wiper population

[utahgolf]

so will the wiper population at willard be a little down next year? the bucket brigade is pulling them out in droves everyday. It almost resembles the carp operation down at Utah lake. Not sure how the same people going everyday can eat that much fish.
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[gmwahl]

The population will be just fine. The DWR plants them in Willard with the intention of people keeping them. Not with the intention of it being a catch and release fishery.
A lot of people are bothered when they see a lot of people fishing for "their fish", but when the weather is great and the fishing is great there will be crowds. This has gone on at Willard for many years and the fishery is doing just fine. Just look at the Gill net surveys if you're worried about the wiper numbers being impacted and it should relieve your worries.

Mike
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[utahgolf]

I don't fish willard, maybe once every other year if I'm bored, so I don't "worry" about it. Just curious, cause it seems like this year has had more people hitting that place than what is usually seen or talked about.
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[retch_sweeney]

The limit is only 3 though.
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[Gemcityslayer]

I agree with gmwahl here... they stock plenty of them in there for a 3 fish limit.

Willard has been a popular wiper fishery for a long time now... I really doubt there are that many more people targeting them and keeping them this year, for it to be a problem.
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[TubeDude]

[quote Gemcityslayer]I agree with gmwahl here... they stock plenty of them in there for a 3 fish limit.

Willard has been a popular wiper fishery for a long time now... I really doubt there are that many more people targeting them and keeping them this year, for it to be a problem.[/quote]

[#0000FF]The harvesting dynamics HAVE changed in the past couple of years. Prior to that, the majority of the non-boater wipers were caught in May...during the false spawn...by the same crappie harvesters who fished for them with bobbers and jigs. They took plenty.

But in the last couple of years the word got out about using mussels for bait and now there are large numbers of happy harvesters who are able to catch big numbers of wipers from shore...as well as from boats. There are a LOT more wipers leaving Willard earlier in the year than in years past. There aren't many (any) of these anglers practicing catch and release.

As has been pointed out, the numbers planted by DWR are still sufficient to support all kinds of fishing and the total harvest...by all means. It just rankles to see some guys returning two or three times a day for another limit of easily caught fish.
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[utahgolf]

Yeah, I've seen pics of guys posting 4 days in a row of limits, along with all of their buddies. I don't know how anyone can eat that many wipers. and absolutely everyone is using mussels like you mentioned. I wonder how this years harvest compares to years previously. I would wager this has to be a huge harvest year and that is why I was curious if next year will be a down year.
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[Jiggy81]

Mussels didn't get me any fish yesterday fishing by the west dike in the afternoon. Did see a bunch of people there. Coming out of the south marina talked to another boater who was coming in said he didn't really have much luck and was going back to get mussels since he supposedly saw 150 wipers been caught with them he didn't get the chance to tell me where they were been caught though but assumed it was at the west dike since there were a ton of people there.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Mussels have improved the catches for a lot of folks who wouldn't have a prayer using traditional lures or other baits. But that doesn't mean they will catch fish for everybody, everywhere, every time. Still subject to fish concentrations, fish activity levels, weather and basic techniques.

Then there is plain old luck. And some folks can't catch fish when everybody around them is catching fish...on the same bait, etc. Fishing ain't always catching.

The really good days are when you are knocking them dead and nobody else is. Yeee hawww.
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[muskycoop]

All mine have been turned back except one. Caught on mussels and flies. Curious as to how they stack up to a tasty crappy fillet [cool]
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]To be a bit corny about it...taste is a matter of taste. But the most basic comparison is that wiper flesh is much firmer than crappie flesh...and is better for grilling or other cooking methods that involve more handling or turning. Crappie fillets are best when battered and deep fried to firm them up for handling.

In terms of taste, a lot of that is dependent upon how they are cleaned and processed. The previously discussed tactic of bleeding is better for wipers than for crappies. And wipers usually have that strip of dark sensory tissue along the lateral line that can have a strong taste. Crappies are pure white no-fishy-taste flesh without a lot of special processing necessary.

Most white fleshed fish should not have any kind of fishy taste if properly cleaned and either cooked soon after catching and/or kept well chilled before cooking. Both wipers and crappies are mild tasting by themselves. But either can be affected by their diet and/or the chemistry of the waters from which they came.

Crappies from Willard have a varied diet, which includes insects as well as small shad for a few months of the year. Wipers eat a lot of shad and may taste a bit stronger toward the end of the season. Shad are nasty and may influence the flavor of the predators that eat them.
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[muskycoop]

I love ALL varieties of fish so I have no doubt wiper will be good. I could definitely tell the fillets were firmer than crappie/perch. I am a believer that how you keep a handle your fish after harvest will affect the final product so all the fish that I keep go staight onto ice in a cooler on my boat. I hear the red meat is a bit "fishy" so i got all that trimmed out. My only complaint will be when I cook these fillets up with all my crappie, I won't get any. My kids and kin completely devour all of it when I do a fish taco fry! Which brings up a thought which I'm sure has been run in a thread or two over the years and that is, how does Tubedude like to fry and serve up his crappie? Attached is my rendition of fish tacos.[]
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]If I am frying, I like the dry-wet-dry coating. But I also like a beer batter...or even a good tempura. A good tempura batter with rice flour and corn starch makes a good crispy coating that helps hold the delicate crappie fillets together.

