12-22-2015, 03:34 PM
[#0000FF]Hey Steve. Thanks for the intel. A couple of comments on the baby white bass.
1. There was a poor spawn again this year for white bass. They did not show up in any numbers at all at all the usual places. Those of us who fish for them for catfish bait had a tough time even catching enough for a trip or two. Overall numbers are low and it does not bode well for future years of white bass. With the survivors being concentrated around the warm inflows it makes them vulnerable to all their predators and the numbers will be even further reduced.
2. Even though there is no limit on white bass, they are still a "protected" species and may be taken only by angling. If one catches them incidentally in minnow traps or cast nets they must be released. I think this is silly in a lake where they are usually overpopulated and need constant thinning (except during the tail end of a long drought). But I have brought it up at a couple of RAC meetings and the DWR folks just roll their eyes heavenward and fail to bring it up for vote...just like the use of corn in Utah Lake and Willard...for carp.
You are right about white bass being a foolproof bait for cats...in Utah Lake. I try to always have some with me. Sometimes the fish preference leans toward carp meat but at some point in any day on Utah Lake the cats will slurp up white bass...either whole small ones or strips or chunks of larger ones.
[/#0000FF]
[#0000FF][#0000FF][b]Looks like Mama Nature is going to stack up some lake filler (snow) in the mountains this winter. Hope it is enough to refill Utah Lake and allow some good spawns again before a massive walleye dieoff like there was at the end of the last drought...in 2004.
Hope there will be enough water to float the Freedom Maru again this year.
[/#0000FF]
[/b][/#0000FF]
[signature]
1. There was a poor spawn again this year for white bass. They did not show up in any numbers at all at all the usual places. Those of us who fish for them for catfish bait had a tough time even catching enough for a trip or two. Overall numbers are low and it does not bode well for future years of white bass. With the survivors being concentrated around the warm inflows it makes them vulnerable to all their predators and the numbers will be even further reduced.
2. Even though there is no limit on white bass, they are still a "protected" species and may be taken only by angling. If one catches them incidentally in minnow traps or cast nets they must be released. I think this is silly in a lake where they are usually overpopulated and need constant thinning (except during the tail end of a long drought). But I have brought it up at a couple of RAC meetings and the DWR folks just roll their eyes heavenward and fail to bring it up for vote...just like the use of corn in Utah Lake and Willard...for carp.
You are right about white bass being a foolproof bait for cats...in Utah Lake. I try to always have some with me. Sometimes the fish preference leans toward carp meat but at some point in any day on Utah Lake the cats will slurp up white bass...either whole small ones or strips or chunks of larger ones.
[/#0000FF]
[#0000FF][#0000FF][b]Looks like Mama Nature is going to stack up some lake filler (snow) in the mountains this winter. Hope it is enough to refill Utah Lake and allow some good spawns again before a massive walleye dieoff like there was at the end of the last drought...in 2004.
Hope there will be enough water to float the Freedom Maru again this year.
[/#0000FF]
[/b][/#0000FF]
[signature]