03-17-2022, 07:10 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-17-2022, 07:16 PM by wiperhunter2.)
After the post I made about fishing Willard on Tues, TudeDude replied with some info and got me thinking about the wipers being stocked in Willard. I reached out to Chris Penne, a lead DWR biologist, to ask some questions, below is what he had to say:
"We're in the early stages of our wiper brood program, but are expected to spawn a limited number of fish this year. This will produce some Palmetto Bass fry (female striped bass x male white bass), which is different from the Sunshine Bass cross we typically have brought in from Arkansas (male striped bass x female white bass). The Palmetto cross has a bit more going for it since the fry produced are larger right out of the gate and are able to eat larger foods. The Sunshine cross has its merits as well, one of which is being easier to produce; however, the fry produced from this cross are very limited in what they can eat when they first hatch, so they can be more challenging and variable when it comes to raising them up to fingerlings. This is one of the things that has made the number of fingerlings we have received for Willard so variable. We're not at the point right now where we can produce all the fry we need in state. I'd have to verify with our hatchery staff, but I'm thinking we're at least two or more years out from that. The key is going to be getting enough female striped bass up to the size where they are producing a lot of eggs.
Contrary to popular opinion, it has never been our intention to make walleye the primary predator or sport fish in Willard. We'd prefer those two species are about equal in numbers; however, sometimes you have to roll with what is available and our walleye production program has made it so that they are typically available in the numbers we need and this has been good as the up until 2021, we've had some difficulty hitting our target number of wipers to stock. So rather than have a void in the reservoir that is filled in by shad, we've opted to stock heavier on walleye when wiper have been less available. Yes, we have a limited budget with which to purchase warm water sport fish for all statewide needs including crappie, bluegill, bass, wiper, catfish etc; however, the wiper fluctuations have more to do with how many fingerlings we can produce in a given year than anything.
As mentioned, the Sunshine Bass fry are extremely small since they are coming from white bass eggs. So small that they can only eat the smallest zooplankton that are found in the earliest successional stages in the pond settings where they are raised. There are no commercial or manmade foods small enough for them. So what we have to do is drain and refill the ponds each year prior to stocking the fry in order to get the correct zooplankton type to appear in numbers and what determines whether or not we get that zooplankton bloom to be in the range we need are temperature and sunshine, which are not within our control. So some years we get perfect blooms and other years not so much. The big year class we had that fueled some great fishing in 2015 and 2016 was the result of getting those pond conditions just right in 2014 when those fish were raised and stocked as fingerlings. This is one reason why we are establishing a brood source that can produce the Palmetto cross, which isn't available from private producers. The Palmetto fish can be given artificial feed from the start and are more reliable when it comes to getting them from fry to fingerlings.
Willard should be on the upswing now on wiper numbers as we were able to get a hold of some great numbers of larger fish in 2020 and 2021. In 2021 we particularly benefited from the drought and were able to obtain a lot of fish that couldn't be used in other regions of the state due to low water. So in 2020 we stocked over 5,000 4-inch fish and over 7,000 7- to 8-inch fish. We already saw that first batch of 8-inch fish showing up the following year at 12 inches. Boat anglers didn't see them as much, but shore anglers definitely did. In 2021, we stocked over 11,000 4-inch fish and over 25,000 8-inch fish. So things are looking much better for wiper numbers now. We're continuing to monitor the effectiveness of the 8-inch fish and if they work out, we may primarily use them at Willard in the future as they are more of a sure thing when stocked. More expensive to produce and obtain obviously, but one of the issues we've had in the past is when there is a large year class of wipers already present, we usually don't see much success stocking the 2-inch fingerlings until that large year class of existing fish has been thinned out. That creates some of the large ups and downs we've seen in wiper numbers. So we'd like to see if these 8-inch fish can keep numbers steadier and the fishing more consistent. Stay tuned. Feel free to ask if there are more questions.
Chris
"We're in the early stages of our wiper brood program, but are expected to spawn a limited number of fish this year. This will produce some Palmetto Bass fry (female striped bass x male white bass), which is different from the Sunshine Bass cross we typically have brought in from Arkansas (male striped bass x female white bass). The Palmetto cross has a bit more going for it since the fry produced are larger right out of the gate and are able to eat larger foods. The Sunshine cross has its merits as well, one of which is being easier to produce; however, the fry produced from this cross are very limited in what they can eat when they first hatch, so they can be more challenging and variable when it comes to raising them up to fingerlings. This is one of the things that has made the number of fingerlings we have received for Willard so variable. We're not at the point right now where we can produce all the fry we need in state. I'd have to verify with our hatchery staff, but I'm thinking we're at least two or more years out from that. The key is going to be getting enough female striped bass up to the size where they are producing a lot of eggs.
Contrary to popular opinion, it has never been our intention to make walleye the primary predator or sport fish in Willard. We'd prefer those two species are about equal in numbers; however, sometimes you have to roll with what is available and our walleye production program has made it so that they are typically available in the numbers we need and this has been good as the up until 2021, we've had some difficulty hitting our target number of wipers to stock. So rather than have a void in the reservoir that is filled in by shad, we've opted to stock heavier on walleye when wiper have been less available. Yes, we have a limited budget with which to purchase warm water sport fish for all statewide needs including crappie, bluegill, bass, wiper, catfish etc; however, the wiper fluctuations have more to do with how many fingerlings we can produce in a given year than anything.
As mentioned, the Sunshine Bass fry are extremely small since they are coming from white bass eggs. So small that they can only eat the smallest zooplankton that are found in the earliest successional stages in the pond settings where they are raised. There are no commercial or manmade foods small enough for them. So what we have to do is drain and refill the ponds each year prior to stocking the fry in order to get the correct zooplankton type to appear in numbers and what determines whether or not we get that zooplankton bloom to be in the range we need are temperature and sunshine, which are not within our control. So some years we get perfect blooms and other years not so much. The big year class we had that fueled some great fishing in 2015 and 2016 was the result of getting those pond conditions just right in 2014 when those fish were raised and stocked as fingerlings. This is one reason why we are establishing a brood source that can produce the Palmetto cross, which isn't available from private producers. The Palmetto fish can be given artificial feed from the start and are more reliable when it comes to getting them from fry to fingerlings.
Willard should be on the upswing now on wiper numbers as we were able to get a hold of some great numbers of larger fish in 2020 and 2021. In 2021 we particularly benefited from the drought and were able to obtain a lot of fish that couldn't be used in other regions of the state due to low water. So in 2020 we stocked over 5,000 4-inch fish and over 7,000 7- to 8-inch fish. We already saw that first batch of 8-inch fish showing up the following year at 12 inches. Boat anglers didn't see them as much, but shore anglers definitely did. In 2021, we stocked over 11,000 4-inch fish and over 25,000 8-inch fish. So things are looking much better for wiper numbers now. We're continuing to monitor the effectiveness of the 8-inch fish and if they work out, we may primarily use them at Willard in the future as they are more of a sure thing when stocked. More expensive to produce and obtain obviously, but one of the issues we've had in the past is when there is a large year class of wipers already present, we usually don't see much success stocking the 2-inch fingerlings until that large year class of existing fish has been thinned out. That creates some of the large ups and downs we've seen in wiper numbers. So we'd like to see if these 8-inch fish can keep numbers steadier and the fishing more consistent. Stay tuned. Feel free to ask if there are more questions.
Chris
