03-16-2022, 04:59 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-16-2022, 05:00 PM by wiperhunter2.)
(03-16-2022, 03:50 PM)SkunkedAgain Wrote: Curt, I guess I'm weird, but I prefer or at least put on equal grounds a wiper to a walleye on the table and by a thousand times on the end of a line... I think the walleyes are the poorest fighters out there unless you get a big one, then they are okay, but nothing compared to a wiper... So maybe i'm in a minority, but I sure can't for the life of me see why the division would cut down on the wiper, they are the main reason I want to fish Willard. Only thing I can figure is the walleye are cheaper for the division to provide since they can raise them locally... Last few years I've caught very few wiper and the ones we got were small, none of those 20"+ fish we were catching five years ago... I know the dollar dictates what we get, but I'd sure like to see them keep the wiper on as high of level as possible... Just my thoughts...
Nice to see you two back on the fish patrol in the boat. I think you already told me, but just to confirm, you guys using the side planer to get your lines away from the boat and cover more water? How deep are you fishing? Nice to see you catch a big ole perch... and good to hear the cats are awake and feeding already... Thanks for a great report... Later J
It's pretty simple as to why they stopped stocking huge numbers of wipers and switched over to walleye, they do not think the lake can sustain high numbers of two major predator fish. When they did that Willard fish survey about 4 or 5 years ago, the majority of those that completed it said they would rather have walleye than wipers in Willard. It really has nothing to do with cost, because as I'm sure you are aware, the DWR started stocking wipers in a lot of different lakes in Utah, now that they are not stocking those high number in Willard, plus I think the state now grows their own wipers.
No, we do not use side planers while slow trolling fligs, we tried it but it did not work well. Once we start trolling cranks then yes, we will for sure use the side planers. The water on most of the East side of the lake is 11 to 12', so that is the depth we had our success, when we got in water less than that, we had no luck.