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I've fished Willard Bay four times this season and what wipers I have been able to catch have all been quite small. I can't seem to catch one with any decent size to it this year.
What are your therories (or facts) as to why they are so small this year?
Or, better yet, tell me how to catch the big ones if they are in there.
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[#0000ff]There was a larger planting and better survival rate on the sac fry from two years ago. Planting numbers and survival rate from previous years is much lower, resulting in fewer fish of larger size.
Where DWR is trying to create their own wipers now, instead of buying them from other states, they are subject to a timing thing between getting eggs and milt at the same time from Lake Powell Stripers and Utah Lake white bass. There is a very brief window for getting them together and having the eggs fertilized. And sometimes the fertilized eggs do not hatch...or the young are not strong and a high percentage die off. Oh yeah, and then there are the gizzard shad. They can eat a lot of the sac fry wipers before they grow big enough for the wipers to eat them.
In a wierd weather spring...like this one...the chances for bad timing are increased. Could be a problem getting enough viable white bass spawners from Utah Lake when needed. The fish are all skinny and many are not even producing eggs or milt. And the numbers are down after a poor spawn last year and a big winter die off under late ice.
DWR will make planting numbers available after the spawning and hatching. Hopefully there are enough viable sac fry to see some good numbers. Otherwise, there will be fewer small fish for us to complain about in a couple of years.
The good/bad news is that there ARE some wipers exceeding 5# still in Willard. But they are scarce and they stay well fed on the overabundant shad. Your best shot at them is when they join the smaller fish in boils. That is if the wipers develop boils this year. Last couple of years they were not motivated to boil on top because all they had to do was swim around the lake with their mouths open...there were so many big balls of baby shad.
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hrmm no clue. the few i have picked up on the fly rod from shore have been decent regular sized wipers. last year i saw (maybe the year before) wildcat catch one trolling that could not have been more than 6 inches long. of course i only fish for a few hours there maybe a dozen times a year
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Well, and then there's the obvious answer: every wiper that gets kept is one less there. And people tend to keep the larger ones, so...
Remember, it's a completely artificial fishery. They don't reproduce, so every fish that's caught had to be placed there.
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good point. walking along the dike near the south marina back to my truck i noticed a few fellers had 2 each on a stringer. meh its within the rules so nothing wrong there
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Ralph, you are the best Wiper fisherman I know, and I've learned a LOT from you. That said, here is my theory:
....I think there are plenty of larger Wipers in there.
But I'm surprised that you don't realize the answer to your own question.
The simple fact is that those larger Wipers have been around a while and they KNOW YOUR BOAT and when they see it, they swim away, very quickly!!!! [  ]
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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L.O.L.!
[quote N.E.T.O.]... Ralph, you are the best Wiper fisherman I know...[/quote]
Randy, you must not know very many fishermen.
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Thanks for that good infoTubeDude. Allthough, after reading your info, I kind of get the idea that the days of plenty of big wiper may be behind us ... or at least not so consistant as I have come to enjoy. I would imagine that with Utah paying for a facility to produce their own wipers (or at least trying), there would be no justification to purchase them from out-of-state. And with Utah's production being spotty at best, I guess that is the reason for lower limmit on wiper.
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[#0000FF]As I heerd tell, Utah is steadily improving on the ability to produce numbers of viable wiper fry. Still not there yet. They only get one shot at it each year and some years have not been so good. When DWR was buying a definite number of fry each year, the numbers were more predictable and there was a steady supply of wipers. Add in the variables in water levels, harvest numbers and the fact that some of the wiper production is going into other waters...and you have fewer wipers in Willard.
There were several years in a row, following the drought ending in 2005, that we got kinda spoiled. Big plantings, big survival rates and fast growth to good sizes. Limits were increased to six fish and there were still plenty. But once the wiper population dropped the limit had to be dropped again.
The good news is that wipers grow fast and there is plenty of food in Willard. Once the annual plantings can get back up there we have hope for better years ahead. That is...if the "overabundant" walleyes don't eat all the wipers.
You just keep putting in the time and refining your techniques and you will catch some bigguns. DWR folks believe there are a few state records swimming around in there right now. But they probably carry around little ID photos with pictures of you and your boat so they know when to keep their mouths shut.
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40K wiper fry was dumped in just last night per the DNR folks (Drew and Cory). A good step in the right direction to keep Willard going.
EDIT 400K. Funny how one zero makes a big difference.
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Come on we all know what happens when the water is cold. [ ]
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Live to hunt----- Hunt to live.
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[#0000FF]I saw those pics of your and your young fishing buddy last week. Good job.
40K in wiper fry is better than nothing...but not as good as the 1/2 million they used to plant. And when you consider only a 1 to 2 percent survival rate that doesn't make many for the hordes who chase them each year.
Maybe we can talk to Drew about planting a bunch of trout...to at least keep up the fishery...or to feed the walleyes.
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[quote TubeDude][#0000ff]... consider only a 1 to 2 percent survival rate ...[/#0000ff][/quote]
It's hard to imagine that the survival rate of those planters is so low. Maybe the DWR should consider hiring bucket biologists to do the planting for them. Don't they have about a 98-99% success rate?
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[#0000FF]It's a matter of the inverse reciprocal of the fudge factor...or something like that. Modern math makes my head hurt.
Bucket bozos generally plant healthy adult fish. DWR plants days-old sac fry. There are lots of factors that can add up to wipe out most or all of those tiny tykes but that is the least costly way to plant them.
They do raise a quantity in the rearing pens near Powell. They grow to 2" planting size fairly quickly but much more expensive than planting sac fry without having to feed or maintain them...even though they have a much higher survival rate.
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I just spoke with Drew. The DWR received 400,000 wiper fry yesterday of which 200,000 were stocked into Willard. The remainder were divided between the Southeast and Southern Regions for their waters and to the hatchery system to be raised to fingerling size for stocking later this summer.
We will be making the attempt to manufacture our own wipers next week. Hopefully that effort will be successful and we can ramp up our wiper stocking even more this year.
Paul Birdsey
Coldwater Sportfish Coordinator
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
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