I was wondering where I could go on the net to get an idea of what types of baitfish are in Various Utah Waters. For example, I'm curious which Utah Lakes besides Willard have populations of shad in them.
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Just Powell as far as I know. You do have chubs in places like Jordanelle, Strawberry, Scofield, and there are some redside shiners in some lakes, but not many shad. It's mostly a case of gamefish eating younger gamefish and panfish as well as invertebrates around here. Not sure if there is a sight that lists forage species, but if there is, I would be interested in reading it as well.
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while you might not find exactly what you are looking for, you could take a look at the 2013 Utah Fishing Guide Book:
http://wildlife.utah.gov/guidebooks/2013...ng_low.pdf
It doesn't specifically say "shad are only found in two lakes in Utah", but you could probably come to the conclusion that Willard and Lake Powell are it...
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Utah Lake by far has the biggest diversity of "bait" fish. In addition to carp, a few chubs, bluegills, crappie, yellow perch, white bass, June Suckers, Mt. Suckers, Red side Shiners& black bullheads, it has Japanese Pond Smelt, Fat Head minnows, Spot tail shiners, and golden shiners. Pond Smelt, Spottail shiners, and golden shiners are all but non existent, but are there in very small numbers. Fat Heads are found in several inflow areas, but are not present in large enough numbers to make a dramatic difference.
The most common bait fish in Utah are Utah Chubs and Red Side Shiners, which we spend a great deal of time and money to eliminate. Enterprise Res in Southern Utah had a huge Golden Shiner problem, but it is all but gone now. Bear Lake has the Bear Lake Cisco, the only place that where they exist. There may be some others, but that pretty much covers it.
TD can fill in the gaps that I left !!!
Try this link to the DNR: [url "http://dwrcdc.nr.utah.gov/rsgis2/Search/SearchSelection.asp?Group=OSTEICHTHYES&Species=VERT"]http://dwrcdc.nr.utah.gov/rsgis2/Search/SearchSelection.asp?Group=OSTEICHTHYES&Species=VERT[/url]
It shows all the fishes, native and non-native, found in Utah with a general distribution map for each species. Not exactly what you are after but it's better than nothing.
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Sculpin, pretty much everywhere
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Awesome! Appreciate it!
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What I've heard that Cisco are only in bear lake and in Russia.
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Last year I went cast netting at bear lake caught carp minnows, chubs, and some shiners or shads. I'm hopping too head out in a few months after the lake is unfrozen and the chubs come to shore.
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nice link there. that sums it all up pretty good. Sure are a lot of species!
I know the Bear/Cutler has the panfish - crappie, gills, sunfish, hear rumor of perch even. Then the carp minnows, and smaller fatheads - I think there's some other fathead type minnows.
I did run into some Gizzard Shad in the river below Cutler dam. So - they've worked up from Willard most likely. Wonder if any Wipers followed!!!
[quote Flyfishinglover]What I've heard that Cisco are only in bear lake and in Russia.[/quote]
That's because Bear Lake is connected to Lake Baikal, and the cisco can migrate between the two lakes!
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The perch population is comming back in bear lake. 2 years ago I caught one 6" and last year I cast net 15+ perch they were about 3-5".
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[quote PBH]
[quote Flyfishinglover]What I've heard that Cisco are only in bear lake and in Russia.[/quote]
That's because Bear Lake is connected to Lake Baikal, and the cisco can migrate between the two lakes!
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Is that one of those bottomless-lake phenomenons?[
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RE"That's because Bear Lake is connected to Lake Baikal, and the cisco can migrate between the two lakes! "
Hey, I heard that some of those very large BL cutts aren't cutts at all. They are small taimen. [cool]
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[cool][#0000FF]Someday somebody is gonna get freaked when one of those freshwater seals from Baikal pops up through an ice hole on Bear Lake.
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I will be happy when some of those sturgeon make their way into Bear Lake from Lake Baikal.[
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[quote TubeDude][cool][#0000ff]Someday somebody is gonna get freaked when one of those freshwater seals from Baikal pops up through an ice hole on Bear Lake.
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You realize that Loch Ness is also inter-connected with Bear Lake and Baikal, don't you?
(those aren't seals!!)
(or, Nessy is really nerpa - baikal seal)
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[cool][#0000FF]Of course. I would never doubt anything you told us. After all, you are a fisherman...not an elected official...or a weatherman.
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[quote TubeDude][cool][#0000ff]Of course. I would never doubt anything you told us.
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Two words: saugeye.
Just keep that in the back of your mind....
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Where did that come from ( saugeye) !! Not another push for a new introduction ?? I was hoping for peacock bass or even nile perch !!