03-01-2014, 05:47 PM
[#0000FF]I am one of the anti-inlet-opening nuts. If it was merely a "fishing opportunity"...for "average" anglers who want a shot at catching a walleye...then it would be semi okay. Unfortunately it is only a license to steal from legal anglers...by the happy harvesters. They use their "Inlet emergers" (big spoons with big treble hooks) to hook everything they can...legally or otherwise.
And there is no C & R. Every fish hooked and dragged up on shore leaves Willard forever. And some of those guys return several times during any given 24 hour period to fill another five gallon bucket to take home...to sell or to put in the freezer.
A lot of that activity takes place late at night...after most real anglers and DWR observers have gone home. Last year there were truckloads of fish that were harvested and removed before anybody else even showed up to observe it. Those who are doing the aggressive snagging know enough to cool it when there is a chance of them being caught. Others, who are not part of the organized effort but are still snagging, try to get around it by claiming "It was an accident. It is okay to keep it if I wasn't trying to snag it."
I observed this same thing...only worse...many years ago on the Provo River. People who could not ever catch walleyes legally showed up with snagging gear to fill their freezers while they could...by whatever means. DWR finally closed all tributaries to Utah Lake during the spawn. And in a meeting with DWR officers in Springville they readily admitted that it was not so much to protect the spawning walleye as to simply shut down the illegal activity.
There is plenty of successful spawning activity around Utah Lake without needing the spawn in the tributaries. And in most years there is also a great deal of walleye spawning going on along the rocks all around the lake. But in low water years there are no wave washed rocks for the walleye to use for spawning and their eggs are largely covered by the silt...as DWR claims they are in the inlet.
There are a lot of walleye in Willard. But not as many this past year as in previous years. The sheer numbers of those illegally removed had to have had an impact on the number of larger fish available to anglers. If the same onslaught happens this year I am betting that the total numbers of angler-caught walleye will drop again through the remainder of the coming year.
There are some who disagree...both DWR biologists and plenty of armchair biologists. My observations and predictions are based solely upon 5 decades of fishing walleyes in Utah Lake and about 4 decades of fishing them in Willard. I have seen multiple up and down cycles...some related to weather and low water. Others related to changes in the basic ecosystem (wipers and shad). Still others based upon changes in regulations. When fish populations and quality of fishing change there is usually an identifiable reason.
Simple math suggests that the more fish that are suddenly removed from a relatively small "closed" system the fewer there will be for anglers to catch. The walleye population in Willard was just starting to become more abundant...after the big "suckout" when the lake was dropped for dike repairs. Then the previously closed inlet was opened to wholesale harvest and many of the largest spawners left the system before they had a chance to contribute to the population for the next few years.
Let's revisit this in three to four years and see how the walleye are doing then.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]
And there is no C & R. Every fish hooked and dragged up on shore leaves Willard forever. And some of those guys return several times during any given 24 hour period to fill another five gallon bucket to take home...to sell or to put in the freezer.
A lot of that activity takes place late at night...after most real anglers and DWR observers have gone home. Last year there were truckloads of fish that were harvested and removed before anybody else even showed up to observe it. Those who are doing the aggressive snagging know enough to cool it when there is a chance of them being caught. Others, who are not part of the organized effort but are still snagging, try to get around it by claiming "It was an accident. It is okay to keep it if I wasn't trying to snag it."
I observed this same thing...only worse...many years ago on the Provo River. People who could not ever catch walleyes legally showed up with snagging gear to fill their freezers while they could...by whatever means. DWR finally closed all tributaries to Utah Lake during the spawn. And in a meeting with DWR officers in Springville they readily admitted that it was not so much to protect the spawning walleye as to simply shut down the illegal activity.
There is plenty of successful spawning activity around Utah Lake without needing the spawn in the tributaries. And in most years there is also a great deal of walleye spawning going on along the rocks all around the lake. But in low water years there are no wave washed rocks for the walleye to use for spawning and their eggs are largely covered by the silt...as DWR claims they are in the inlet.
There are a lot of walleye in Willard. But not as many this past year as in previous years. The sheer numbers of those illegally removed had to have had an impact on the number of larger fish available to anglers. If the same onslaught happens this year I am betting that the total numbers of angler-caught walleye will drop again through the remainder of the coming year.
There are some who disagree...both DWR biologists and plenty of armchair biologists. My observations and predictions are based solely upon 5 decades of fishing walleyes in Utah Lake and about 4 decades of fishing them in Willard. I have seen multiple up and down cycles...some related to weather and low water. Others related to changes in the basic ecosystem (wipers and shad). Still others based upon changes in regulations. When fish populations and quality of fishing change there is usually an identifiable reason.
Simple math suggests that the more fish that are suddenly removed from a relatively small "closed" system the fewer there will be for anglers to catch. The walleye population in Willard was just starting to become more abundant...after the big "suckout" when the lake was dropped for dike repairs. Then the previously closed inlet was opened to wholesale harvest and many of the largest spawners left the system before they had a chance to contribute to the population for the next few years.
Let's revisit this in three to four years and see how the walleye are doing then.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]