06-26-2005, 05:09 PM
[cool][#0000ff]Hey LawMan, sorry you did not get into the fishies. This recent wierd monsoon weather pattern has had the wind blowing every afternoon and evening, and it has been blowing hard. Besides putting more mud in the water, it unsettles all the fish. Most seasoned anglers will agree that their best fishing usually happens after at least two or three days of steady calm weather, giving the fish a chance to settle down and form a pattern of feeding. Even one full day without heavy winds is better than nothing.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Whatever you thought you knew about white bass in Utah Lake is subject to revision this year. There is more water, cooler water and more shoreline structure than there has been for several years. Factor in that there has been a heavy "cooler harvest" and low reproduction the last two or three years, and the white bass population is probably as low as it has been in history. There just aren't as many of them, and their patterns are different this year.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There is also a heavy predation upon the white bass this year by the larger remaining walleyes. With fewer babies of any species to feed on, the walleyes are targeting every white bass they can chase down. Some larger walleyes taken recently have had white bass up to 12" long in their gut. 12" whities are spawners...if they get to live long enough to do the job. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]White bass should be through spawning by now. But, there are still quite a few that still have eggs and milt in them. Why? I don't know. But, it does concern a lot of us who would like to see them have good spawning and recruitment this year. We will just have to wait and see if we start catching the little "young of the year" 4 inchers later in the summer or early fall. There weren't very many last year, and the walleyes cleaned up most of them.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]So, if you do get into a bunch of whities, don't feel like you have to keep a cooler full. Keep a few for the table, or kitty bait, but release as many as you can. They need all the help they can get.[/#0000ff]
[signature]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Whatever you thought you knew about white bass in Utah Lake is subject to revision this year. There is more water, cooler water and more shoreline structure than there has been for several years. Factor in that there has been a heavy "cooler harvest" and low reproduction the last two or three years, and the white bass population is probably as low as it has been in history. There just aren't as many of them, and their patterns are different this year.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]There is also a heavy predation upon the white bass this year by the larger remaining walleyes. With fewer babies of any species to feed on, the walleyes are targeting every white bass they can chase down. Some larger walleyes taken recently have had white bass up to 12" long in their gut. 12" whities are spawners...if they get to live long enough to do the job. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]White bass should be through spawning by now. But, there are still quite a few that still have eggs and milt in them. Why? I don't know. But, it does concern a lot of us who would like to see them have good spawning and recruitment this year. We will just have to wait and see if we start catching the little "young of the year" 4 inchers later in the summer or early fall. There weren't very many last year, and the walleyes cleaned up most of them.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]So, if you do get into a bunch of whities, don't feel like you have to keep a cooler full. Keep a few for the table, or kitty bait, but release as many as you can. They need all the help they can get.[/#0000ff]
[signature]