09-12-2018, 11:05 PM
[quote kentofnsl]Good news. Does Utah raise their own catfish these days or still haul them in from out of state? Scott, if you don't know perhaps someone else does.[/quote]
[#0000FF]I suspected that Chris Penne would be a good source of additional info on the Mantua cat program and sent him an email. This is his reply. Thanks Chris.[/#0000FF]
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Yes, I've got a little additional info regarding the channel catfish in Mantua. Approximate numbers of the big channel catfish that went in are as Scott stated, which was about 319 fish averaging 8 lbs and about 30" a piece. We've had plans to add channel cats to Mantua for a few years now and the reservoir got a stocking of channel catfish fry in July and then got a stocking of about 20,000 3" fingerlings just yesterday. The plan all along has been to stock fingerlings to get the population going. Ultimately though, we didn't want to just stock the fingerlings and tell people they might be able to catch some catfish in three or four years when the fish have grown - we wanted people to be able to fish for catfish now. Anyway, we ended up getting lucky as there were a number of fish down at our Wahweap fish hatchery where we have our small catfish program that had recently grown too big for their spawning containers. As you may know, catfish are cavity spawners and it is common to use the old metal milk containers for love nests when they are in the hatchery setting. Since those fish had grown too big to conveniently spawn, we picked them up for our Mantua channel catfish introduction with the intent of kick starting the fishing and hopefully getting some spawning going in the reservoir next year.
Regarding Utah's channel catfish program - we have a pretty small program and only produce 3" fingerlings to stock in several waters, but we don't have the capacity to meet our statewide needs, especially when it comes to the thousands of pounds of channel catfish we stock in the community fisheries in the summer months. We are still hoping we will have that capacity one day, but we've got other warm water programs that we are currently trying to grow such as our programs for producing walleye, tiger muskie and wiper.
The main intent with the channel catfish is to improve opportunities for shore fishing at Mantua and diversify the fish community. They should fit in pretty well with the existing bass, bluegill, perch community as they typically compliment bass and bluegill fisheries without having an noticeable negative effects on the populations on either fish. I'm hoping we only have to supplement the population for the first three or four years and then it will be self sustaining. I think Mantua should enough spawning areas with the rocks along the west dike and the flooded timber to the north. In Willard, there was a study done years ago and the catfish there prefer to spawn where the dike meets the bottom of the reservoir. Hopefully we'll see the same at Mantua.
Chris
[signature]
[#0000FF]I suspected that Chris Penne would be a good source of additional info on the Mantua cat program and sent him an email. This is his reply. Thanks Chris.[/#0000FF]
[#0000FF]
[/#0000FF]
Yes, I've got a little additional info regarding the channel catfish in Mantua. Approximate numbers of the big channel catfish that went in are as Scott stated, which was about 319 fish averaging 8 lbs and about 30" a piece. We've had plans to add channel cats to Mantua for a few years now and the reservoir got a stocking of channel catfish fry in July and then got a stocking of about 20,000 3" fingerlings just yesterday. The plan all along has been to stock fingerlings to get the population going. Ultimately though, we didn't want to just stock the fingerlings and tell people they might be able to catch some catfish in three or four years when the fish have grown - we wanted people to be able to fish for catfish now. Anyway, we ended up getting lucky as there were a number of fish down at our Wahweap fish hatchery where we have our small catfish program that had recently grown too big for their spawning containers. As you may know, catfish are cavity spawners and it is common to use the old metal milk containers for love nests when they are in the hatchery setting. Since those fish had grown too big to conveniently spawn, we picked them up for our Mantua channel catfish introduction with the intent of kick starting the fishing and hopefully getting some spawning going in the reservoir next year.
Regarding Utah's channel catfish program - we have a pretty small program and only produce 3" fingerlings to stock in several waters, but we don't have the capacity to meet our statewide needs, especially when it comes to the thousands of pounds of channel catfish we stock in the community fisheries in the summer months. We are still hoping we will have that capacity one day, but we've got other warm water programs that we are currently trying to grow such as our programs for producing walleye, tiger muskie and wiper.
The main intent with the channel catfish is to improve opportunities for shore fishing at Mantua and diversify the fish community. They should fit in pretty well with the existing bass, bluegill, perch community as they typically compliment bass and bluegill fisheries without having an noticeable negative effects on the populations on either fish. I'm hoping we only have to supplement the population for the first three or four years and then it will be self sustaining. I think Mantua should enough spawning areas with the rocks along the west dike and the flooded timber to the north. In Willard, there was a study done years ago and the catfish there prefer to spawn where the dike meets the bottom of the reservoir. Hopefully we'll see the same at Mantua.
Chris
[signature]