Willard Perch

[Therapist]

DuBob, I was unaware of the change in Great Lakes commercial fishing. It was an issue in the past. In regards to the way DWR approaches warm water fisheries, there have been attempts as long ago as the late 70's early 80's to manage warm water fisheries here. Charlie Thompson was the Central Region fisheries manager back in the 70's and 80's. In the early 80's he had a young intern by the name of Doug Sakaguchi ( sorry Doug if I misspelled your last name !) who did some work on spawning perch in Deer Creek. Because of the lack of spawning habitat, perch have "sticky" eggs that they attach to vegetation in strings and clumps. Doug was placing mats under the ice to see if the perch would utilize them for spawning. The idea was to then move the mats to Yuba to enhance the perch population there. Charlie did several other projects on Deer Creek and Utah Lake, but he was hampered due to having to spend most of his time on Strawberry. Charlie was always a good friend to the warm water fishermen till he retired. He stuck his neck out several times and went against the bosses in SLC to help out his warm water fisheries. Doug moved on to other positions at DWR, not sure where he is now, may be retired. There were other's in the state, Wayne Gustaveson at Powell, and other's that I don't know personally, but the focus was always on the put and take trout fishery until about 10-12 years ago. The warm water fisheries never got the attention that they needed and deserved until then. As I have already pointed out, we now have a warm water hatchery, several dedicated warm water programs, and dedicated warm water biologists. They are trying, valiantly I would point out, to undo not years, but decades of neglect to the warm water fisheries in the state. I for one am VERY encouraged by what I see and feel that these guys and gals are doing a fantastic job. Do I want quicker results, sure, but I believe they are doing the best they can, as fast as they can. Keep up the good work guys/gals !!!!