Current state of the Tiger Muskie program?

[johnboy83]

I know they we doing it in house till "the incident". Anyone know if there's been any progress on getting more true muskies disease free? Or if that tool caught all of them lol? I read they bought a bunch last year which I'm assuming will keep there numbers up for a while. Just curious. I'll keep washing the J-13 regardless.
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[Therapist]

Someone with more knowledge than I can correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that they procured more muskie and have been producing little tigers as fast as they can. I believe that they had some last year and are working on more this year.

DREW, where are you ?????

[dowhatwecan]

Sorry it took me so long to reply this this post. Things are moving in a positive direction in not only the tiger musky (Lee Kay Hatchery) program but in all warm/cool water fish production efforts. The facility at the Lee Kay Center has a full blown hatchery building complete with a water degassing tower and all the ponds have been covered with bird proof netting and is fully fenced. The most northern two ponds have been deepened and the remaining two will be deepened this fall. We purchased additional water as well so the hatchery and ponds can have adequate water. two years ago we purchased 200 or so true musky, so this upcoming spring the males should becoming sexually mature. We have northern pike at Lee Kay as well as the remaining 4 large true musky. This last spring using the 3 male true musky and the northern pike we were able to hatch and stock roughly 7,000 tiger musky. So, I am very excited for this upcoming year.

We also utilized the walleye at Willard Bay inlet during the spawn to hatch roughly 100,000 fertile walleye and 20,000 or so sterile walleye. The sterile walleye are at the Springville hatchery which will be undergoing renovations to produce these walleye and perhaps saugeye.

We have also build a small warm/coolwater recirculation facility at our Fountain Green Hatchery. We produced 125,000 channel catfish fingerlings there last year and we expect the same level of production there annually.

Lastly we are planning a complete revamp to the Wahweap Hatchery. There are 12 sportfish ponds that will be completely reconstructed in order to meet our hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, bluegill etc. needs there annually.

We are making progress!!


Drew
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[albinotrout]

Thanks for the info Drew. This is good news[cool]
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[wiperhunter2]

This is very good news, thanks for the update Drew. How big do the tiger musky need to be before they are stocked? Since some of the walleye are being used from Willard, do any of those baby eyes go back to Willard?
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[MichiganAngler]

Outstanding info! One of the best reports I've seen on BFT!

I'm curious, how were you guys able to produce sterile walleye from the eggs out of Willard?

If you guys ever need a volunteer hand in the walleye egg collection/fertilization process, let me know. I volunteered with the MI DNR a few times on the Muskegon River when I was a kid and would love to do it again here.

Thanks again for the solid info!
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[dowhatwecan]

Yes. We have stocked walleye back into Willard. Our biologist Chris Penne has a stocked fry study going on for both walleye and hybrid striped bass at Willard Bay. He is marking the fry/fingerlings of both to determine what level of return we get from our stockings. He is also looking at water levels and their effect on recruiting and stocking survival as well. He is a busy man.

Drew
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[dowhatwecan]

We sent a couple of folks to Colorado (who has a great walleye program). One of the folks who went was a researcher and the other was a fish culturist. They worked with Colorado through their process and brought that information back and we were able to use their pressure treatment technique to produce 99% sterile walleye. Those fish are now in the Springville Hatchery waiting for the Red Fleet chemical treatment this fall to remove the fertile walleye, which are a major threat to the endangered Green and Colorado River fishes. The anglers want walleye in Red Fleet, so we will use sterile walleye to fit that bill.

Drew
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[wiperhunter2]

Thanks for the info Drew. I'll contact Chris for the stocked fry study info.
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[ifishutah]

That's AWESOME!
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[albinotrout]

Sweet![cool]
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[utahgolf]

good info and great news!!!!!! I just wish you'd quit wasting stocking efforts at newton but oh well. Can't please everyone.
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[k2muskie]

Thanks Drew. I'd been in contact with Chris and its nice to know the TM program is looking up here in Utah. Is the DWR considering stocking new waters with TMs? Currently as you know there are only a handful bodies of water that are stocked outside of Pineview and most of the other bodies of water are a good several hour drive away from SLC including are very small bodies of water for the most part...Would the DWR consider stocking in bodies of water closer to SLC area like Jordanelle? Just curious as to future stocking efforts in bodies of water that are a closer drive. I can tell you as an avid TM angler it would be very nice to have stocking efforts evaluated like Newton especially with the huge fluctuations in water level on Newton and it being a very small body of water in comparison to Jordanelle. And the overall quality of Newton as a fishery for TMs based on the current water situations over the past several years. Again just curious as to any other bodies of water being considered.

Thanks Drew for any additional info you can provide on future bodies of water to be stocked.
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[DKStroutfitter]

Good to here from you, Drew.
Looks like your vision is becoming a reality.
Thank you for all that you are doing to improve the diversity of fishing opportunities in Utah.

Utah is very fortunate to have you.
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[NICH]

I 110% agree with K2. I live in SLC and Pineview needs to seriously have some pressure taken off it with another wasatch front fishery. Jordanelle would be a great option IMO. I fished there a week ago and between 3 of us in 4 hours we caught close to 100 bass under 12".
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[muskycoop]

Maybe we should start a Utah Musky Club (or organization) to help gain funds and awareness for esox in Utah. I'm sure the DWR can only do so much with their limited funding/budget. Then maybe we could get representation and momentum like the bass crowd has over the past decade or so.
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[DKStroutfitter]

That is a great idea.
I think that Kim [K2] may already have something started.
I know that she has a lot of friends that target TM.
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[Wildcat94]

muskies inc?
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[muskycoop]

Are you thinking of the non profit organization back in Wisconsinhttp://www.muskiesinc.org/?

Would could start a Utah chapter and have access to more resources to tap into maybe?
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[Razz]

Thanks for the update very exciting news
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