Talked to Wayne G. @ UWDR and he reported they stocked 90.000 new wipers at Willard August the 6th. They should be around 6" by the start of Fall. Please throw them back. I wish they would of left the limit to two fish per day because the boils were a lot better before they changed the limit to 6. We need to write the UDWR and suggest to lower the limit I think to 3. It would make the catch rate a lot better and who needs more than 3 of those big wipers per person to eat anyway. Just my opinion [fishin] Bass Man
Agree…
The only determining factor in setting the catch limit should be the wiper to shad reproduction rate. Pure science concerning the relationship between forage and prey. Catch rate would be considered in this along with mortality and the # of stocked wipers would be adjusted accordingly.
Just my opinion.
Let’s see how the boils go about a month from now, when the wipers really get active. I believe there are many more wipers in Willard than most folks imagine and the shad obviously had a very good spawn. Willard is big water!
I haven’t taken a limit of 6 fish home in 2 years even though I could have many times and all of my wiper addicted friends are into releasing 90% of their catch as well.
I personally would like to see DWR stock 500,000 wiper fry a year in Bug Bay like in years past.
I agree totally, three wipers should be more than enough for anyone and anything under 14 inches should be returned to the lake. I just cringe when I see folks taking home limits of wipers, it is just lucky that most folks can’t catch them consistently or the fishery would be in trouble. WH2
According to Wayne they stocked 200,000 a year the first couple of years. I also believe that a bunch of them died when the water was so low. 
Willard also used to be the best SMB fishery in Northern Utah until the low water years. I used to go out and C&R 40 to 50 SMB along the rip rap in 5 hours. The last 3 years I think I have caught a total of 5. I don’t think it would hurt the DWR to go get a bunch of SMB from FG and re-supply Willard also. There are too many shad at Willard. Have you looked at your Fishfinder recently. I believe that is why you have such a hard time catching wipers[unimpressed] trolling. All they have to do is open their mouth and swim.[crazy] Wipers are easy to catch when they are on a feeding spree. I think certain people catch their limits and then some during those times. I have been harassed a bunch of times by the bay staff for stupid stuff like a bail bucket and making sure all the lights work on the boat, but I have never had my livewell checked for a limit of fish[frown] . Please C&R Just my 2 cents worth.
**Do you have a degree in fisheries biology? If not, just sit back, relax and let DWR manage Willard Bay without your help. **
DWR got gizzard shad well established in Willard before planting wipers. Then, the wipers were planted and the populations were monitored. Initially the limits on wipers were set low until DWR could get a good handle on the predator to prey ratios and what it took to maintain a good fishery. They raised the limits when they felt it was justified. And, if they feel it is necessary they will lower the limits…without your input.
We all have our own standards and opinions but that does not entitle any of us to try to impose our ways upon everybody else. Sure, nobody really needs 6 wipers…if they fish for them regularly and have some in the freezer. But, very few people who fish for wipers ever catch a full six fish limit and many who catch them enjoy eating them. And it is their right to keep them and eat them. And, a solitary angler may be an out-of-work father who can use some help with the family food budget. Six wipers will feed the family a couple of times. It is not your position to dictate what he keeps or why.
The wipers exist only for the benefit of fishermen. They are sterile, do not reproduce and you are not harming the gene pool by keeping all you catch…up to your limit. When DWR sees wiper populations truly declining they simply increase the planting.
Attributing the change in boils this year to a difference in wiper populations is not entirely valid. The lake is now full, after two years of low water. The current fish population is living in a new lake and learning to deal with it. They do not remember two years ago or how they should be acting. They will feed however and whenever it is convenient for them, regardless of what we would like them to be doing.
**Leave it up to the DWR. They do a pretty good job of managing the fishery they created. **
Does anyone know if this was the only stocking of Wiper in Willard this year?
When I purchased my State Parks Pass back in May. the Ranger thought that Wiper had already been stocked then.
Now I’m curious whether or not that stocking ever happened.
When i went to go help put the nets over the musky ponds last month, Drew told us that they had just put some wipers in willard. So there was atleast one other time they have.
