Took a couple buddies up to the nelle last night for a bit of bassin. Launched at the main marina and headed north, had a hard time finding the fish. We caught a few each, not a ton and didn’t find any of the bigguns. Most of the fish were caught on a watermelon/brown senko worm rigged on a drop shot in pretty shallow water. Wierd thing was we caught three 13" chubs. Never caught those before and the ones we caught are not likely to be caught again, we had a fish dispatcher on board in the shape of a baseball bat and I hit a home run 
. Anyway, beautiful night on the water but the action wasn’t fast or furious, merely enjoyable! Thing i’ll head back monday morning…
Oh, lots and lots of bass rising but could not get them to hit a topwater plug
Nice to know that bat is being put to good use and that you can still swing it. The chubs took a drop shot? Didn’t those silly fish know that the worms were not meant for them?
Glad that you were able to have an enjoyable evening on the water, wish I could join you Monday but I’ll be there in spirit, my spirit sure won’t be with me at the desk so it might as well be with you.
Not trying to start a morality debate here, just posing a question :
Where Jordanelle is not over run with chubs like utah lake is with carp, and there are so many effective predators in there, doesn’t it make more sense to let those big brood chubs go to create more forage?
again, just an honest “what do you think” and not a soapbox sermon…
+1 Not looking for a debate but the chubs cause no harm in Jordanelle.
I hadn’t actually considered that. The little buggers are so horribly ugly and are such a problem on other waters I never thought that jordanelle seems to be in balance with them more or less. Still don’t so much regret it but maybe I’ll think about it more next time I hook into one of the suckers.
Jordanelle might not be overrun with chubs, but there is also no shortage of them. Killing or releasing three is not going to make any difference in the overall population.
I think you missed the point of the question. It’s not the 3 that are in question, it’s the principle.
I will respectfully offer my opinion to the contrary in response to your ‘what do you think’ question.
All are welcome to disagree with my opinions as stated but they are just that, my opinions.
It is always easier to prevent a problem than fix it, and I would change your statement to ‘Jordanelle is not yet over run with chubs’.
There are not many predators in Jordanelle for 13" chubs so you likely have established breeding pairs and we don’t really know what the ‘balance’ in the lake actually is. I see no harm, in principle or otherwise, of introducing a baseball bat as a predator to these fish insomuch as they remain an unprotected fish in the body of water.
Someone else questioned the principle of the matter; I, personally, find it within principle to not release unprotected fish, be it carp or chub, from the waters which I frequent.
I guess I am with you on this one. I do eliminate all chub I do land (quickly if that matters).
They are like roaches and can and will eventually destroy a lake. Specially a popular one that people by the car loads are removing all the big fish for what ever reason.
I have never heard of a lone chub. I fish Henry’s a lot and I did spend one day hooking and landing 20 chub all in the 14" to 16" range.
I would think the vegetation in Jordanelle would sustain life along with some meat here and there.
I fished the Ladders last week and 20’ off shore there was tons of Chub all 16" and better…we better start doing something about it or Strawberry will be right back where it was. This was very depressing.
I suppose I will jump into this one.
RE"They are like roaches and can and will eventually destroy a lake. "
and
“It is always easier to prevent a problem than fix it, and I would change your statement to ‘Jordanelle is not yet over run with chubs’.
There are not many predators in Jordanelle for 13” chubs so you likely have established breeding pairs and we don’t really know what the ‘balance’ in the lake actually is."
Yes, chubs are a big problem in lakes where trout are the main sport fish. However, in lakes with bass, perch, and other warmwater predators, they are controlled very effectively. Jordanelle has smallies and perch. Both do a good job with chubs. Yes, there aren’t too many fish that eat a 13-16 inch chub, but the predators don’t have to if they are eating all of the offspring. And that is what happens at Jordanelle. All of the reports on chub catches repeat the same thing. The chubs are big (and old). The DWR looked at the age of the gillnetted chubs a few years ago and confirmed their suspicions. They are oldtimers and they aren’t being replaced very quickly if at all by young ones. As long as smallies and perch continue to be present in the numbers they are, and they aren’t going anywhere, chubs will never overrun this lake. Why has Deer Creek NEVER had a chub problem? They have had perch in there for all these years.
RE"I fished the Ladders last week and 20’ off shore there was tons of Chub all 16" and better…we better start doing something about it or Strawberry will be right back where it was. This was very depressing."
Kind of same thing. The berry chubs are all BIG. We need to worry when we get a bunch of little ones. That means recruitment. If the slot stays, we should OK there.
Back to the original post, why were you messing around with the chubs?[;)] The smallies are fat and sassy this year, many as fat as they used to be in the glory days of a few years ago. My arm is still sore from a recent trip.
[;)]
We really can not predict that till it is too late don’t you think? To say they are not a problem is correct to a degree…not a problem at this moment, but they are with out a doubt a potential problem.
I will agree that they are a food source, but should be kept in check at all times, that is all I am sayin’.
For me, I don’t keep any fish, so Chub is just another fish, but I do not practice C&R with them.
RE"We really can not predict that till it is too late don’t you think? To say they are not a problem is correct to a degree…not a problem at this moment, but they are with out a doubt a potential problem."
We do have a lot of historical precedent.
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Deer Creek: Had perch in there for decades, way before I was born. Later smallies and walleyes. Never had a chub problem.
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Fish lake: perch were illegally introduced in the 1970’s. They proliferated, the chubs are now extremely rare. This is now a problem for the lake trout there as they used to eat chubs. Now they mainly eat stocked rainbow trout.
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Starvation.: Used to have a chub problem. Walleyes and smallies were stocked. Chubs are now extremely rare and consist of a few ancient (big) fish, many with tumors on their bodies. With the recent perch introductions, the DWR has pretty much written the chubs off as regaining enough numbers to be decent forage for the walleyes.
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Utah lake: Has a mishmash of every warmwater fish under the sun. The native chubs are extremely rare in the lake anymore and have been that way for a while.
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Flaming Gorge: Used to have tons of chubs. Smallies introduced, chubs disappeared. Chubs are rare now up there.
So yeah, I would say with confidence that unless the smallies and perch were fished out, (very unlikely) that the chubs never will be a problem at lake X, er Jordanelle. However, if you wanted to bonk one that is caught, it won’t rupture the atmospheric continuum either.
Strawberry should be fine too unless the crowd that is constantly pestering the DWR to lift the slot prevails and the cutt slot restrictions are eliminated.