Yuba Reservoir, a perch/walleye fishery in central Utah, lives a classic boom and bust existence similar to some of the old-time western mining towns. When it booms it ranks among some of the best perch and walleye fisheries in the country, kicking out 12 to 15-plus inch jumbo perch and aggressive, 4 to 7 pound, tackle stealing, rod thumpin’ walleyes with small heads and football bodies. During its boom times it’s often listed as a hot spot in national magazines such as In-Fisherman and Walleye Insider.

But then it busts. According to recently-retired DWR Central Region Aquatics Manager Charlie Thompson, who has managed the reservoir over several cycles, “The perch population builds up and the walleye follow. We have five or six years of really good fishing, then the perch population disappears and we have 10 to 15 years of no fishing.” In other words, about two-thirds of the time you can’t buy a perch or walleye on Yuba. Sadly, after several years of memorable fishing, the crash cycle has again taken hold on the lake.

But this time the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) and Utah angling groups decided they weren’t going to sit idly by. Rocky Mountain Anglers (RMA) and the Utah B.A.S.S. Federation (UBF) joined forces with the DWR to do something about it. Along the way, numerous individuals, businesses and government entities have joined in to help as well.

Making a Plan
Yuba, also called Sevier Bridge Reservoir, was completed in June, 1916, by damming the Sevier River. It serves water needs for irrigation and for a power plant downstream, which cause water levels to fluctuate, sometimes radically. The lake hosts smaller numbers of northern pike, trout and channel catfish and a huge contingent of carp.

During spring and summer of 2001, Thompson watched signs of a perch/walleye crash worsen. In November, 2001, he sounded the alarm. “We got a group together from Rocky Mountain Anglers and B.A.S.S. and met to discuss some things we might try to do down here,” Thompson recalls. The Yuba Habitat Committee also included DWR biologists from the Salt Lake office and several regions, and Utah State University researcher Dr. Chris Luecke, who conducted a study on Yuba for the DWR.

The committee considered many possible solutions including adding new forage species and banning the harvest of perch altogether. All were rejected for good reasons. Ultimately, they decided the evidence pointed to lack of spawning and nursery habitat for small perch as the main culprit for the lake’s cycles. Perch require brush or weeds in the water to successfully spawn. Most years Yuba has few places suitable for them to successfully lay eggs. Then, when young perch do hatch out, they become easy prey for both walleye and larger perch because they have no cover to hide in. They get wiped out. The idea judged the best option both in the short term and in the long run involved a combination of habitat improvements, possible supplemental perch plantings and regulation changes. “We’d really like to maintain this walleye/perch fishery if we can, so we’re going at it from this angle,” Thompson points out.
It was decided that a combination of reefs built from discarded Christmas trees and hundreds of commercially built habitat modules could provide a significant benefit to the lake’s perch. Unlike previous projects that used Christmas trees, the group decided to install these reefs perpendicular to shore. This way, the structures could provide spawning habitat at high or low water levels and protection to small fish as water levels drop. They wanted to make a noticeable impact on the reservoir so they decided on a goal of 2,000 trees.

In addition to the habitat, the committee saw merit to planting perch and increasing the bag limit on walleyes to keep their numbers in check. Walleye harvest has been encouraged on the lake for the past several years and overharvest does not appear to be responsible for the lake’s present condition. Perch harvest was prohibited starting in 2003 and a change in the walleye limit will be considered as the fishery recovers.
Overall, the ambitious plan added up to the largest habitat project that anyone can remember on a lake or reservoir in Utah.

Laying the Groundwork
The committee’s decision to move forward was made on December 6, 2001, which meant that building the Christmas tree reefs had to begin soon. Before he retired on January 4, 2002, Thompson got approval from the Yuba State Park managers and from the Sevier River Water Users. He submitted a funding proposal to the Habitat Council for nearly $50,000 per year for three years. It received unanimous approval at the Council’s January meeting.

The logistics of amassing 2,000 Christmas trees proved to be daunting for several reasons. First, Yuba is located an hour-and-a-half to two-hour drive away from the Salt Lake Valley where most of the volunteers live. Second, the time after Christmas is not the most pleasant or stable weather-wise. Third, Christmas trees tend to be very bulky and difficult to transport easily.

