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There are a couple of reasons for this recommendation this year.
1. Anglers largely aren't keeping limits of many of the warm and cool water fish. The creel surveys that we have completed (including Willard Bay, Pelican, Jordanelle) indicate pressure and harvest is down quite a bit. The pressure doesn't bother me as much as the harvest, when you combine it with the age and growth information that our regional biologists have been gathering for the last 2-3 years. The DWR continually hears angler complaints about the smaller fish in Jordanelle, Pelican and the over harvest of fish at Willard Bay inlet. We then share the data from creel surveys and age and growth studies and the anglers either don't believe us OR choose to continue releasing fish for perceived ethical reasons. Meanwhile the fisheries continue to decline. We completed a statewide angler survey in 2011 that indicated that anglers want/desire more quality fish and that catching a lot of smaller fish isn't really appealing. How can we achieve this if anglers aren't willing to remove fish (up to the limit) so the remaining fish have a little more to eat and grow.
2. If people currently don't take a limit home then a more liberal limit won't achieve anything. The removal of the at home possession will allow folks to keep a few more fish at home and perhaps feel OK about going back out and going fishing.
3. Lastly....there are an alarming number of people who either didn't know about the current possession law or didn't care and thereby didn't adhere to it. To my knowledge the DWR has only pressed two of these violations, over the past 12 years. These were for gross violations. This means that perhaps 5 million anglers over the past twelve years did what they felt compelled to do whether this law is in place or not. It is my personal belief that this law didn't impact peoples decision in the past and won't in the future.
My hope is that a person who just returned from Lake Powell and has a good number of walleye in their possession (no limit) doesn't feel like they can't then go out to Starvation, Willard Bay or Utah Lake fish for walleye. Same thing for black bass at any water in Utah that has a more liberal limit than six fish. I personally go up to Oregon and fish Brownlee Reservoir for Crappie every spring. There is no limit on crappie on that reservoir. When I cross the border into Utah, I am technically over limit and for sure can't keep any crappie in Utah until I eat my crappie from Oregon.
To summarize, DWR hopes that if anglers don't utilize the daily limits that are set in place (creel survey data) then perhaps we can entice a few additional anglers to harvest a couple of days instead of one.
Drew Cushing
Warmwater Sportfish Coordinator
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3]Thanks Drew. I'm looking forward to canning a ton of perch in the near future for gifting and home consumption. I might even have to consider doing the same with some bass and walleye from our planned Powell trips.
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Bob Hicks, from Utah
I'm 81 years young and going as hard as I can for as long as I can.
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There are waters in Utah that have been in need of harvest for several years or more.
Two that come to mind are the Provo, and the Ogden.
Harvesting fish that are in waters where they are stunting looks like a good game plan.
I have a question concerning stocked trout.
Does the stocking report list the size of trout that are stocked or is it the weight of the fish?
It appears that trout are being stocked at a noticeably smaller size in recent years.
I have had a lot of people asking me about this.
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thanks for the info I had never really thought about the problem with letting to many fish go . looks like I will have to keep a few more for my health and the health of the fisheries.
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Let me start by saying that I hate this idea.
A couple questions:
1. You mention Willard specifically. Wipers and Walleye are stocked there. If your theory is that there are too many of these fish, why would you waste money by stocking more of these fish there, only to over populate the lake and make the fishery worse? It sounds completely contradicting.
2. I'm going to start a club. Members will be required to pay a 100$ monthly fee to be part of the club. I am then going to quit my job, and fish all day every day, and keep as many fish (excluding trout) as I feel like. These fish will be put into the clubs freezer and members will be allowed to take as much fish as they want from the club freezer. With this new possession law, my idea will be 100% legal, correct?
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ahh no it wouldn't be legal at all you can't sell fish. I don't know about you but fishing Willard this year the walleye were pretty much all the same size. it concerns me that there are not other smaller fish being caught .
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I wouldn't be selling any fish.
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yeah it would, and its not a very good argument either what are you specifically upset about?
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Less fish to be caught.
