Scofield - Gillnetting and a survey of my own

[gofish435]

I went to Scofield today to help the DWR with their semi-annual gillnetting survey. 

It was good to see the progress that Scofield is making.  It seemed to me that there continues to be fewer chubs and more of the wipers, tiger muskie, walleye, and tiger trout showing up in the nets.  To me it seemed like there was a good increase in the number of tiger trout and wipers that showed up in the nets this time.
 
I fished from my tube from 11:00 until 1:00 after the gillnetting.  I launched from the point across from the State Park.  I used a medium sink line and a size 8 bead head (white) tan/brown soft hackle and a size 8 bead head black/orange/pearl crystal bugger.  I caught two 17” cutthroats and had a few other fish on.  The algae is real bad in the dam cove and out into the main lake in that area.  

I decided to get out and go back over to the southeast side and fish there again.  When I got over there to launch there were six vehicles lined up along the shoreline.  It looked like a block party.  I launched to the south of the group and fished to the north.  The water was much clearer with no clumps of algae in the area.

I fished from 1:00 until 4:00 using a medium sink line and a size 6 bead head plum leech, size 8 bead head tan/brown soft hackle, and a size 8 bead head tan/green/pearl soft hackle.  I picked up one 16” rainbow and the rest were cutthroats from 16” to 19” long.  It's nice to see so many fish in the slot now.


The water temperature was 58 - 60 degrees and the visibility in the water of only about 3'-4' because of algae.  The reservoir level is 17% full and still going down.

The folks on shore were catching some fish but they seemed to be on the smaller side.  There were a half dozen boats out, with most of them trolling.

It was a beautiful day with very little wind, mostly sunny and in the upper 50's.

[wiperhunter2]

Great report and pics, with the decrease in chubs, I'm thinking the size of the trout should really start to improve. I can see how big that Tiger Muskie is but how long was the wiper? Sounds like it was a long day for you.

[gofish435]

Great report and pics, with the decrease in chubs, I'm thinking the size of the trout should really start to improve. I can see how big that Tiger Muskie is but how long was the wiper? Sounds like it was a long day for you.

I didn't measure it but I think it was close to 20".

[wiperhunter2]

Great report and pics, with the decrease in chubs, I'm thinking the size of the trout should really start to improve. I can see how big that Tiger Muskie is but how long was the wiper? Sounds like it was a long day for you.

I didn't measure it but I think it was close to 20".

It's a fat one, so it must be eating good, what about the walleye are they about the same size?

[lovetofish]

The Wiper looks like a football. And the size of the Tiger Muskie makes me wonder how many trout it has eaten besides Chubs.

Did you by chance get any pictures of the catch in the gillnets.

[gofish435]

Great report and pics, with the decrease in chubs, I'm thinking the size of the trout should really start to improve. I can see how big that Tiger Muskie is but how long was the wiper? Sounds like it was a long day for you.

I didn't measure it but I think it was close to 20".

It's a fat one, so it must be eating good, what about the walleye are they about the same size?

It looks like the walleye were only stocked in 2019.  The three in the photo were about 15" to 18".

---

The Wiper looks like a football. And the size of the Tiger Muskie makes me wonder how many trout it has eaten besides Chubs.

Did you by chance get any pictures of the catch in the gillnets.

The pictures were of fish that were in the nets.  

I didn't take any of the decent tiger and cutthroat trout or all the chubs.

[wiperhunter2]

It's a fat one, so it must be eating good, what about the walleye are they about the same size?

It looks like the walleye were only stocked in 2019.  The three in the photo were about 15" to 18".

---

Not bad, that's about 5 to 6" of growth per year, about what Willard produces with all it's shad, so they are eating good. Did the DWR guys say how big the tiger was when it was planted?

[gofish435]

It's a fat one, so it must be eating good, what about the walleye are they about the same size?

It looks like the walleye were only stocked in 2019.  The three in the photo were about 15" to 18".