Partnerships expanded in the weeks after Christmas. A Salt Lake construction company, Cottonwood Builders, donated use of their end dump trucks to haul trees. South Valley Water Reclamation agreed to load the end dumps with discarded trees they had set aside at the Trans-Jordan Cities Landfill. Several Utah County Christmas tree lots donated their unsold trees. The cities of Springville, Salem, Payson West Jordan and Salt Lake County gave permission to pick up trees from their public Christmas tree drop-off lots. West Valley City held trees in their public drop-off lots for two weekends so volunteers could pick them up.

The first loads of trees went down on December 27. A big push on January 12 and 19 moved down about 1,000 trees. Volunteers who had large trailers and DWR employees hauled load after load of trees down from Salt Lake and Utah County locations. Although at times it was bitter cold, windy and snowy, the weather cooperated as well as could be expected. Some 400, 50-pound concrete weights poured by Tracy Myers of B.A.S.S. were also hauled down, as well as 5,000 feet of 3/16-inch cable that was donated by Micron.

Pulling It All Together
On January 26, 2002, a stiff wind blew sheets of sand along the shoreline as 26 volunteers and DWR employees converged on Yuba’s Walleye Bay. Almost instinctively, everyone found something that needed to be done, settled into a job and stayed with it until it was finished.

First the trees were dragged into rows. Next, they were tied together. “We drilled holes in each one of the tree trunks and stretched cable through them with 50 pound anchors attached every 20 or so feet to secure them in place,” says Don Wiley, who replaced Thompson as the Central Region Aquatics Manager and has enthusiastically adopted the project. “As the reservoir fills the trees will fall through the ice to the lake bottom and the trees that are laying along the shoreline will be submerged.” About the only break of the day was at lunchtime. At day’s end, 24 reefs lay silently in wait to be swallowed up by the rising lake waters of spring.

The logistics of the project are impressive. Since discussion first began in November until January 28, volunteers had invested in the neighborhood of 500 hours of time, put nearly 5,000 miles on their private vehicles, and have created about two-dozen partnerships.

Down the Road
Other types of habitat are also being tried. Later in the spring of 2002, large earthen berms were constructed to see if they would promote the growth of shallow vegetation. Before and after the Christmas tree reefs were built, boxes made of corrugated plastic, called Aqua cribs, were stuffed with brush and installed in the reservoir.

The project experienced several setbacks during the summer of 2002. The biggest was the water levels. After rising about halfway up some of the Christmas tree reefs, the water was pulled way down, so the reefs could not provide appreciable cover during the season. Another problem was with evaluating the effectiveness of the reefs. The water is so murky that visibility is a problem. Also, electro-fishing and gill-netting did not prove to be effective for monitoring. These are problems that will be worked out.

The good news is that the Christmas trees seem to be more durable habitat than first thought, and made it through the summer in acceptable shape. Also, the low water levels during recent dry years have promoted the growth of extensive wild shoreline vegetation that should add to the habitat for several years after the water comes back up.

Because of plans to drain the reservoir in 2003 to work on the dam, work on additional Christmas tree reefs were ruled out as an option for this year. There are also issues to resolve such as the possible need to restock with fish after the reservoir is drained.

With so much at stake, anglers and others using Yuba are cautioned to not disturb the structures. Accept that snags will be a way of life when fishing around them. Project participants anticipate that what is learned here will be applied to other reservoirs in the state that have similar problems.

The hallmark of this project has been the diverse group it has pulled together—the Utah DWR, the fishing clubs, Utah State Parks, water users, cities and other government agencies, private business, interested anglers and many others. Wes Schneider, president of Rocky Mountain Anglers, praises the cooperation. “Our club has joined forces with B.A.S.S. on several projects,” he says “and the projects seem to be getting bigger and bigger. This has been the biggest and I’m sure it won’t be the last. We have a lot of common interests.”

“We’ve just had tremendous support from the fishermen and all the groups,” says Thompson, who kept working on the project as a volunteer after he retired from the DWR. “The State Parks people, the water users have all been willing to let us come in and do this work. We’ve had some really good support.”

The project has not lost a step under Wiley’s leadership and continues to roll along. The Yuba Habitat Committee continues to meet to plan the approach as the reservoir rises again, and RMA will continue to play an important part in Yuba’s future. Watch here for updates and opportunities to help as this worthy project proceeds.