So all you Wiper fanatics… would you rather have the bigger fish or more fish?
Does anyone have any insite regarding any stocking of Wipers into Willard this year?
The fish this year have been bigger on average but as many have posted they are fewer in numbers.
This has been a different year for Willard.
Normal tackle and locations didn’t produce like in the past.
Some people say that it is because of the over population of Shad this year.
The Wiper don’t have to work as hard for food which would be indicated by the lack of boils this year.
Willard also went through several low water years recently, which also effected the Wiper.
Stocking numbers were down for the past several years which also had an effect on the fish.
The DWR has tried to stock over 300,000 Wiper in Willard every year but as you look at the stocking reports, there has been less than that target number stocked in the recent past.
So far this year, the report doesn’t show that any Wiper have been stocked.
Stocking is usually done in August, so it may have already have happened and just not reported yet for this year.
It’s my opinion that there are plenty of Wiper in Willard but you have to work harded to find and catch them this year.
I also agree that the aveage Wiper may be a little bigger than in the past.
This could also be caused by the large numbers of Shad available to them.
So what’s your opinion? Quality or quantity?
Both![;)]
I actually would vote for quality in reality.
Wiper put up one of the best fights that an angler can ask for.
The bigger the better!
If you want a real treat, try fly fishing for Wiper.
Bigger?
Maybe fatter but I have not seen any reports or talked to anyone that has figured how to get a good bite going? a twenty inch fish is typical but not the average fish in willard.
My opinion, Quality and quantity. We had it 5 years ago. and I feel the quantity is still there but most fish are not biting do to shad population. Which means they need to STOCK more wipers to control the shad population. I understand there is a fine balance between predator and prey, the predators are getting big and fat, that’s good. another record may come out of there this fall. but the catching sucks and the last time it sucked this bad they put wipers in to make it better? So what are they waiting for, I hope they dumped a 1,000,000 lil wipers in this year. they know it’s not fishing well. I have heard of a 26" wiper caught, and a 27" walleye caught the last two weeks.
fnf
quality, i think willard is in fine shape right now and i think the fish and game is doing a fine job on willard .and in utah overall.
I say in this case quantity. Unfortuntaley for your question it seems that with Wipers we have been able to have our cake and eat it too, at least in the past.
The fish grow realtively quickly and there were lots of them. So why not keep doing what they have done in the past? Do you have some indication that the Fish and Game is changing plans?
What is your basis for the question?
I say in this case quantity. Unfortuntaley for your question it seems that with Wipers we have been able to have our cake and eat it too, at least in the past.
The fish grow realtively quickly and there were lots of them. So why not keep doing what they have done in the past? Do you have some indication that the Fish and Game is changing plans?
What is your basis for the question?
I was stopped earlier this year by a Utah State Parks guy that was doing a survey out at the north marina. He asked me all of the normal demographic questions and then got to the point of his survey. Several questions regarding whether I, as a fisherman would rather have more or larger fish in Willard, and whether or not I was pleased with the way that willard bay was managed.
I don’t know if this is something they do every year or if they were looking to change something and wanted to know what the fishermen thought.
Very cool. I just wanted to see what was driving the question. As I mentioned, with Wipers it seems they have done well in the past, so I would not change anything.
I too was surveryed and asked the same questions as you. I saw the game wardens doing this a few times earlier this year around May. It was good to see them out and about and asking us fisherman for our input and opinions.
I guess I’m going to straddle the fence a little bit with my opinion.
I’d prefer quality of fish. It’s hard to come across fish as large and good fighting as the wiper without too much driving.
However, quality has its limits. When one wiper has been landed between 2 people in a half dozen trips, I start to think I would have been better off looking for planter rainbows or even worse, throwing out a wakeboard.
This is only my second year fishing Willard, but last year it was 1-2 fish per trip, well worth the effort.
This yr at willard hasnt been bad for me. In may i fished the n marina from shore with a bubble and jig regularly and did well, i caught my personal best wiper from there with it being a 6.5 lber. In june and so on i trolled a lot and caught many wipers and walleye. I have caught 4 age classes of walleye which i think is a good sign of things to come for the walleye at willard. Also I was averaging a few wipers and a few walleyes every trip however i would go a trip or two with the smell of skunk or with only one fish. Early in the summer i had a few go to lures but in the last month the fishing has slowed down for me. I have caught more walleyes this yr than in yrs past and have been doing ok on trolling for wipers. I miss the boils but i cant complain about the fishing at willard this yr. I would like to see both quality and quantity
bryce
I would like to see the limit on Wiper lowered to 4 fish. That would be in line with Trout.
