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Chris Crockett sent me an email with a link to a KFAN interview with Mike Slater, Central Region Aquatic Manager. One of the most distressing things in the interview was his confirmation of the capture of a Northern Pike in Utah Lake.
This is most distressing as if Northern's get established, everything that has been done to date is all for naught. It will shoot the June Sucker recovery all to hell and most likely put the lake under total control of the feds, which would really suck.
No comment on the fool or fools that did the deed, one of the stupidest things that could have ever happened !!!! Be sure, you do not want your identity to become known !!!
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Interesting. Definately would not do to well for the fishery let alone the June suckers.
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For many years, I have heard reports of an occasional northern pike being caught out of Utah Lake.
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This is correct. Additionally, they have been planted in there more than once "in the old days" and never took. I don't know if gloom and doom are warranted yet.
Nevertheless, if it is from bucket bozos, it is a stupid thing to do that could potentially have repercussions far worse than the dimwit doing it can imagine.[mad]
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[cool][#0000ff]I got the same notification.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff][url "http://1320kfan.com/index.php/audio/listen/dwr_aquatics_manager_mike_slater_part_1"]LINK #1[/url][/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff][url "http://1320kfan.com/index.php/audio/listen/dwr_aquatics_manager_mike_slater_part_2"]PART 2[/url][/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Not time to jump off our tackle boxes yet. Makes a good radio show topic but it is "old news". I have seen a couple of other northerns come out of Utah Lake over the years and have heard of others. And they were in fact planted by DWR quite a few years ago. But few enough have showed up that the indicators (to me) are that Utah Lake is not a lake in which pike are likely to become a top predator and take over the lake. They have had a long time to make that happen...and it hasn't happened yet.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In listening to the taped interview I found it interesting that they only found one pike...and it was only a small one...barely over a foot long. But, it does indicate that there is a spawning population somewhere in the lake and that there is recruitment. The big question is how much? Are northerns enjoying the same positive benefits of the higher water years and increased food supply like the other species in the lake?[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In years past the capture of a northern pike would arouse some interest but would not cause blind panic amongst the biologists. But since the June Sucker Recovery Program was instituted they have a screaming kneejerk reaction whenever anything happens that could remotely be interpreted as a potential threat to the Junies.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Utah Lake is chock full of suitable groceries for the predators...including pike. They do not have to scour the lakebed looking for June suckers. All they have to do is wait for carplets, white bass, perch, small bluegills and crappies and all the other fishies small enough to go down their big gullet. Sure, they won't turn down a Junie pizza, but it is silly to expect them to ignore all of the other food items...just to warp humans who love suckers.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Still, it will be interesting to see if DWR nettings, or the carp removal nettings, turn up any more pike. It has been a LONG time since I heard of any being caught by an angler...at least a verifiable or reputable report. Not one from some old goober who also claimed to have caught a bunch of blue cats and flatheads.[/#0000ff]
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Suckers (June or otherwise) are a preferred food group for top line predators. Being from Wisconsin I can tell you that perhaps the "triple A" bait for musky's are live suckers and the sale of live suckers in bait shops is brisk.
Northerns fall into the same group, so one can understand the frayed nerves of the biologists with this news.
Also, Utah Lake is large, shallow and warm with plenty of grub. The type of habitat in which northerns generally prosper. I don't know why they wouldn't do well in Utah Lake. If northerns have truly been there in years past, what's the theory behind them not gaining traction?
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[quote TubeDude]In listening to the taped interview I found it interesting that they only found one pike...and it was only a small one...barely over a foot long. But, it does indicate that there is a spawning population somewhere in the lake and that there is recruitment.[/quote]
Or just the right size to fit in a live well. I would think a larger pike would indicate longevity and spawning. One small pike, once in a while seems like someone's effort to establish their favorite predator to me. Now if they found a few dozen about that size, I'd believe they were hatched about the same time, and probably spawning in UL.