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their point is that you can have a lake full of stunted fish or a lake with fewer but larger fish. I guess its two side of the same coin.
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Yeah, I understand their point. And in some instances I think it will certainly help. Small mouth in Deer Creek and Jordanelle, perch in Fish Lake etc. But my cup of tea is catfish. Catfish are very easy to catch, and large ones are not very scarce. My fear is that idiots are going to go sit at Utah Lake and catch limit after limit of 5-10 lb catfish. It could very feasibly happen.
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[quote FishMcFisherson]I'm going to start a club. Members will be required to pay a 100$ monthly fee to be part of the club. I am then going to quit my job, and fish all day every day, and keep as many fish (excluding trout) as I feel like. These fish will be put into the clubs freezer and members will be allowed to take as much fish as they want from the club freezer. With this new possession law, my idea will be 100% legal, correct?[/quote]
You still have to abide by the daily bag limit. And why would they pay you to be in the club when they can keep their own fish in their own freezer without worrying about possession limits?
And last, but not least, maybe with a few thousand fewer 5 to 10 pound channel cats in Utah Lake there would be a lot more 15 to 20 pound channel cats.
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When you say that I still have to abide by the daily bag limit, you just mean that I can't have more than the bag limit in my possession while on the water, correct? If so, no problem. I live very close to several waters.
The people that are going to join my club are folks that don't fish, or don't fish often. A good majority of people don't fish, and at the same time a good majority of people like to eat fish. It's a solid plan.
And lastly, maybe. But those people catching all the 5-10 lbers are also going to be catching and keeping any 15-20 lbers they catch.
Trust me, if they keep this plan and in a couple years I'm pulling 15-20 lbers out of Utah Lake left and right, I will throw on the crow eating feed bag.
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Honest anglers will not be a problem with the suggestion of keeping more fish. The dishonest anglers are already taking more than their limits. They will not be effected by this proposal at all.
It is a solid plan and it will take anglers helping to make it work. Yes there are places that don't need extra harvest. Identify them and take fish from other waters.
Simple, isn't it.
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Thank you for doing this. For those of us who do eat what we catch, I appreciate it. Unfortunately, I fish the Gorge and the Kokanee were not increased. That's okay though, I understand the limitations we have with a shared water.
One benefit to having two days limits is taking a fishing trip, being able to bring back two days limits instead of one. Some waters that would be a deal breaker for me. If I didn't have a place at the Gorge, I likely wouldn't go that far for Kokes, knowing I can only bring back three fish.
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I may have commented prematurely. I was referring to the changes of the limit to two days possession. Even better if I can have more in my freezer. I eat everything I catch. Just polished off my last elk roast tonight (going to raid my parents freezer now). Luckily got an AK trip in this year and have a few silvers in the freezer. I'd way rather eat what I harvest these days.
Anyways, thanks for doing what you guys do for our waters, tough job when everyone knows everything and let's you know it at every opportunity.
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Another angle to this...
Many of the waters I like to fish are on the "DO NOT EAT" list. Mercury, arsenic, cadmium and a host of other industrial nasties. [:/]
W2D
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Would you please post the Do Not Eat list for us. It would be good to know where these places are.
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[#0000FF]Here is a list of the [url "http://www.fishadvisories.utah.gov/"]Utah Fish Advisories[/url].
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Can you tell us what the growth rate is per year for Perch and Small mouth in Utah??
And can you tell us why we had so many more bass in Jordanelle for so many years ( numbers and size) and now we have less in size and lots less in numbers??
But you say we need to keep more fish (smaller fish) to make room for the even smaller fish??
From what I have found out other states that have small small mouth bass and perch problems put size or slot limits on the lakes so the fish can have the time to grow..Bigger bass and bigger perch eat of the smaller ones so all can grow, is this not right??
The more and bigger fish like bass, perch, walleye you have in a lake the better the health and fishing the lake will be in??
And if we as fisherman take out most of the small fish, where is the bigger fish to come from??
Is the DWR going to plant them bigger??
Are the fish (bass and perch, walleye) going to get big over night??
How long is your way going to take to show a difference in the fishery ??
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