Willard isn’t getting as many Wiper stocked in recent years and a lower limit would help to keep the fishing good.
As I understand it, the DWR is having a hard time getting the 300,000 Wiper that they used to get.
These fish come from out of state and are in huge demand.
This may be one of the reasons for the surveys at Willard, to see what anglers think about the conditions and to hear from anglers how the fishing has been.
“As I understand it, the DWR is having a hard time getting the 300,000 Wiper that they used to get.
These fish come from out of state and are in huge demand.”
Are you sure about that? I have been told that DWR creates their own wipers at the hatchery at BigWater, down near Lake Powell. There was some concern about what changes would occur when they began trying to produce them at Lee Kay. Here is an excerpt from Craig Schaugaard, one of the aquatic program managers for DWR in Ogden.
. I don’t foresee any changes to the wiper program at Willard with the new hatchery unless they are not able to provide the numbers of fry we need. The trick will be to get the timing of the stripers at Lake Powell and the white bass at the hatchery the same. It may be that we will have to cryopreserve gametes from one of the sources until the others is ready. But that is yet to be seen. Drew probably would have better information on 5 than I have. I don’t know if they still plan to use Wahweap as grow out before they ship to Willard Bay or if they will grow out at Lee Kay but that could effect what happens at Willard Bay if they didn’t grow as good or if they grew better than at Wahweap. I don’t think we will abandon what we are doing now until we have some of these question answered at Lee Kay but again Drew would be the one to ask on that.
I was asked the same question last weekend when I was there. My response was to see if they could find a way to get stripers to bite in the morning! We have to be really carefull in our responses for one reason. If all the people answer “quality” then we as anglers have just given the state the ok to spend less money on stocking willard, and when we complain they will have the argument that we all asked for less and bigger fish. I agree with the oponion that the shad overpopulation is a problem, as far as catching fish goes. Dump more stripers in and see what happens. Or we can all do the thing that God intended fishing to teach us to do, sitback, relax and be patient.
The last thing that I have heard is that the fry are purchased from out of state and then raised for several months down south.
I hope that we will see great things from instate warm water hatcheries in the near future.
They are trying and I hope that they will get it worked out for the future though.
Drew,
If you are reading this, please respond,
Thanks,
I guess that to start with I have had a great year on walleye this year at Willard but fewer wipers. However that wipers that I caught were bigger on average than in years past. It seems like years when wipers are down walleye are up and this was definately a walleye year.
The DWR has been purchasing wiper “black fry” from KEO Fish Farms for years. a portion of these fish are stocked as fry and a portion are raised at Wahweap Fish Hatchery and last year there were 30,000 raised in one of the ponds at the Lee Kay Center. Our Wahweap facility has had troubles the last couple of years with wiper survival. I believe we have identified the problem and are working hard to take care of it.
This year we have stocked both fry and fingerlings into Huntington North and we dye marked the fingerlings so we can compare survival of fry vs. fingerlings. If we get adequate survival of fry we can stock more fry for one hell of a lot less money invested. I have been discussing this issue with Kansas Game and Fish who have been busy in the wiper buisness for years and have been very helpful in our preparation for future wiper management here in Utah.
This last spring we health certified white bass from Utah Lake and striped bass from Lake Powell. At the same time we documented spawning time and locations for both species. We also performed some cryopreservation experiments on milt (sperm) in order to ensure successful timing. We were able to extend the life of the milt enough to ensure successful spawning. So next spring we are ready to go on all fronts. We will most likely be stocking more wiper fry and raising wiper fingerlings to be stocked in on certain situations where fry will not survive. The good news is that white bass females can produce just under 1 million eggs.
I hope this helps.
Drew
Thanks for the insite. Living only 15 miles from Willard it is by far my favorite. I would like to see the Wiper bite a bit better which I guess unfortunately means more but smaller.
Personally I like to take friends with and can be frustrating when they don’t hook up. Like posted earlier, 3-5 years ago or so the Wiper fishing was off the hook, but all the other species were much smaller. Many times we caught 10 to 20 wipers in an hour in the evening throwing Super Spook Jr’s on the boil. What a hoot!
I think we need more fisheries for specific fish.
Maybe Willard for Wiper and mainly Wiper and lots more Walleye lakes as well.
I think more to be stocked is the ticket at least in my humble opinion.
Thanks for the up to date info Drew, it is always helpful to have someone on the inside[;)]. One question, has Willard been stocked with wipers this year?
Yes, but we did not reach the quota. I believe there were 30,000 wipers stocked into Willard Bay this year. Not a good year as far as stocking success but one year doesn’t make or break a fishery.
Drew