04-21-2019, 01:51 AM
Ok, I should clarify what I said a bit. I live here in Garden City and fish for cutts and lakers year round. I've caught thousands of fish out of here (not counting ciscos) and yes, most make it, but one or two always seem to get hooked too deep while trolling or jigging (especially while jigging) and now it seems like yes, 80% of the cutts we catch are natives now. It just sucks that most of the deep hooked fish are natives and have to be tossed back. There is literally no difference in the size, fight, or genetics of the native and stocked fish, so why worry about preserving the wild hatched fish when the clipped ones still spawn in the same spots as the natives and produce native offspring.
Scott is a good friend and I will agree with you 100% about him doing a great job here on bear lake....I can't think of a better biologist and he puts his heart and soul into our fishery. We are lucky to have him here. He and I have talked about this before and he expressed that he has no fundamental issue with natives being kept if it were legal to do so. He told me that with all data gathered by Utah and Idaho F&G that they estimate only about 6000 Cutts get harvested from the entire lake each year anyway, so it can definitely sustain some harvest (8×19 mile lake) Apparently Idaho F&G needs to be convinced that the regulations could change without negatively affecting the Cutthroat population. The limit is only 2 anyway, so it's not like there would be a slaughter on them. Better than 9 out of 10 boats on the lake are not fishing anyway and out of the 10 percent that are, most get the skunk or only catch 1 or 2 anyway. Very few of us are consistently successful and wouldn't make much of an impact, if any.
I'm not really seeing too much effect from depth as much as I am seeing mortality from deep hooking fish, but occasionally a deep fish is exhausted by the time we get it to the boat and doesnt make it. It would be nice if we could put those fish to good use and keep them if it makes no difference in the scheme of things to the population of pure cutthroat trout in bear lake. After all, a big cutthroat is awsome on the grill and I love keeping a few from time to time.
That was my point....
Mike
[signature]
Scott is a good friend and I will agree with you 100% about him doing a great job here on bear lake....I can't think of a better biologist and he puts his heart and soul into our fishery. We are lucky to have him here. He and I have talked about this before and he expressed that he has no fundamental issue with natives being kept if it were legal to do so. He told me that with all data gathered by Utah and Idaho F&G that they estimate only about 6000 Cutts get harvested from the entire lake each year anyway, so it can definitely sustain some harvest (8×19 mile lake) Apparently Idaho F&G needs to be convinced that the regulations could change without negatively affecting the Cutthroat population. The limit is only 2 anyway, so it's not like there would be a slaughter on them. Better than 9 out of 10 boats on the lake are not fishing anyway and out of the 10 percent that are, most get the skunk or only catch 1 or 2 anyway. Very few of us are consistently successful and wouldn't make much of an impact, if any.
I'm not really seeing too much effect from depth as much as I am seeing mortality from deep hooking fish, but occasionally a deep fish is exhausted by the time we get it to the boat and doesnt make it. It would be nice if we could put those fish to good use and keep them if it makes no difference in the scheme of things to the population of pure cutthroat trout in bear lake. After all, a big cutthroat is awsome on the grill and I love keeping a few from time to time.
That was my point....
Mike
[signature]