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Why is there a limit on length on all large and smallmouth bass? 12 inches seems to be a small size to keep a fish to eat.Wouldnt people be taking more quantities of fish ?I know there are a lot of people who catch and release but there are those also who love to eat fish too.Wouldnt it hurt the species if the restrictions were a little different? Maybe keep 1 under 21 inches and release all above 21? My daughter asked me this question when she caught her LMB and i caught my 5 lb LMB.
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It all depends upon the water. I think that Utah Lake and Jordanelle are the only waters that have that specific regulation applied to them. Other waters, like pineview, have a no fish under 15" rule. Still others, like Quail Crk, have a slot limit of 2 over 20 and 4 under that. And all the rest that fall out of that area, like Blue Lakes, have a 6 fish limit.
I personally don't like the regs on Utah lake. Many moons ago when I was still a young lad and Saratoga was still public me and my dad would go down there every morning catfishing around 3 A.M. We'd nail a limit of big old 6-8 lb. channels before sun up, then we'd switch to bass and get a limit of nice healthy 16-18"ers. They were excellent eating, especially considering we were pretty much living on fish, deer and potatoes back then.
A few years back the avid bass anglers found out that there were some quality bass there and pretty well forced the DWR to cut off the catch of these bigger fish. Kinda stupid IMHO. I can see that fishery turning into another Provo river with all kinds of stunted fish. We couldn't have folks keeping these guys' play bass, though.
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I agree with McLennon. His last paragraph basically hit the nail on the head. At Utah lake people had been continually harvesting bass for over a century with no harm to the population. The harvest did not increase when the "pro" bass folk noticed it. It was just that they could not tolerate any harvest at all. Thus they lobbied for and got regs to stop all bass harvest at the lake. Since very very few bass show up under 12 inches, it might as well be catch and release only. Realistically, bass can tolerate considerable harvest as many biological studies reveal. But don't worry about Utah lake anymore. Why? Well, the walleye fanatics have lobbied for closing tributaries and imposing the 1 over 20 inch rule and now the walleye have overpopulated Utah lake. From intense personal observation, I have seen eyes predominate the catch this year showing up in numbers and size and replacing white bass, channels, lmb, crappie and everything else. I found few lmb at all this year and those were mere skeletons of their former girth and weight. Most of those 18 - 19 inch average lmb are getting old and dying. However the eyes have eaten up most of the white bass in the lake and have consumed numerous lmb 10 inches and under since they are short on food. Unless the white bass start to reproduce well all of this high water is not going to thwart a crash of all predator fish in the lake. Unless, of course the predatory fish all switch to a diet of baby carp. But their is talk of more needless meddling in the lake. They now want to eradicate carp, the last possible food source in the lake. If people would just leave things alone. Another example is Mantua where they decided to use rotenone to kill all of the bass forage -chubs. Now they are wondering why the bass remain small.
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The regulation change that I would like to see at Utah lake is the removal of the "no limit" on the white bass. They should make it 20 fish, like perch. As has been said, the decline in white bass has taken away a huge food source for the eyes and has had repercussions around the lake for all species. IMO, the two major causes for the decline has been; 1)the low water for the last few years, (up until this year) leaving the WB fry no cover to hide. and 2) these "harvesters" catching WB by the thousands for days on end, decimating the brood stock. I think the eyes are a minor cause only for the WB decline in Utah lake at this time. That said, It seems sensible to keep more large eyes when the forage is in decline, as it is now.
The bass limit IS a tough one. Since I moved back to the state, some of my most enjoyable fishing has been for Jordanelle's big smallies. I have "beaten" my old (pre X)personal best so many times I have lost count, and I consider myself a totally inept "schmo" in bassin compared to many on this board. I can see where a restrictive limit on these big beauties has its merit. But what happens when the forage declines that feeds these big brutes? I feel the DWR has to carefully study these waters and have dynamic regs. to meet changing biology. This has been talked about at length here on the board in various threads. One thing I have noted among some "big time" bassers is an ethic that ANY keeping of bass is unethical. They seem to be like the trout fly fishing crowd that believe the same thing. It has been comical to watch the fly angling folks when the DWR started begging people to keep trout on certain rivers. It has almost been like little (believing) kids when told Santa didn't exist. I wonder if the same thing will eventually be seen in some bass waters.
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Let us look at a couple of things ...
1. Utah Lake is huge! There is no way we can hammer the white bass populations. There are areas of that lake no one fishes. When low water comes ... the fish move out to deeper areas. They are seeing fluctuations that will cause them to stay deep.
2. The main forage fish on the lake is carp. we kill the carp, we need to replace them with something other than them. That would mean poisoning the provo river and all other inlets. [not gonna happen].
3. Regulations are not given based on popularity. Study and research are the main factors in isuing them out.
Tiimes do change though. Regulations need to be flexible.
Like I said before, there can be a win-win here ... we just need to be pro-active and let the DWR know our concerns.
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I am glad to see another bass fisherman has eaten bass - I grew up eating them - they are delicious - like all panfish or fish in general.
I have gotten the same reaction from many other fisherpeople - especially the big bass boys and/or fly casters when "I keep a few for the menu". It's like I am supposed to forget that I grew up fishing for fish to eat - it's not a trendy thing I saw in a movie(I never saw that "River runs through it" - I also don't watch ski flicks like Warren Miller's for the same kind of reasons - I'd rather do it than watch or dream about it). It's real easy to tell those kind of folks(the groovier than thou types) - just load up a stringer with dinner and walk by them and watch the reaction - it's the same kind of expression that vegetarians get when they walk through the meat department at the grocery store. Funny thing is, most of them people are not vegetarians and apparently would rather eat meat(fish) that grew up in the equivalant of an aquarium cage and has sat in the store for a few days under artificial lighting wrapped in plastic.
Oh well - back to the topic - limits can be a good thing for the species - bigger fish produce more little fish. It can also take a long time for a bass to achieve any dimensions at all - around these parts, a 12 inch bass(LMB/SMB) can be 4 or 5 years old - that can be pretty old for a game fish - numerically, few will ever make it that far.
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A couple of things regarding the Utah lake forage siuation and white bass. The thing that makes Utah lake so productive for eyes and LMB is that when the ecosystem is healthy, there is always something for the predators to eat. Carp are indeed a main forage for part of the year, but the carplings grow fast, and by August/September, (in a normal year) they are too big to be an optimal prey for the average sized predators. At this time the "young of year" whites come along and feed the predators thru springtime. All of us UL regulars will agree that the carp are not CURRENTLY down at all but last fall and into this spring the walleyes were skinny. Why? It was due to the WB not having a good spawn.
As for the inability of anglers to hammer the Wb populations, we have talked about the "harvesters" a lot (although the threads often eventually got deleted due to hot tempers ) and I guess I would disagree. When guys were getting $20 per bucket (at 40-50 fish per bucket) and filling up pick-up truck beds full of buckets AND doing this day after day, this will have an effect. WB are a schooling fish and come into an area thickly at certain times of the year which makes them vulnerable. (ie Lincoln Beach springs) The poor spawning in the low water is probably a greater reason for the WB decline, but everything has an effect and they ARE currently in decline IMO. (hopefully, this years spawn will help change that)
I do agree 100% that our regs can have a win-win for all anglers. The main thing though is to care. Those who make their wishes known to the DWR will often get their way.
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