---

Not bad, that's about 5 to 6" of growth per year, about what Willard produces with all it's shad, so they are eating good. Did the DWR guys say how big the tiger was when it was planted?

The tiger muskie have been stocked anywhere from 1" to 7" size.  

The DWR said that if they tried to grow them larger to stock that they start eating each other.

[wiperhunter2]

---

Not bad, that's about 5 to 6" of growth per year, about what Willard produces with all it's shad, so they are eating good. Did the DWR guys say how big the tiger was when it was planted?

The tiger muskie have been stocked anywhere from 1" to 7" size.  

The DWR said that if they tried to grow them larger to stock that they start eating each other.

Wow, it grew that big from a 7" max size at stocking time, that is very impressive, I had no idea TM grew that fast. Was it 3 years ago that they started stocking TM?

[gofish435]

---

Not bad, that's about 5 to 6" of growth per year, about what Willard produces with all it's shad, so they are eating good. Did the DWR guys say how big the tiger was when it was planted?

The tiger muskie have been stocked anywhere from 1" to 7" size.  

The DWR said that if they tried to grow them larger to stock that they start eating each other.

Wow, it grew that big from a 7" max size at stocking time, that is very impressive, I had no idea TM grew that fast. Was it 3 years ago that they started stocking TM?

The DWR started stocking tiger muskie in 2017.

[wiperhunter2]

---

Not bad, that's about 5 to 6" of growth per year, about what Willard produces with all it's shad, so they are eating good. Did the DWR guys say how big the tiger was when it was planted?

The tiger muskie have been stocked anywhere from 1" to 7" size.  

The DWR said that if they tried to grow them larger to stock that they start eating each other.

Wow, it grew that big from a 7" max size at stocking time, that is very impressive, I had no idea TM grew that fast. Was it 3 years ago that they started stocking TM?

The DWR started stocking tiger muskie in 2017.

I did not realize it had been that long ago, so basically if that was one of the original TM's that were stocked, if grew from around 7" to that size in 5 years, amazing.

[joshomaru]

That wiper has been eating well, holy cow!
Hopefully we get some more water. It sounds like the addition of these warmer water species has kept the chubs from completely taking over in the low water conditions...

[chubby chaser]

I went to Scofield today to help the DWR with their semi-annual gillnetting survey. 

It was good to see the progress that Scofield is making.  It seemed to me that there continues to be fewer chubs and more of the wipers, tiger muskie, walleye, and tiger trout showing up in the nets.  To me it seemed like there was a good increase in the number of tiger trout and wipers that showed up in the nets this time.
 
I fished from my tube from 11:00 until 1:00 after the gillnetting.  I launched from the point across from the State Park.  I used a medium sink line and a size 8 bead head (white) tan/brown soft hackle and a size 8 bead head black/orange/pearl crystal bugger.  I caught two 17” cutthroats and had a few other fish on.  The algae is real bad in the dam cove and out into the main lake in that area.  

I decided to get out and go back over to the southeast side and fish there again.  When I got over there to launch there were six vehicles lined up along the shoreline.  It looked like a block party.  I launched to the south of the group and fished to the north.  The water was much clearer with no clumps of algae in the area.

I fished from 1:00 until 4:00 using a medium sink line and a size 6 bead head plum leech, size 8 bead head tan/brown soft hackle, and a size 8 bead head tan/green/pearl soft hackle.  I picked up one 16” rainbow and the rest were cutthroats from 16” to 19” long.  It's nice to see so many fish in the slot now.


The water temperature was 58 - 60 degrees and the visibility in the water of only about 3'-4' because of algae.  The reservoir level is 17% full and still going down.

The folks on shore were catching some fish but they seemed to be on the smaller side.  There were a half dozen boats out, with most of them trolling.

It was a beautiful day with very little wind, mostly sunny and in the upper 50's.

That's awesome, I had no idea there were walleyes in there.  I'd love to get some on the ice this winter.