My last batch was what I call "surf and surf"...crappie fillets oven broiled with shrimp scattered around on top. I season them with garlic salt, seasoned pepper, lemon zest and sesame seeds. Then I dot them liberally with butter (not margarine). I also added a few sliced mushrooms on my last batch.

You can just bake them at 350 for about 20 minutes, or you can oven broil them until the surface starts to brown a bit. The crappie and shrimp both cook quickly. When the crappie flakes it is done.

Pour the baking dish juices into a cup and drizzle a bit over some rice, quinoa or noodles on the side. Or you can just scoop the fish/shrimp mix out onto some precooked rice, noodles or whatever.

By the way, that is a good recipe for almost any fish. Especially good with trout that have been filleted, skinned and completely deboned. Better than salmon.
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[Madplumber]

I wish you guys would quit whining and buying all the mussels I like to eat them and they are sold out I just use lures and have had great success
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[HD7000]

Hahaha, yeah the wiper fisherman are decimating the mussel population in our grocery store!
I've only caught a hundred or so wiper in the last couple years so I'm far from an expert, but I have found that they have developed a pretty strong taste for plastic!
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[FatBiker]

Personally, I'm glad to see folks fishing from shore have a chance to catch and keep some fish. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford a boat. That said, laws are laws and are only good if they're enforced. Kind of like the speed limit through Mantua.


Larry
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[Jiggy81]

More people fishing more fishing license being sold more money for dwr to restock the wipers!
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[Gemcityslayer]

I hear you but the 3 fish limit has to counteract some of that. What year did that go into effect?

When I was a kid and dad and I fished Willard the limit was 6. It makes sense that the popularity of mussel fishing early in the year has caused an increase in harvest. I would have to think the majority of them are harvested by trolling boaters even with the increase in mussel use.

I agree it sucks to see people abusing the limits. Sure wish there was more of an effort to stop that.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]About 5 years ago on the limit change.

There are a lot of things that influence wiper populations...besides harvest. The number of sac fry vs fingerling wipers planted each year, the survival rates, weather patterns, shad population, etc.

There has been a big increase in the number of boating anglers who target wipers...and there has been a lot of new knowledge gained on how to catch them consistently. So there is definitely an increase in catch rate. However, with the decrease in limits and the fact that many wiper chasers do not keep limits every time out, the actual harvest by boaters has likely not increased too greatly.

It would be interesting to be able to get an actual count of the numbers of wipers now being removed from the lake by shore-bound bait fishermen. Prior to the last two or three years there were relatively few wipers caught by non-boaters. Now there are hundreds per day caught at several spots around the lake. And the practice is not only a spring thing. It goes on all year.

I'm sure that DWR is monitoring the situation. They can tell a lot from their annual fall netting surveys. They set the same number of nets in the same places each year so they have standards of comparison. And they also do periodic "creel checks"...and they monitor fishing reports from fishing forums and tackle purveyors. All of that lets them know what "real world" issues might be. And the good news is that they can easily increase or decrease planting numbers each year to maintain a satisfactory predator prey relationship...and angler success rates.

I am sure that most law-abiding Utah anglers are not repelled so much by other anglers harvesting fish legally...as by their open disregard for daily limits. As has been mentioned, some of these folks return to take multiple limits the same day...and/or keep taking limits every day as long as the fishing holds up.

One of the questions often asked is "How can they eat so many fish?" The answer is that for many of them they do not eat all the fish they catch. They either share with family or friends...usually without benefit of the required paperwork...or blatantly sell them to either private individuals or even to markets or restaurants. That is a common practice among a couple of groups of happy harvesters in Utah. Illegal, immoral, unethical and actually stealing from the law-abiding sportsmen.
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[wiperhunter2]

[quote TubeDude]
My last batch was what I call "surf and surf"...crappie fillets oven broiled with shrimp scattered around on top. I season them with garlic salt, seasoned pepper, lemon zest and sesame seeds. Then I dot them liberally with butter (not margarine). I also added a few sliced mushrooms on my last batch.

You can just bake them at 350 for about 20 minutes, or you can oven broil them until the surface starts to brown a bit. The crappie and shrimp both cook quickly. When the crappie flakes it is done.
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This sounds promising, but a I've got a question, if you don't mind. When you say you, " oven broiled the crappie fillets with shrimp scattered around on top", how do you do this? Do you cut the shrimp in pieces or leave them whole and what size shrimp do you use? Will those small broken shrimp work or do you use bigger shrimp? Since I bake most of the fish we eat, this sounds like a great way to jazz up plain old crappie fillets[cool], maybe even try it on kokanee.
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