[quote Bigyfan]I have heard of people claiming to see sculpin in there...now that is suppose to be extinct, right?[/quote]
Nope. There are sculpin in most, if not all of the tributaries. I'm sure there are quite a few in the lake as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mottled_sculpin
[quote Lettsfish]Also, Utah Lake is large, shallow and warm with plenty of grub. The type of habitat in which northerns generally prosper. I don't know why they wouldn't do well in Utah Lake. If northerns have truly been there in years past, what's the theory behind them not gaining traction?[/quote]
Turbidity. They can't see well enough to attack.
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[cool][#0000ff]I have fished many lakes in the upper midwest and up into Canado. Most of the noteworthy pike waters have a wide variety of food, abundant aquatic weedbeds and CLEAR WATER. Pike are mostly sight feeders and ambush hunters. Utah Lake and clear water are not a natural go-together. But then the same could be said of walleyes...but they are also good night feeders and feed in murky water by using their sensitive lateral lines. Not so much the northern.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Armchair biologists (myself included) can only guess as to why ANYTHING happens in a given body of water. But our guess is probably just as good as a trained biologist in some cases. All any of us knows for sure at present is that a pike was captured. Everything beyond that is pure speculation.[/#0000ff]
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[cool][#0000ff]Which came first...the chicken or the bucket biologist. This is another case where nobody (reputable) knows for sure where the actual fish came from...and anybody's guess is as good as anybody else's.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We are in agreement that one of the limiting factors to pike success in Utah Lake is the water quality. Those "water wolves" are ambush predators and sight feeders. Poor visibility puts a cramp in their style.[/#0000ff]
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I have to agree that finding one is not reason to say that there is a problem. Now if several were caught like what happened last year with Deer Creek and white bass then there would be something to worry about.
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Turbidity shmurbidity. I know that clear water is the preferred condition, however LOTS of shallow water lakes around the country have grundles of northerns.
I fished Lake Poygon (central Wisconsin) a lot. It's over 14,000 acres in size with a maximum depth of 11 feet (sound familiar?). That lake has plenty of turbidity and I can assure you, the northerns can see plenty well "to attack".
No argument or question that a predominately sight-feeding fish like the northern pike will do better in clear water, but what I'm wondering about is why (if in fact like Tube Dude suggests) northerns have been in Utah Lake for a long time, they haven't shown up more?
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My mistake. There are millions of northern pike in Utah Lake. It's the perfect environment for them. Shallow, warm, full of prey, and the color of chocolate milk. They must be there, and we can't see them.[angelic][angelic]
Got any other reason why they wouldn't thrive there? Maybe the carp eat all of their eggs and young. Yeah, right. Maybe the "Happy Harvesters" know the secret lure and catch them all before anyone else can.
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[cool][#0000ff]In matters of fishyology it is sometimes difficult to make snap evaluations that are on target. Every body of water and each ecosystem has a lot of unique factors that can have a significant effect on what species do well and which do not.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I like to guess too, but I always leave the door open for answers that might be a ways off from my original assumptions. I have been wrong before. On my third marriage.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Who knows? There may be a small but thriving population of pike in one small corner of the lake that is seldom molested by anglers. On the other hand, it might be one of those situations that in order to have a large population they have to have a large population to get started. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have lived in California and Colorado and have witnessed lakes that had illegal introductions of pike into former trout habitats. Ideal conditions, plenty of (wimpy) food and no competition from other predators. EXPLOSION...and a badly degraded trout fishery. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Utah Lake is quite different from those scenarios. The pike have to fight to make a living...and to survive. Probably a lot like Yuba. Big pike eat small walleyes and large walleyes eat small pike. Talk about a "closed system".[/#0000ff]
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Oh no!!! The sky is falling, the sky is falling!!!! Oh wait, its just raining a bit. You folks always think that the end is coming. Every time a fish shows up somewhere "you" don't think it should be. Northerns are listed as a species in Utah Lake. They were planted by the DWR. A few are still there. Why is this all of a sudden a disaster?
Drama is your life.
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Northerns don't do well without access to cold water. They do best with a mix of deep cold areas and large feeding flats. Utah lake will never grow huge northerns.
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let me know when u catch a cuttrought out of that sess pool then i would get excited.
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Caught one last year while ice fishing Provo Boat Harbor. Only about 12 inches but clearly a cutt. I was sure excited.
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