Yuba pike limit 20??

[strawberryquest]

Does anyone know why the pike limit was put to 20 last year??? Is it because people are putting some in Utah lake and they don't want pike anymore in Utah? Just wondering? Thanks for your input.
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[nomoose]

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[font "Calibri"][size 3]From what understand. The DWR wants to make it a trophy pikelake. There are lots of little pike in there so if you cut them down they getbigger, plus it will also help the perch and walleyes in there. [/size][/font]
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[Cattail]

Dwr is clueless on how to manage yuba, it's so , I don't think there's 20 pike left in yuba. There must be an endangered chub in the sevier River.
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[Blackellunge]

funny i just complained on the dwr fishing survey about this very fact. its a shame we dont have a legitimate Northern Pike fishery in Utah -they would love to eat those 8 inch bass in Jordanelle!!!
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[utahgolf]

won't make any difference without water. The pike had a great spawn during a couple high water years and then there was a nice little boom and yuba became popular. Once the word got out and yuba was seeing renewed interest and popularity as a fishery, a "management" plan was formed to restore yuba to it's former glory. It won't make a difference without water or dealing with the carp issue, they wipe out those perch fry pretty fast. All you can hope for is High water for consecutive years and just enjoy the boom times. I wish the pike would have a limit of all fish over 34 inches released! Keep as many under that as they want. Those 34 and over pike are some carp eating fools! sure they eat the planted perch, but the perch have zero hope if there isn't any high water.
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[cje04]

Will the walleye or perch be able to establish in any numbers with so many carp in there? Do the walleye do anything to the carp population? This year at yuba for me has been pretty slow compared to prior years for pike. Sad to the the fishery change. The carp seems to be the only fish that thrives. Would like to see more larger pike with slot limits to help with the carp.
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[utahgolf]

there's no controlling the carp with other fish species, only a control effort such as netting but even then it would be tough. but with high water and cover, it gives perch and walleye fry a fighting chance. Without it, all the perch plantings do is just give those pike an extra menu item instead of boring ole carp and any perch that do spawn with the low water, the fry are quickly gobbled up by all of those carp and yearling pike.
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[wormandbobber]

From what I understand, fish surveys at Yuba have showed that lots of pike are still around...just not the little ones.

The size of northern pike that actually consume carp will vary with the seasons. Carp are usually only a primary component in the diets of small northern pike during the summer months when juvenile carp are present. On the flip side, large pike will utilize carp throughout the year including the winter months. Generally speaking, the only carp consumed by small pike are little young of the year carp that measure less than 4 inches in length. But, in winter the carp that are consumed are greater than 4 inches and usually greater than 8 inches. The problem you get with carp being a major food source for pike is that since they are only available for a short window of time, the small pike struggle to find food sources except for that time period when small carp are available. This will dramatically slow their growth throughout most of the year. In Yuba, as the population of pike grows and the number of small pike utilizing that small carp food source grows, growth will also slow. And, the number of pike converting to a larger carp diet during winter will also slow...

With the pike population at Yuba comprised of mostly bigger fish, it appears that as growth slowed and pike numbers went up, so did pike predation on small pike. With slowed growth rates in smaller pike because their primary food source is only available during the summer, fewer pike are going to reach sizes where they can utilize carp year round, and eventually the pike fishery is relatively few numbers of fish that are all big! That is the exact cycle that we are in now.

With that being said, though, a good pike spawn will help replenish pike numbers and allow some of those small fish to grow large as long as they are not eaten by other pike or walleye. The trick, though, is getting those fry past all of the hungry mouths...any small walleye and pike left are going to be searching for any kind of forage available because the small carp will not be throughout the year. It is the reason that we have very few perch in the reservoir.
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