Fishing

No. I'm not saying "keep your limit". I'm saying: allow those who want to, to keep some fish.

It's not so different from a trout slot. Look at some of the requests in this thread: increase the slot to 24", 28", etc. At some point, the slot no longer matters because the fish won't reach that size anyway -- so the regulation may as well be "C&R only".

With bass fisheries, harvest isn't going to be the limiting factor for healthy fish. Instead of worrying about the harvest portion, focus on the habitat. Improve the habitat, and you'll see more large fish even with liberal harvest regulations.

with lakes like Sand Hollow and Quail, maybe one solution would be to work with the WCWCD on water levels that would promote vegetation regeneration?



I couldn't help it. It just popped in there.
Dr. Raymond Stantz

The lakes I fish have great habitat and big bass, they are also lakes with heavy fishing pressure. I'm all for keeping some, but there are a lot of people that think you need to keep your limit every time, no matter the size. I'm totally in favor of slot limits, it's the lack there off that has me worried. If me and the guys I fish with, not to mention all the other die hard bass anglers kept their limits every time out I guarantee it would put a huge dent in the population of bass especially larger ones. Big fish don't get bigger by ending up in the fryer. If the regs say you can keep em then go for it, still doesn't make it good for a fishery.




If you sit and worry about what might happen, nothing ever will.

OK -- so the lakes you fish currently have regulations that allow anglers to keep some bass. At the same time, these lakes have great habitat and big bass. So, please help me understand: why would you want to change anything????




but, do you and the guys you fish with ever keep a limit of bass??

If angler harvest were a problem, wouldn't the DWR also want to take measures to limit the harvest?
If it's a problem, let's fix it. But if it's just paranoia because some people keep some big fish -- let's get over it and allow some people to enjoy themselves. Obviously those lakes you fish are not suffering if, as you say, they are full of big bass....

....so, worry about preserving and regenerating the habitat instead of worrying about a few people keeping a limit of fish.



I couldn't help it. It just popped in there.
Dr. Raymond Stantz

I should have clarified, the regs were changed last year, the bass I'm catching didn't get as big as they are under the current regs, my worry is that the new ones are going to have a negative impact. 6 fish any size in my opinion is bad for most bass lakes in Utah. If you look at the "trophy" lakes they have implemented a slot, why?, to keep bigger bass there for people to catch and limit harvest, right? I'm not worried about a few fish being kept, I'll take smaller bass home just to weed them out, hopefully leaving some more forage for the larger ones. You bring up the DWR but in all honesty unless the lake in question gets a ton of hype, they don't seem to care either way. I just get defensive because I know how long it has taken for the lakes I fish to get to where they are. I guess that I also need to realize that people need to catch them first to keep em. I still don't think the regs are the best but time will tell. And just to clarify I'm not trying to ruin any ones fun, have a ball, doesn't mean I have to like it.




If you sit and worry about what might happen, nothing ever will.

Yes -- but you have to know what was limiting the bass in the first place. Was it angler harvest? Or was it something else -- like poor spawning habitat, bird predation, low water, etc.? Or, quite possibly, was it angler harvest? Without knowing what waters you are talking about, it's hard to say.

6 bass of any size isn't always bad. Look at places like Newcastle, Minersville, Flaming Gorge -- all smallmouth waters. Allowing 6 bass to be harvested at those waters is NOT going to hurt them! You have to look at each place individually to determine what those limits will do.

You claim that the DWR doesn't care about many bass waters -- but I'd argue just the opposite. I find that the DWR watches and monitors those bass populations as much as trout. The difference is that our lakes and reservoirs provide better spawning habitat for bass than trout, so the perception (thanks to trout stocking) is that bass get the short end of the stick. Yet, look at how many lakes a reservoirs have great bass fishing, despite the perception that they are being ignored! There is a reason for it!



I couldn't help it. It just popped in there.
Dr. Raymond Stantz

Besides the trophy lakes, where is there a slot? They have generalized the rest. I agree 100% some waters need fish to be harvested at 6 sometimes more per day, but those places are few and being able to remove quality fish from certain lakes at those kind of numbers is bad. Add in your environmental argument and it proves my point even more, mother nature wreaks havoc on fish and when we take more than we should it compounds the problem.




If you sit and worry about what might happen, nothing ever will.

There are a lot of ways to approach your concern. I agree with most of the comments that I read, about educating your children, and conservation. Those are very important issues. There are other lakes in Utah that have histories of "keep what you catch" for instance Utah lake, and we can see that it once was an incredible trout fishery, and now… not so much. Now it’s the exact opposite, people are amazed if you catch a trout there, it's nigh unto seeing the Loch Ness Monster. Not to mention the loss and near loss of a couple species and native trout habitat.
I have heard concerns like this before and, what they are saying is not so much of, "I caught this “huge” fish and I want to take it home to show off", the concern really is, “People want a fish to take home to eat, otherwise they are wasting time.” If that’s the case, it becomes and economics issue. The economics of fishing make very little sense, spending several hours to catch maybe $20 worth of meat, when we consider the cost of travel and equipment, it’s a negative net gain. However the therapeutic benefits of fishing for me personally are off the scale. It’s so great to be out there and appreciate nature, and catching a colorful trout is a very rewarding experience.

There are a couple things to remember about fishing:

Its “Fishing”, not “catching”
It’s better than being at work
Everybody wins if we all play by the rules and regulations, ignorance is no excuse, unless your are a congressman.

One other thing I'd like to add. Catch a big fish, take a picture of it with the kid that caught it. It'll last longer.

The whole purpose of finding steril rainbows was to apease the meat/keep crowd......keep the rainbows, turn the cuttys back........whats the problem.....