More Reservoirs Opened for Salvage

[duksnfish]

Not much can be done. The money spent by the F&G is just basically month to month rent for fishermen using waters that don't now and never did belong to us. Those lakes are owned by the concerns such as farmers who paid to build the dams. While I feel bad as an end user, I understand that we are, as fishermen, secondary users are just lucky to have the lakes to fish that we do.

I agree MMDon, but, how long and for what cause can F&G keep dumping untold amount of public dollars into these systems knowing full well and good that at some point the waters that are being populated with fish that the public pays for are going to be dried up and the fish die? Ya, I just read an article that said that the decisions made by the F&G fisheries managers ultimately are the best decisions that can be made. But, at cost? F&G is always complaining about not having enough money to fund even the simplest of items and finding funding to keep the hatcheries going yet, this salvage fishing happens almost every year now days.

I know, as you state, and many others know that we are just an end user that gets to use (and not all the time) these waters that are owned by others (canal companies) and we are at the beckon whim of the owners of these waters. Good, bad or ugly, but, I think we recognize that but what do we do and what can F&G do to minimize the overall impact of these salvage operations? Especially when you take a look at the restrictions and rules of use implemented on most all of the waters in South East Idaho in and around the Preston area? I've said it before, and I really think it's time to put a little more economic emphasis on what fishing impact has on the local economy.

I argued this point many years ago when we were trying to minimize the impacts from restrictions being put on the reservoirs owned by the Consolidated Canal Company but Preston and Franklin County just didnt grab the point and run, but, with the number of out of staters using the waters there, it was determined that there was a significant economic benefit to the waters owned and operated by the canal companies. But, that push died and died hard because we just couldn't get anyone to stand behind that push that had any pull.

But, I'll get off my soap box now and let's just see how long and what kind of impact the salvage fishing that's taking place this year, how long it takes to get back to what the fishing was like just prior to this years operations.