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Well I hope I have Jordanelle out of my mind..
Just plain tired of little fish coming from WHAT use to be a great lake..The count was 46 bass from egg sack to 14 3/4" with two trout one at 21" and the other at 26 1/4" I hope the DWR can tell us soon what they think will turn the lake around..[:/][pirate]
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[#0000FF]The DWR cannot manage what is unmanageable. The lake boomed after it was first made. There were lots of chubs for the smallmouth to eat. Then they ate themselves out of house and home...as they always do. When the perch crashed the smallmouth crashed. You can't produce big fish where there is no food. Until smallmouth start eating zooplankton they will stay small.
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I was seeing chubs all around the lake today, any place there was grass..
No the bass didn't crash, the year before the reg. was changed it took over a 17" average to just get in the top five in any tournament..
Now big fish is 16" if that..
In the past (before the dwr changed the reg's) a 50 fish morning and all but 5 to 10 would be under 12" but now like today only 8 was over 12"..
Not hard to see, all you have to do is look..
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"Not hard to see, all you have to do is look.."
[#0000FF]But with open eyes and an open mind.
Not all problems are caused by DWR.
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You could be right, but they are the ones that changed it so it could happen in less then one year.."It" is the REG'S..
Maybe most of the fisherman in this state like to catch small fish more then big ones???
I know I would like to catch the bigger the better fish..
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Any pics of the 26 incher?
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[quote bassrods]two trout one at 21" and the other at 26 1/4" [:/][pirate][/quote]
A lake that produces trout over the 25 inch range consistently as it reportedly does for you, is likely going to have high approval rates from most anglers in this state.
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[#0000FF]Wherever the smallmouth overpopulate and eat themselves out of groceries they stay smaller. Look at Deer Creek. Used to be full of big largemouths, perch and walleyes. After smallies ate all the crawdads and the baby perch each year everything else suffered.
Same thing in Starvation. Walleyes and smallmouth were introduced to eat the chubs. They succeeded too well and both species stunted...until perch came along and provided more food.
A big population of smallmouths needs lots of food. Especially if there are a lot of small ones. They are the most active feeders.
Why can't you accept that Jordanelle is just showing its age and establishing an ecosystem based upon fluctuating water levels and fish species finding their own levels. Anglers have had very little to do with the current situation.
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Unfortunately what used to be a "great lake" is now a glorified pond.
Just a guess but I'd wager Jordanelle's epic water level fall has had a much larger impact on the fishery than any DWR policy.
What will turn that lake around is a pool level fluctuating above its filling level from 20 years ago.
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Did you harvest any of the rat smallies that were pestering you?
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There will be a special effort kicked off at the end of the year by the DWR to review Jordanelle and the biology behind it to come up with a plan to recover the lake.
The Chub has become a well-oiled predator and they are eating the Perch fry which is impacting the intended primary food source for the Bass. The Perch population has crashed, the Chubs are HUGE and eating every minnow they see and there is a big lack of food. There is a problem with the lake, the DWR wants to bring it back and they are making some great plans which will include several meetings including the public.
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The DWR did some age studies on the smallies last fall to determine fish age and growth. They said results would be out sometime this spring. A lot of us are anxious to hear what they found out. Hopefully, the findings will be released soon.
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I have never fished Jordanelle, but I would like to. I have heard lots of stories about the great fishing, but in recent years the fishing reports were not so exciting.
Since Jordanelle is a fairly new lake won't it take time for the ecosystem of the lake to balance out or will it always suffer if there is no intervention.
I believe that one of the best ways to keep a lake in balance is to harvest the fish. Specially when you have a new system that is so full of fish but there are limited resources.
I get the impression that managing a lake is a very difficult process. Coming from a commercial fishing background, the Alaska Fish and Game sure has a difficult time managing the salmon populations in many watersheds up there. The most difficult task can be getting the right amount of escapement of returning salmon. Even then the other variables make it a guessing game.
Perhaps one strategy would be to commercially harvest little fish each year.
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[#0000FF]Most lakes in Utah are difficult to "manage". Anglers and regulations have far less impact on the rise and fall of fish populations than fluctuating water levels, food resources, etc. No matter what DWR tries to accomplish their plans are subject to factors over which they have no control.
Jordanelle is no different than hundreds of other lakes around the country It is very fertile and prolific in the early years. Then it declines as the nutrient levels drop and the species establish their own balance. Without supplemental plantings of something besides rainbow trout the non-trout species are subject to stunting or overharvesting.
Jordanelle has needed a large population of crawdads to help feed the smallies. Yes, the big chubs still spawn, but their young are vacuumed up as soon as they are large enough to eat. There are no identifiable populations of small chubs in the lake at all...so perch young are the primary forage. And when the perch crashed a few years ago, so did the smallies.
In a desert state we are subject to wide swings of water runoff each year. Two or three poor water years in a row and it doesn't matter what DWR tries to accomplish. Everything dies off and we start over. That has been the cycle with Yuba and other Utah reservoirs.
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Jordanelle is no different than hundreds of other lakes around the country It is very fertile and prolific in the early years. Then it declines as the nutrient levels drop and the species establish their own balance. Without supplemental plantings of something besides rainbow trout the non-trout species are subject to stunting or overharvesting.
Jordanelle has needed a large population of crawdads to help feed the smallies. Yes, the big chubs still spawn, but their young are vacuumed up as soon as they are large enough to eat. There are no identifiable populations of small chubs in the lake at all...so perch young are the primary forage. And when the perch crashed a few years ago, so did the smallies.
Yep, I agree. The need of additional fertile structure and food source is a must. In the early days the there was a lot of food, but everyone forgets that the structure was high in nutrients. A lot of the fertile structure has been scrubbed off in the last 10 years. The need for the forage to hide/profligate and grow will make bigger fish is important too. Crawdads will help some. I don't think the water owners will allow Jordanelle to be altered though.
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Because all you say is caused by over harvesting of a slow growing fish..As soon as the limits go up the size and numbers of the bigger go down..
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As any one that knows me can tell you I only catch trout as a by-fish and most of the time never take pictures of them + I had no camera with me this day..
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One or two fish of that type does not make a great lake, most browns in Jordanelle are long and thin if its a male..
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Water may come and water may go but the fish will stay untill they are caught and killed or die off..This all happen in one year after a reg. change..
Trying to bring in other things will not change this, Jordanelle had other years of low water and because the bigger spawning age fish was not over fished the lake did not show as many affects like over fished lakes do..
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Why would I or anyone want to take a slow growing fish like the small mouth bass before it has time to grow??
Anyone that is saying the bass in any of our lakes are over populated is only blowing smoke..It took years for Jordanelle to get the bass to the size they WAS..Its like deer it takes time for them to get big they are not born and grow to be big in one year..
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