09-26-2006, 06:25 PM
[reply]Uh, from what I can tell on that river, pretty well every group I saw were jumping from spot to spot. It's what I've seen most of them do on all of my trips there. We parked at 3 more spots, fished for a while, and left for Otter Creek.
The Smallmouth didn't get a chance. Just look at the habitat. When you see 2 or 3 hundred young of the year SM dead, it indicates there was a possiblity there. I've caught them out of Otter Creek's spillway before, and in rather large sizes. From what I've seen there, too, rough fish numbers are down. Only problem, as PBH said, is the water flows. I know bass can contend with high water; They'd take it to their advantage. What they'd need is just a minimum flow durring the off-irrigation season. Then both trout and bass would benefit.
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There is nothing wrong with jumping from spot to spot unless you are jumping directly in front of someone else. As you may or may not know, stream fishermen usually work upstream. When you jump on to a spot on a river directly upstream from someone else you cut them off. It is poor etiquette.
Smallmouth bass will probably never be a significant game fish throughout the sevier river below Otter Creek or Piute because the water temps are way too cold through the winter months and those hundreds of 2-3 inch bass die. That will happen regardless of flows. The larger bass you are seeing in the spillway pools/ponds are fish that are coming from the reservoirs.
With that being said, minimum flows would be very beneficial to the river...but, again, these periodical die-offs are not as serious as you may think...I will watch the Sevier closely all fall/winter and am willing to bet that the fishery is not lost and a significant kill never takes place in Marysvale Canyon.
The thing you have to remember about the flooding two years ago is that the area is coming out of a major drought...who knew that they were going to have that much water? Nobody has a crystal ball and can predict exactly how much water to release or hold. Who is to say that we don't have a terrible winter this year and those reservoirs don't fill? Honestly, I understand your frustration, but I also understand the concerns of the water users. They try to err on the safe side and preserve enough water to make it through the next season. What bugs me about how the water is released is this: during the summer months the river rages with exceptionally high flows and during the winter months it is shut off. Why can't the flows be managed at more stable or consistent rates?
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The Smallmouth didn't get a chance. Just look at the habitat. When you see 2 or 3 hundred young of the year SM dead, it indicates there was a possiblity there. I've caught them out of Otter Creek's spillway before, and in rather large sizes. From what I've seen there, too, rough fish numbers are down. Only problem, as PBH said, is the water flows. I know bass can contend with high water; They'd take it to their advantage. What they'd need is just a minimum flow durring the off-irrigation season. Then both trout and bass would benefit.
[/reply]
There is nothing wrong with jumping from spot to spot unless you are jumping directly in front of someone else. As you may or may not know, stream fishermen usually work upstream. When you jump on to a spot on a river directly upstream from someone else you cut them off. It is poor etiquette.
Smallmouth bass will probably never be a significant game fish throughout the sevier river below Otter Creek or Piute because the water temps are way too cold through the winter months and those hundreds of 2-3 inch bass die. That will happen regardless of flows. The larger bass you are seeing in the spillway pools/ponds are fish that are coming from the reservoirs.
With that being said, minimum flows would be very beneficial to the river...but, again, these periodical die-offs are not as serious as you may think...I will watch the Sevier closely all fall/winter and am willing to bet that the fishery is not lost and a significant kill never takes place in Marysvale Canyon.
The thing you have to remember about the flooding two years ago is that the area is coming out of a major drought...who knew that they were going to have that much water? Nobody has a crystal ball and can predict exactly how much water to release or hold. Who is to say that we don't have a terrible winter this year and those reservoirs don't fill? Honestly, I understand your frustration, but I also understand the concerns of the water users. They try to err on the safe side and preserve enough water to make it through the next season. What bugs me about how the water is released is this: during the summer months the river rages with exceptionally high flows and during the winter months it is shut off. Why can't the flows be managed at more stable or consistent rates?
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