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"East Canyon will be stocked with fingerling wipers this week, which should provide good wiper fishing later in the year."
Say goodbye to this potential trophy smallmouth bass fishery. Before you know it the crawdads, sucker minnows, trout minnows and everything the other species eat will be gone.
Say goodbye this year because I can guarantee, give it a couple years and it will be destroyed!
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It is interesting you should post this. I was in the water snorkling last fall. I have never seen such big smallmouths before. I have to say, you are probably right.
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That lake is good how it sits. Well there goes the closest bass lake that I know really well.
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I agree craig, they should leave this one alone
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[quote petty4life]I agree craig, they should leave this one alone[/quote]
Too late now, the damage is done. 
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I see where you are coming from, but personally I'm looking forward to trying for some big wipers out of there! I think the potential is there for 10+ lb fish. Heck if it doesn't work out, they can let them be caught out or just die out, then no more Wipers. Much easier to manage than just about any other game fish.
Remember the SMB although fun to catch, and seem to be doing reasonably well, were put in there illegally. The Wipers will certainly put a dent in the other fish, but will not wipe them out, and they would rebound quickly without the pressure.
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I don't really think it will have a huge impact on the smallmouth, they have them in Newcastle and they have huge smallies there. IMO, what really matters is how many they stock, if they keep the numbers low, trout, crappie and chubs will be their prey of choice. With the deeper water EC has, we might see a new state record come from there in the future. With the parasites that the trout have in them there, there is a chance the DWR is trying to change the lake into a warm water fishery. Lots of folks have ask for more warm water fisheries in Utah, so maybe they are just trying something new. If it works out, it might be a win for everyone, I guess time will tell.
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Glad to hear they are going in there. like Curt said its not going to hurt the smallie population. willard has slowly been getting better and better for small mouth. I feel the crappie and small mouth will actually get bigger thanks to the wipers they will eat allot of the smaller fish and give the others room to grow to a huge size. It didn't ruin Newcastle why would it be any different here.
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Likely because there is already a world class TM fishery just a few miles away[:/] but who knows for sure, maybe that is something that could happen in the future depending on how the wipers do. They have already tried hybrid trout in EC, what are some other hybrid fish were you thinking about?
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Those who think it wont have an impact on the Smallies, in years to come, you will eat your words. You will see some bigger Smallmouth, but the spawn of those bigger fish will lead to few results because the Wiper is a savage predator and will eat everything in sight. You will see the same results with the other species that do spawn in the lake, trout, suckers, crappie, bass, etc.
Newcastle used to be one hell of a Smallmouth fishery, but now it is suffering because of the Wipers. The forage is significantly less abundant, smaller fish are near non-existant because the Wipers are now feeding on all of the other species. If you knew the lake before the Wiper you would see the downfall of what it once was... but... Newcastle was a different beast, it had a shiner overpopulation which is why Wipers were introduced, and they did their job, too well.
Why East Canyon? No serious abundance in food other than Crawdads which are critical to the health of the fishery, once the minnows are gone, the Wipers will turn to the Crayfish. You know how many trout I have opened up there that were full of Crawdads?
Glad for those who want to catch a Wiper, but there is a significant cost to the great fishery we have today.
I just hope they did not stock a significant number, but I am pretty sure they put in several thousand.
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Sorry but there's no way in hell that the crappies and smallmouth are going to get bigger because of wipers. There is no solid fish forage base for wipers in EC. Stocking wipers in there is a mistake for sure. They will eat smallmouth and crappies, there are no chubs or forage fish in that lake at all. Just crayfish. Those wipers will eat every baby bass and crappie then the lake will be empty in years to come. I kept a 5 inch wiper that swallowed the hook before. Analysis of its stomach showed it to have 10 crappielets the size of a dime. Not a single shad lol. This was at willard.
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[quote CBR]
Newcastle used to be one hell of a Smallmouth fishery, but now it is suffering because of the Wipers. The forage is significantly less abundant, smaller fish are near non-existant because the Wipers are now feeding on all of the other species. If you knew the lake before the Wiper you would see the downfall of what it once was... but... Newcastle was a different beast, it had a shiner overpopulation which is why Wipers were introduced, and they did their job, too well. [/quote]
BullShitzu. I'll say it again. Bullshitzu.
what all you bass guys that complain about Newcastle fail to realize is that Newcastle was doomed before wipers were ever stocked. Shiners were already out-competing young-of-the-year smallmouth bass. The ONLY smallies in Newcastle prior to wipers were the big smallmouth -- and guess what? They were slowly disappearing. Those smallies were on their way out. The trout were gone. Shiners took over.
