11-27-2020, 10:17 AM
Some interesting posts here !! What Pat is talking about is reminiscent of Yuba back in the day. There were about 6 of us that regularly fished Yuba, Pat was one of them, and we would catch Perch up to 14inches and the occasional walleye. We did not advertise it and I don't think that any of us ever kept more than 2 doz., usually more like 10-12. Eventually the word got out and everyone was fishing Yuba. Where most days there was just our group and maybe one or two others, it became a virtual city down there on the ice, hundreds of fishermen. Many of those fisherman were keeping 3, 4, 5, 6, doz. jumbo perch. I saw one group of 4 guys come off the ice with two sleds full of jumbo's. I estimated that there were between 150 and 200 fish being taken home. Now, I can fillet with the best of them, but after spending 6-8 hours on the ice catching fish, I don't have the energy to stand at the sink and process 4,5,6,doz or 100 fish for the next 4 hours. Utah's have this keep everything they catch attitude, keep and consume, and it has a detrimental effect on the state's fisheries. I have fished in the mid west, the south, west coast, inter mountain west, and I have never seen such an attitude as exists here in Utah. Some of our Oriental friends display the same attitude, but that is a cultural thing. I still see many people at Utah lake trying to fill as many 5 gal buckets with WB as they can. I have always maintained that most people will not spend the time to process that many fish by themselves, to time consuming and too tiring. I submit that many of those fish are wasted !! If you talk with some of the Conservation Officers, they will tell you that over limits are pretty common. I would hope that the readers on this board would practice some restraint and only take what they can use and not over indulge when there are abundant fish, because eventually there will not be an abundance !!!