Lee Kay Ponds

[Kevin_VanDam]

Just had a few questions about this new tiger muskie hatchery. First is have any tigers come out of there yet and if so where are they being planted? Also, what other lakes would anglers like to see stocked with them? I think Mantua would be a great place to thin out some of the bass and bluegills. I'm interested in hearing from y'all.
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[in2fishing]

I was wondering the same thing ?or is that just a sea gull feding program?
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[DKStroutfitter]

To keep birds out of these small ponds, they are covered with netting.
Someone from the DWR will have to help answer your question about when the fish will be ready for stocking.
I do know that they are working on it be there have been a few set backs.
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[Fin-S-Fish]

Sorry, but I HIGHLY disagree!! Keep them tigers away from Mantua. I like my bass and bluegills. We have too many tiger musky waters already. Plant them elsewhere, anywhere BUT mantua or hyrum.
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[kochanut]

good call, maybe Drew will chime in on this one since he is with DoW and probably knows alot better then masses when it comes to fish here in UT
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[Kevin_VanDam]

It's not like they would eat ALL the fish in there, just enough dinks so that the quality of fish would improve. I'd rather catch ten 11" bluegill then fifty 5" ones.
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[Fin-S-Fish]

Oh they wont eat all the fish in there, just enough so it won't be worth going there anymore. Heck I don't want any more attempts at "qualility" fisheries. Pineview used to fun for panfish, I haven't seriously fished it for crappies in any significant manner because there is just not enough action to keep me interested. Sure there are some giant crappies but few enough that's it's absolutely boring to bother to fish for them. Haven't fished the spring spawn over there except once or twice in over 10 years! Even gave up on perch when the limit when to 20 and then within a year, they all crashed and it was impossible to even get 5 perch. Sure the perch are finally coming back but still slow compared to before. The tigers are preventing any rebound. Sure tigers are fun to catch I like them okay, and I land my share, but I don't want them in other panfish waters or bass waters.

Quality is fine at Mantua. During bedding season I have no problem getting a 50 limit of 8 -9 inch bluegill at mantua. I'm content with the smaller 6-9 inch average during the ice season. As long as I get bites. If I could only land 10 eleven inch fish there I would quit going entirely and I go there quite frequently about 3 times a week. That place is fun as it is now. Heck if you want so many 11 inch bluegills there's always pelican lake or somewhere even closer that I'm not going to mention. We need a good mix of quantity and quality fisheries to fulfill the desires of a vast array of preferences on individual angling levels. I think we have a good balance of them now as it is. No need to try to manage every waterbody into a quality fishery. If I want big bass I have an entire milk run of secret spots. But if I want to have tons of fun landing numbers of 15 -17 " dink bass I end up going to mantua. I'm a bass guy so yeah, it would hurt to have even 1 of them bass devoured by tiger muskies. I've seen what they do to bass at Newton and Pineview at first hand. No thanks at any other bass water. Well if you want to make pelican lake's bluegill bigger fine, put the tigers there. I'm not about to drive 4 hours on any consistent basis haha. So they can eat up house and home there as far as I'm concerned.
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[Kevin_VanDam]

Hey man I love the fast fishing at Mantua too I just wish the average size of fish was a little bigger. I'm not so sure I'd blame the decline of crappie in Pineview to the muskies. Since they stopped stocking them in 2005 it seems like the perch population has gotten out of hand. The crappie probably have a hard time competing with all those dinks for food until they are big enough to start eating perch, hence low numbers of crappie but good size to them. I have loved bass fishing since I was a kid and would watch Bassmasters on TNN every week so I definitely don't wan't them to leave Mantua, but I'd like to catch fish bigger than 7". If you consistently catch 15-17" "dink" bass in Mantua then you have some honey holes for sure. Is your "milk run" list in northern utah? All the bays and coves in Lake Powell don't count[]. By the way, the quality of bass in Pineview is doing pretty good these days. Check out this baby I caught ice fishing there recently[fishon]. It measured at just under 20".

