There also seems to be some species that are more predisposed to stunting...mainly the prolific spawners like the panfishes. But it is also evident in some species of trout...as in very small trickle cricks with little natural food production. In some of these streams a 10 incher may be several years old and may have already spawned a couple of times.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Throughout the several cycles I have lived through on Utah Lake it seems like the whities only need one or two good years...after a down cycle...and they are off to the races again...with good numbers and big sizes. Too bad we can't dump some stabilizer in the lake.[/#0000ff]
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[Slotkeeper]

When I take my grandkids fishing like most they want instant action and don't care what they catch. What is the best time of the summer, when its warm, to catch whites?
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[Therapist]

Another issue at Utah Lake this year and some past years has been a lack of insect hatch's. It has been 5-7 years since I have seen a MAJOR insect hatch at UL. Because of the lack of minnow forage, insect lava have been a major source of food. Have not seen the winrows of pupal husks and dead adults after a major hatch. The big midges and mayflys are not there either, you still see them, but not in the massive numbers of years past. So I think that part of the problem is a shortage of invertebrates to tide them over till the young of the year are available for food. Contributors, low water, poor water quality, spraying for mosquitoes, agripolution, who knows.