Easy there buddy. Do YOU have a degree in fisheries biology? The guy was just giving his opinion, not looking for a lecture about what he thinks is wrong and it does not matter to you or the DWR.
Maybe it’s time to go drag a dead minnow around Willard and catch some cookie cutters [:p]
They should be around 6" by the start of Fall. Please throw them back.
Are there folks keeping Wipers at that size? LOL![sly]
As TubeDude mentioned the DWR manage the lake by monitoring Wiper numbers and the gizzard shad.
If I’m going to Lake Mohave I certainly have read the channel cat surveys they do. There is plenty of kitties there. And hardly anyone in Arizona is interested in channel cats, they want the “glamor” species like Strippers and Largemouths. So I don’t hardly worry. If I can get a limit I keep one. If my fridge is empty and I hardly ever go fishing.
Whoever here doesn’t like fishermen keeping limits of Wiper I can respect that opinion. But they have it clear up to 6 fish at Willard. Far higher than other states if you care to look at their respected fishing regulations. So they must have done population surveys on shad and Wiper to raise it to that amount. No need to worry fellas.
I think that the DWR should allow live bait for walleye though, but then none of the western states allow it. But I ain’t no fisheries biologist.
By the way, doesn’t it suck when aliens from planet Rickpudding Galaxy # 4.7 tell you their fishing stories?
I get jealous when they catch 498 pound chickulwums on 100 pound test line.
They may look unappetizing but they taste good… even to humans.
[inline Artomic-Powrahna.jpg]
I personally like how the DWR managed Mantua.[;)]
In 2006, the UDWR planted almost 600,000 wipers in Willard.
http://wildlife.utah.gov/…/index.php?year=2006
I agree with TubeDude. The UDWR has done a good job with Willard. Every fish I catch there is fat and healthy, the water quality is better than a decade ago and if we could get a law passed to require wakeless speed within 150 ft of the dike, it would be a little chunk of heaven out there.
You 'Da Man TD!
yea it should be lowered to 3! i wouldnt even argue with 2 or 1 seeing as always strictly release everything
Hey if they need to take fish out of lakes. I think the Powrahna would work very well. I think we might need heavier steel leader thow. I don’t think i would swim in the water. I wonder how big they get. Pineviewfisher
consider that if 50 people a day kept a limit of six wipers from willard, 150 days a year, that would be 45,000 wipers per year taken from willard, 135,000 in the past three years. That’s alot of fish, but if you add up the stocking reports on the DWR website over the past three years, they have stocked nearly 1,000,000 wipers in willard bay. I personally doubt that 45,000 wipers are kept from willard every year, but even if they had, the math adds up to there still being alot of fish in that lake. I realize that my logic here isn’t very scientific, and I haven’t taken into account fish mortality, but still…
I haven’t heard any recent studies but the last time the DWR let us in on the mortality rate of wipers that are planted at Willard, less that 1% survived any planting to grow to 12 inches or more. If these figures are accurate that means a lot less wipers in the Bay than most folks think. This is because they stock them when they are so small, if I remember correctly it is 1 to 2 inches. I’ll have to do a little research to confirm the size they are stocking now but from what the DWR said before, they stocked more of the smaller size because they knew there would be a high mortality rate. WH2
That’s like 900 survivors out of 90,000 
. Not a very good survival rate.
Here is what one of the DWR guys had to say about the survival rate of the wipers at Willard.
This is great news with the survival rate up to 30% and maybe more, it makes me feel a lot better abount folks keeping limits.
“If the “black” fry which are the wiper fry that still have their yolk sac are stocked directly into a management water they have at best, 1% survival. For the past several years we have been taking the wiper fry down to the hatchery at Wahweap and this year we grew some at the Lee Kay Center and got them up to 3 inches. This should provide good survival into the waters that were stocked this year.The survival rate of these fish could vary depending on conditions but I would say between 15-30 percent survival. This year with the water levels, forage and the great condition of the fingerlings I would guess we might exceed 30 percent survival.”