# Utah Lake Carp Erradication Project??????



## ifishutah (Dec 20, 2007)

Has anyone heard any news on how the carp erradication program is going. I'm curious if it is in fact going forward. Any information would be great.


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## JAT83 (Sep 9, 2007)

I dunno...I say we put a bounty on them! :lol:


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Good luck with that! 

The carp are here to stay. There isn't much we could do to get rid of them short of dropping a nuke in the middle. :lol: 

They could try and poison it, but the many submerged springs and tributaries would keep them alive in great enough numbers that they'd just bounce right back.

If they poisoned the lake and the tribs AND stocked it heavily with a serious predator fish like pike or muskie (which they won't), they might put a good dent in the overall population of them, but they'll still find a way to thrive and reproduce. Friggin' ****roaches with fins!

Stocking a bunch of large predator fish would cause its own slew of problems and throw off the balance of the lake. Who's to say that they'd even be able to inhabit such a shallow, warm body of water?

I've heard plenty of rumors for years about what "they" are doing to Utah Lake to restore it back to beauty, but I can't help but let my inner pessimist get the best of those rumors. Those carp are a disease without a cure.

Maybe a grand-scale electroshock effort with the amperage turned way up.

I still doubt we'd stop them. It's kind of like promoting genocide anyway, IMO. Granted, we (irresponsible immigrants) brought them here to begin with but we don't have the solution.


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## Jigz (Sep 30, 2007)

I heard somewhere that there were plans to dragnet the whole lake to remove as many as possible and sell them to help fund further projects. Sounds like a good idea. Something has to be done to slow them down at least, they are destroying the ecosystem there. But they are fun to catch.


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## orvis1 (Sep 7, 2007)

LOAH, you crack me up "****roaches with fins" I have never heard them described that way but so true.... ROFLMAO :lol: :lol:


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## americanforkdude (Sep 13, 2007)

There is NO way to get rid of them. Even dropping a bomb over the lake wouldn't cure it. They don't have enough poison to drop in the lake and predator fish wouldn't want to eat those filthy things after eating a couple. They have been drag netting it, but that doesn't even put a dent in them. The problems with Utah Lake that make getting rid of carp imopossible are: 1, it's too big to do anything. 2, there enough cover in the lake that the carp get into, that you couldn't get them out of there if you wanted to, 3. they produce quicker then you could get them. That's just my opinion, but I can tell you, they will NEVER get rid of them or even cut the population in half.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Yep. I'm pretty sure there are more carp in Utah Lake than people in Utah (and maybe even some of the surrounding states combined).

Evil demon fish.


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## ifishutah (Dec 20, 2007)

Wasn't there an actual pland and feasibility study done? I thought I remembered seeing some information on that last year. 

I like the idea of the bounty, make it 10 cents a fish or something and see what the general public can come up with. Actually it probably wouldn't help much, because 1000 anglers bringing in 100 fish is still only 100,000 fish and from everything I've seen we'd need millions removed. 

What about a fleet of electrofishing boats? The endangered species fund seems to have enough money to throw around, buy a bunch of barges, rig em up with electroshocking and work the shorelines during the spring. 

I wonder if there is anyway to chemically "nueter" the carp. Probably not, but hey it's an idea.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

I was thinking along the lines of the fleet idea, myself: Remember that big sonar sweep that a whole bunch of scientists did on Loch Ness in Scotland? 

Form a line of boats across the lake with long electroshock rods turned way up and essentially form an underwater electric barrier that moves from one end to the other. Of course, there would have to be another line behind it to fill in the gaps and hit the bays. All the while dumping rotenone as they go. :lol: 

I think that would be the closest we'd come to killing off all the carp, but the feds would never let that happen with the june sucker in the way.


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## waltny (Sep 8, 2007)

LOAH said:


> Yep. I'm pretty sure there are more carp in Utah Lake than people in Utah (and maybe even some of the surrounding states combined).
> 
> Evil demon fish.


Now that is funny! :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## FC2Tuber (Oct 26, 2007)

IMO there is no way that you can get rid of all the carp in UL. 

There used to be an outfit there that netted millions of pounds of carp per year to sell to fertilizer and catfood factories. Not anymore. The initial PCB report put an end to that.

Also, they will NEVER poisen the lake or plant predators in there. They want to maintain their precious June Sucker (walleye snacks) population.


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## JAT83 (Sep 9, 2007)

Yeah, there's not a lot that can be done, I guess there will be plenty of bait for catfish (carp meat). Just don't ever release carp alive! :lol:


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## ifishutah (Dec 20, 2007)

So the plan to knock them back to a small population has been dropped? I thought that outfit that was netting them agreed to do it. Although. rumor had it that they didn't distinguish between carp and other game fish. 

Utah lake could be such a phenomenal fishery. Just the LMB population could become world class (for northern strain). I'd personally love to see the day those carp are reduced.


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## holman927 (Sep 28, 2007)

I was talking to a DWR officer an he was saying that Utah was getting Federal funding to trudge the entire lake so that the depth in many parts would rival the depths of Bear lake. Then they are going to plant it with trophy sized Mackinaw, Kokanee Salmon, Rainbow and Cutthroat.
Of coarse all this will have to wait until they are able to filter the Great Salt Lake to a point that they can plant it with some sperm whale, a variety of different sharks, and other fish able sea creatures.
Did I mention that my new Years resolution is to stop making stuff up.


