I Need your help with Walleye.

[Therapist]

6x's Statement about hammering spawning walleye has always been one of my issues on Ut. Lake. They used to use what was called the Geneva Dry Fly, a 3/0 or 4/0 treble hook w/ a few feathers attached and cast it out and rip it back to snag spawning walleye. Cute !! For years and years the preferred lure were Storm Thin Fins for the spawning fish. Today most use jigs and plastics to target them. My problem is this ! Say you are a cattle rancher and when you see that bull mount one of your heifers, you go out and shoot her. Later in the year, you wonder what happened to your calf crop !! Same thing with the walleye in Ut. Lake. We are decimating the spawning population of females during the time when they are replenishing the stocks of walleye. Those fish are swarming to the rocky shoreline of the lake to lay eggs. They are not hitting the lure because they are feeding, they are moving it out of the nesting area where they are trying to lay eggs. Everyone loves those pictures of those big fat females loaded with eggs, the next generation being destroyed. Those fish are under a great deal of stress during the spawn and when we harass them during that time, we are just shooting our cows, then wondering where our beef is !! Those 4-6 lb females, loaded with eggs, are the future of the lake and those are fish that are taken the most during the spawn. We have seen a decline in the walleye population. Look up some articles on walleye up in the upper midwest. They do not allow fishing during the spawn and they still have to supplement the natural spawn with stocking. Utah used to do that in Ut. Lake, capture spawning fish in the Provo River, collect the eggs and hatch them, then release them back into Ut.Lake. The old Springville hatchery was where it was done. I do not advocate fishing for walleye during the spawn and if I catch one, especially a gravid female ( with eggs) it goes back quickly. I might keep a male or two as there are more than enough to fertilize the spawn, but I do not keep the females. When I hunt walleye it is after the spawn, late May to July. They need about a 2 week recovery period after the spawn and then they go on a feeding binge that is unbelieveable. By then, most anglers are pursuing other quary and leave them alone, more for me !!

I doubt that this will have much impact on the general fishing public, as I have made this case many times in the past, but things are changing on Utah Lake and we may not like some of the changes. So far, there are still abundant walleye if you know what you are doing. But how long can we go, shooting the cow, before the calves disappear !!!