What was going on at Willard on Tues?

[wiperhunter2]

Drove into the South marina on Tues the 20th to see over 100 cars & trucks in the parking lot, figured it was a tournament, until I noticed most of them were DWR and federal vehicles. As we got closer we noticed that most of the people were in groups, so I guess it was some kind of training exercise, although I'm not sure what kind. As we got to the ramp there was a couple of DWR folks, getting ready to drop or pick up gill nets but other than those two boats no one was on the lake and we were greeted with calm conditions all day or at least until we left around 3pm. Water temps were 42 degrees as we were leaving the channel and got up to 45 before we left. Caught a nice fat cat around 16 or 17" right off the bat, with TubeDude's Fligs, then it slowed but we did pick up two pre spawn perch and lost a few more. We were very surprised these perch had not spawned yet but as fat as they were, they likely will very soon. We were using cut bait, chub and carp. As we were coming in, so were the DWR folks, it appeared they took a few fish from their boats before we got in but we did not ask them as they left their boats before we docked. All in all a very nice day and anytime you can catch fish at Willard, in March is a good day[].
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[TubeDude]

[#0000ff]That's what I call some preggo perch.

I almost opted for the south marina on Tuesday instead of Utah Lake. Glad I went south. But glad you guys had nice weather and at least scored some fish smell instead of skunk smell.

I'll see if I can find out what DWR was doing and what their findings were.
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[MSM1970]

Just wondering how did you get from willard to deer creek with out relaunching[]
nice perch.
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[wiperhunter2]

[quote MSM1970]Just wondering how did you get from willard to deer creek with out relaunching[][/quote]
Oops, added wrong pics, I'll correct that asap.
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[wyoguy]

Last year they were netting walleye for their sterile walleye project to put in Red Fleet and other places. Maybe a continuation of that.
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[wiperhunter2]

Thanks Pat, I was hoping one of the DWR folks would see this but your idea will likely get a quicker response.
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[wiperhunter2]

You are right Gary and that is likely what the DWR were doing but all those other folks Feds and State folks were what I was wondering about and figured the DWR folks might know[:/].

On another note, a member posted a YouTube video about fishing some of those monster Cascade perch, on the Ice fishing board and he sure was excited.[]
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[MSM1970]

I was hoping you knew of secret portal so it was not so far to drive[]
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[WET1]

About the right time of year for the walleye to be spawning. They DWR is using both gill nets and electro shocking to capture spawners they then bring back to the ramp area and spawn them before releasing them back in the lake. The real interesting part is that they actually fertilize the eggs right there in the parking lot and then run them through a pressure chamber that sterilizes them.
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[perchound]

Hello Curt,
They are currently trying to collect eggs from the walleye again this year. I was out first of last week and watch them for a while and spoke with Cody. They were netting on the west dike south of the light pole and had gotten just over 200 walleye's in 2 days and were holding them in a tank truck. The walleye weren't quite ready so they were holding them in a little bit warmer water in hopes that it would push them along in there cycle. They held them for 2 days and they hadn't changed so they took all of them back to the boat ramp and dumped them back into the lake.
Since last week they have started over in the netting process, and all the extra people out there was for a big dog and pony show about the whole process
The walleye look very healthy this year too, so I'm very excited about that.
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[r2u2]

You definitely got a couple of porkers there
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]I sent an email to Chris Penne (DWR) and as usual he quickly replied with some good info. Thanks Chris.[/#0000FF]

We've been doing our walleye spawn activities but I also noted there were a lot of US Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement Officers doing some training at the South Marina area. I talked with a few of them and they were coming from all over the west for the event, so the south parking lot was full of a lot of federal wildlife vehicles in addition to our state vehicles. The walleye spawn is coming along pretty well so far. Last week it was pretty cold and we only had one ripe fish, but this week we've been getting a lot more ripe fish. So far we've taken about 3 million eggs, which is a good start for how early it appears to be in the spawn. We're looking to collect something in the neighborhood of 29 million eggs. With the incoming storms and warm weather ahead next week, it's looking like next week could really be a good week for collecting a lot of eggs. Walleye are looking great this year and we're seeing them in big numbers right now so all is good.

While it's not in my region, it sounds like Chris Crockett and his crew have been doing well also on their collection of northern pike for tiger muskie brood at Yuba. In addition, it sounds like the spawning of pike and muskellunge at the Lee Kay Hatchery is really going good this year so far, so things are looking bright for our tiger muskie program this year too.

Chris
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[wiperhunter2]

Thanks for getting that info Pat. It's interesting that the US Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement Officers chose the South marina of Willard to do their doing training. I knew there was no way they could just be from Utah, because of the number of them there. Good to hear that they are doing so well in collecting eyes already. Wasn't sure they would be that far along in their collection of fish, with all the colder weather we have been having.
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[wiperhunter2]

Thanks for the info, I was thinking that the eyes would be doing good this year after that huge shad hatch we had last year. Interesting that they put that many eyes back into the lake because they were not ready to drop their eggs. Wonder if they hung out there or headed back to the West dike, we were marking a lot of fish in the channel as we were heading out the fish that morning.
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[wiperhunter2]

Thanks for the info Todd, I did not realize that the DWR also used electro shocking to capture spawners, in addition to netting. I know they put some of those sterilized eyes in Echo and I think Red Fleet but I wonder where else they plant them. I had heard they were thinking about putting some in Pineview to help thin out the perch and crappie but I wonder if they will do that[:/].
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[WET1]

I don't recall all the places they put them. They send a sample of each batch they sterilize back to some university in the east to get tested and any that do not meet 100% sterile must be stocked into lakes that already have an existing walleye population. I don't recall the numbers but they stocked most of those that didn't meet the sterile criteria in Starvation and Willard. They stated they were hoping to do this annually to help balance out the boom and bust cycles of poor spawning years.
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[wiperhunter2]

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