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## Packfish (Oct 30, 2007)

This is just a carp story- when I was a kid on Lake Eire I was out carp hunting and I ran my 12 ft aluminum up by an old barge. I got out and climbed up and there were an easy couple of 1000 carp stuck in it. I thought it must have been from high water. So I went back and got a buddy. We must have speared 3/4 of the carp in the next few hours, just wading through them and spearing them. Then we heard a guy in a boat coming up yelling at us. We bailed out and lost him in the back channels. He was taking all the carp up to Toledo to sell them for dog food.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Poor dogs.


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## itchytriggerfinger (Sep 12, 2007)

i heard that McDonald's gets all their "chicken nuggets" from the carp in utah lake. 
Could this be true? HMMMMM


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## FC2Tuber (Oct 26, 2007)

fatbass said:


> Willard Bay used to have a carp problem similar to Utah Lake. It was always murky from the carp rooting up the vegetation. Since wipers were stocked in Willard, I have noticed the water quality has improved substantially. Those wipers are mayhem on little carp! Maybe the UDWR could plant wipers in Utah Lake?


They'll never plant a predator... june suckers are too valuable to them. Plus, there are already catfish, whities, LMB, and walleye...


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## ifishutah (Dec 20, 2007)

What about the tiger Musky? Seems like an awfully good idea to wipe out whites and carp. Just a thought.


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## ifishutah (Dec 20, 2007)

What about our warmwater hatchery by Powell, don't they kick out the TM's?


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## flyguy7 (Sep 16, 2007)

Look at Pineview-- It has had tigers for several years and the carp are still thriving as well as ever.


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## ifishutah (Dec 20, 2007)

what about Blue cats? Or even Flatheads. Those suckers get upwards of 60 70 lbs and they would eat the beegeebees out of 5lb carp.


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## americanforkdude (Sep 13, 2007)

There are blue cats in there. Just not in good numbers. Bottom line, the problem isn't going away. Yeah they have contracts w/ a company to take like a million out a year or something but that doesn't even put a ding in them.


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## Poo Pie (Nov 23, 2007)

ifishutah said:


> What about the tiger Musky? Seems like an awfully good idea to wipe out whites and carp. Just a thought.


sorry to get off subject, are musky sterile like other hybrids? Probably a dumb question and I know I could google it and find the answer, it's just much more fun this way!


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## Poo Pie (Nov 23, 2007)

fatbass said:


> *Tiger* muskies are sterile, muskellunge are not.


Thanks fatbass, gotta catch a musky! hopefully this ice season...


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## FC2Tuber (Oct 26, 2007)

americanforkdude said:


> There are blue cats in there. Just not in good numbers. Bottom line, the problem isn't going away. Yeah they have contracts w/ a company to take like a million out a year or something but that doesn't even put a ding in them.


Blue Cats... in UL?????


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## ifishutah (Dec 20, 2007)

Not to question your information, but are you sure about the blues? Those are a different size animal. I thought for sure that there were just channel's and bullheads. Please correct me if i'm wrong.


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## FC2Tuber (Oct 26, 2007)

ifishutah said:


> Not to question your information, but are you sure about the blues? Those are a different size animal. I thought for sure that there were just channel's and bullheads. Please correct me if i'm wrong.


You're not wrong. There are a bunch of old timers down there that'll tell you otherwise, but there has never been a documented blue caught outta UL.


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## JAT83 (Sep 9, 2007)

I think the DWR said they were just Channel cats


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

Tubedude has fished that lake more than probably anyone....has caught catfish out of the lake for decades and has debated this over and over and over. They're not blue cats... and there are tons of physical characteristics that can show they're not blues, but channels. Males to be exact... which tend to have a dark brown to blueish head. I'm not sure if thats just during the spawn or all year, but thats all they are. About the carp.... they're there to stay. There are too many there already and like somebody else said, there is WAYYYY too much cover for them to escape into to avoid poisons, nets or anything else we throw at them. Who cares though right?? The other fish flourish right along with the carp and they make a hell of a bit of cut bait. :lol: Also, it gives us archery guys something to do in the spring when we don't have a turkey tag and are tired of just shooting paper and block targets.


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## JAT83 (Sep 9, 2007)

Riverrat77 said:


> Tubedude has fished that lake more than probably anyone....has caught catfish out of the lake for decades and has debated this over and over and over. They're not blue cats... and there are tons of physical characteristics that can show they're not blues, but channels. Males to be exact... which tend to have a dark brown to blueish head. I'm not sure if thats just during the spawn or all year, but thats all they are. About the carp.... they're there to stay. There are too many there already and like somebody else said, there is WAYYYY too much cover for them to escape into to avoid poisons, nets or anything else we throw at them. Who cares though right?? The other fish flourish right along with the carp and they make a hell of a bit of cut bait. :lol: Also, it gives us archery guys something to do in the spring when we don't have a turkey tag and are tired of just shooting paper and block targets.


+1 on using carp for bait! plus they do put up a decent fight!


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