Utah Lake carp haul

[Boatloadakids]

Took a little ride with wife today around on the west side of West Mountain just past LeBaron Point. Saw the carp removal project by Mr. Loy in full gear. They were loading carp --lots,and lots of carp-- from a hole in the ice about 100 yards out. Took a little stroll out to where the action was and it was very interesting to watch. Unbelievealble the shear tonage of carp being removed. Every net full of carp they scooped up had at least a few game fish. Saw crappie, bluegill, perch, white bass, cats, walleye, and suckers. All of the game fish are immediately chucked back into the water. Saw some dandy cats, probably 8 to 10 pounders but the fish that really caught my eye was the occasional wally they pulled out. Couple of 'em looked like 7-8 pounders and they were scooped up in fairly shallow water in Goshen Bay. Only game fish I did not see was a large mouth bass.

Interesting process. Nice fellers too -- didn't seem to mind an audience. If you have some free time next week and if they are still there it is worth the trip just to watch. I'll be looking for those walleyes in a couple of months. []
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[CoyoteSpinner]

Great news, great post. Thanks for sharing that information. I can think of a few folks that'd be glad to hear of ANY carp population reduction (I can hear Ebeneezer now, surplus population and alll).
A few folks have made their own attempts to dispose of 'em too.

Wish ya had a couple snapshots. Sure like to see (more like MEET!) one of them lunker Walleyes! Hope they made it back intact. Wouldn't want those kind fish crushed by crappy carp!

Big cats - no surprise there! Sure to be some 20lbers out there in the mix! (that I'd love to meet, too!)

So is this an annual thing? Or just a funded attempt to alter/IMPROVE the fishery? Wonder what they do with the carp? Just dispose of em? Fish food, fertilizer, give 'em to TD to fillet the piles of 'em into freezers full of good cat-hun'n bait strips?

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]There have been videos posted [url "http://www.youtube.com/user/utahlakecommission#p/u/8/uga8ZUa15jE"](LINK)[/url] and I posted a [url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=559003;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;page=unread#unread"]REPORT[/url] on last year's harvest.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In years past, the Loy family harvested many tons of carp each year to sell to a variety of end users. Most were specialty or ethnic markets in big cities with populations who enjoyed carp as food. But when Utah Lake carp tested high for PCB content that killed the commercial harvest.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The current harvest is funded by the feds, as part of the June Sucker Recovery Program. The Loys are contracted to remove specified tonnage of carp annually until it can be determined that the biomass of Utah Lake is at a balance point in which predators can maintain the carp levels without human harvest involved. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Ha! I got my doubts we will ever see that.[/#0000ff]
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