Wipers were then introduced -- they were introduced at the same time that the smallmouth were already on a steep decline. The introduction of wipers was NOT the cause of smallmouth decline. Shiners were the cause.
Wipers soon took on the shiners, and quickly reduced them. Fast forward to today, and what do you have?
1. you have a lake with very few shiners
2. you have a lake with huge wipers
2a. wiper stocking has been reduced due to lower forage
3. smallmouth bass populations are on the rise!!
3. again, smallmouth bass popuations are on the rise!!
3a. This is because young-of-the-year are surviving!!
3b. young-of-the-year are surviving because they don't compete with shiners any longer!
4. Trout are back! And doing great!
Wipers have done nothing but IMPROVE New Castle. If you want proof of this, you have only to drive out there and see how many people are currently fishing the reservoir. It is currently experiencing a boom in popularity. Why? Because fishing has improved. Why has fishing improved? Wipers.
Wipers are not going to hurt East Canyon. They compliment the smallmouth bass.
For those of you proclaming doom and gloom, and saying "you'll eat your words..." I say: Bullshitzu.
Wipers will do nothing but good.
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I was hoping you would reply to this thread because I figured you knew the score at Newcastle. From what I have read smallmouth and wiper live together and have no problems in a lot of lakes out side of Utah. I think as long as they control the wiper numbers at EC there will be no problem but will add a lot of fun to the fishery.
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I can call B.S. as well because I am entitled to my own educated opinion.
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The primary forage for those East Canyon Wipers will be Smallmouth Bass, crappie, sucker, and trout. How does that help the Smallmouth population and make it better? Do tell, lets hear some facts...
Feel free to prove me wrong with some solid scientific evidence, East Canyon is missing what Newcastle had, and that was an infestation of a forage base. The reservoir was very well balanced and has healthy fish of all classes.
East Canyon is doomed unless another stable forage is introduced. PERIOD.
I'd love to see the case study for impacts to the fishery for introducing Wipers.
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If wipers reproduced, this stocking could well eventually prove disastrous. But, of course, they don't. So, with initial loss plus steady reduction through angler possession, the situation seems to me to be eminently manageable.
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Interesting thread with strong opinions...wow!
One note on EC fish reproduction; I don't believe Trout are reproducing in EC. Might be a few reproducing in the creeks, but lake conditions in EC and in almost all reservoirs are not conducive to trout reproduction which requires cold, flowing, oxygenated water and clean gravel. So I don't believe that is an issue.
On Newcastle, it seems that the DWR is of the opinion that the smallies were losing out to the shiners as well...so food for thought on that one.
Time will tell and many factors involved in healthy smallmouth. Some of the best smallmouth fishing I've seen in the state was the late 90's in DC; large fish and lots of them. Of course those days are gone and certainly not due to the Wiper.
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[quote CBR]I can call B.S. as well because I am entitled to my own uneducated opinion.
[/quote]
exactly. Another word for it would be ignorant. You didn't know the full situation. You only knew what you saw on the surface, but failed to understand the facts behind what was really happening under the water. Smallmouth were losing to the shiners -- thank goodness the DWR could see this. Their interests went much further than the end of their rod. We have a quality fishery that is thriving because of those efforts.
As for EC -- I don't know much about it. What are the crappie and smallmouth currently eating? Are there chubs in EC? Do the crappie reproduce? What is their population like? Maybe it's the crappie that are out-competing the smallies, and thus the crappie need to be thinned? Have you spoken to any biologists in charge of EC to get their side of the story?
The great thing with wipers -- as has been pointed out previously by others -- is that they don't reproduce. If they cause problems, the solution is a very simple one: stop stocking.
This is really a very silly discussion, to be honest.
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Wow PBH, you really need to learn how to respond to people... Have a healthy conversation and try to bring factual details in to the discussion to try and fill us in instead of calling me uneducated and ignorant.
I'm done unless you want to treat people with the same respect you think you deserve.
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"The reservoir was very well balanced and has healthy fish of all classes."
This was referring to East Canyon. My bad for not calling out East Canyon, I see how that could have been taken out of context.
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