[CROSSINEYES]

ill chime on this 1. i would like to see tigers in a few moore waters here. 1st would be utah lake second would be 2nd jordanell. [] if i had a third id sat the berry.[shocked][shocked]
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[BearFisher]

I highly doubt they would ever consider putting tigers in Utah Lake. Since June suckers are still considered threatened, the DWR wouldn't be allowed to put more large predatory species in there. After all the feds are paying tons of money just to get carp numbers down to non existent. But I would like to see more tiger waters. The hard part is where. Personally I think it would great to have a some of the local ponds to have a few tossed in for the kiddies.
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[Kevin_VanDam]

I second the idea of putting them in Utah Lake. Here they are spending so much money netting the carp to get rid of them when they could stock 50,000 of these bad boys in there and have them clean it up in no time. Course the tigers can't eat the full grown carp but I think they could put a big enough dent in the younger generation to tip biomass balance in favor of sportfish (and the june sucker[]). Still havn't heard any of the DWR boys who I know are on this forum chime in on this, but hey they are probably at least getting some good laughs from this post. Still I'd love to hear a biologists opinion on the use of tiger muskies in controlling carp. I know of several lakes in Southeast Idaho that could grow tigers of record proportions if they put a few of em in there to munch on the numberless carp population.[fishon]

[wagdog]

BearFisher is right. No way tiger musky would be added to the predators in there. The white bass, walleye, largemouth bass, and channel cats all feast on the stocked june suckers. I can't see the DWR putting yet another predator in there to eat on the prize june suckers.
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[gshorthair]

I think the target for producing plantable fish from the tiger muskie project at Lee Kay is this summer. That is dependant on the brood stock maturing enough to produce this year.
Mantua should not be a possible new place for tiger muskies. The food chain in mantua is already in place. There should be lots of bluegill. They are the forage fish for the bass. They are also growing big enough for us to take home some decent sized gills for our own use. Why would you want to mess that up. gshorthair
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[brookieguy1]

As soon as they prove (and they are close) that June Suckers are no different genetically than the Utah Sucker we can finally quit wasting money on saving them and manage Utah Lake much better.
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[BearFisher]

I would like to see your proof and basis of that theory. I'm not being biased, just have not heard of such an opinion. Pm me if you have a good source
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[Fishrmn]

First I've heard of that. Got any links? It would have been simpler if the June Sucker had really been extinct when they thought it was.
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[Kevin_VanDam]

So if they're related to the Utah Sucker then they wouldn't bother saving them? Wouldn't that be like not saving the bonneville cutthroat because it's related to the yellowstone one?

[jeremypeace]

I live in southeast idaho and I would love to see them tigers over here in one particular place alexander to be specific... It has millions of carp in there and that is no exageration... And that res is plenty big to put oh around 8 to 9000 tigers in.. I'm working with a guy I know with the Idaho F&G about trying to do a carp derby there and trying to get tigers in there... So tell them to ship them my way...
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[Kevin_VanDam]

I fished there this past summer and saw the masses with my own eyes. I don't know anyone from the dwr but you can e-mail them at DWRcomment@utah.gov. Might be worth a shot.

[Utcatman]

I will have to disagree with You completely on This one! The smallies in pineview are thriving!! I caught more and bigger bass there This yr than ever before ! Many over 3lbs and quite a few over 4 And several that were pushing 5!! I live just down the hill from That lake and I will tell you there are tons of huge crappie on That lake!" This was the best yr I have ever had up there hell I even had a few days with my little brother catching 7-10 inch gills by the hundreds! So my 2 cents the musky are doing a great job .. yea the perch aren't showing up in huge numbers of fish over 9 inches but they are there.. a buddy of mine caught one That was 13 a few days ago... And as for the musky for sport.. I surely enjoy catching those toothy critters especially at night with top waters.
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