Channel 4 News...Utah Lake Carp Update

[TubeDude]

A good update on the current state of carp affairs.  LINK TO ARTICLE

[Kent]

I heard, from a fellow angler, about the carp traps on Utah Lake. It seems odd that the media hasn't written an article about them.

[Bduck]

With the eradicating of carp that has been an ongoing issue in Utah Lake, out of curiosity how is the carp situation in Willard? Are there similarities between the 2 reservoirs?

[TubeDude]

With the eradicating of carp that has been an ongoing issue in Utah Lake, out of curiosity how is the carp situation in Willard? Are there similarities between the 2 reservoirs?

Utah Lake and Willard are alike only in the fact they both have carp.  The history and ecology of the two ponds is quite different and results in a great difference in the carp populations and impacts.  (See attached history)

Carp were dumped into Utah Lake in the mid 1880s...as a potential food source to replace the dwindling stocks of cutthroat trout and June suckers.  They were brought here from the eastern states by water-filled rail cars.  They found a carp paradise...warm shallow water with lots of aquatic vegetation...and a minimal predation from other species.  Their population exploded...as it has done again several time after periods of severe drought wiped out most of the other species.  And even the subsequent introductions of predators...like largemouths, catfish, walleyes, white bass and recently northern pike...has proven ineffective in eating enough young carp each year to keep the numbers down.  Each large female carp dumps bazillions of eggs...and the hatchlings grow quickly to sizes too large for all but the biggest cats or walleyes.  

The Loys' carp seining operation had been in place for many years before the June Sucker program employed them to harvest even more.  But even that was not enough to reduce the vast hordes of carp...which raided the nests of other species and rooted out all of the aquatic vegetation...keeping the lake an ugly shade of brown.  However, with the federal grants funding aggressive year-round seining...even through the ice...the carp population began to noticeably decline.  And when the funds ran out, the lake was noticeably less carp-infested...and the water was often more green than brown.

Not sure what the actual numbers are, but according to input from Utah Lake regulars...and some of my own observations...it would seem that the carp are rebounding and we are gonna have to plan on spending more "buglemouth bucks" if we wanna try to keep them somewhat in check.

Willard Bay, on the other hand, has a much higher proportion of predators to carp.  And even though shad are the primary forage species for MOST of the year, they become a big part of the food chain for a couple of months.  Carp spawn and hatch before the shad.  There are lots of baby carp available to winter-hungry predators for a few weeks before the later spawning shad get big enough to eat.  And some of the predators continue to add a bit of "gold" to their "silver" menu until the carplets get too big.  They can grow to be footlongs in their first year.  Don't know of any stomach contents surveys that have been conducted to ascertain the numbers of young carp that become wiper, walleye or catfish flesh.  But I have caught and filleted all species of predators from Willard...including crappies and smallies...that had carplet remnants in their innards.

In short, Utah Lake needs help in keeping carp populations at a reasonable level.  Willard Bay seems to be doing okay on the current predatory maintenance system.

  OVERVIEW & HISTORY 2017.pdf (Size: 1.19 MB / Downloads: 7)
  1. JUNE SUCKER RECOVERY PROGRAM.pdf (Size: 1.24 MB / Downloads: 1)

[Kent]

You can add Deer Creek and Bear Lake to the list of large water bodies that have had carp in them for a long time and apparently, they have not become a major problem.