Fishing/power squadron confrontations

Utah Fishing Reports & Discussion Utah Fishing General
1

This conversation comes up occasionally with regard to overcrowding on some of the more popular reservoirs around the state. This often leaves a bad taste in the mouths of some of the participants in water sports. There are a couple of solutions that might work to decrease the amount of overcrowding, but they also have some unfairness built in. I’m not holding my breath in anticipation that either of them will ever be enacted by our politicians as they are constantly seeking new taxes and fees to increase the wealth of the state at our expense. But here are a couple of ideas that could help with boat overcrowding on our water bodies.

The first one would be the one most talked about; do an odd/even day split for any given year that specifies fishing on one and non-fishing on the other. It would slightly favor whichever group got the odd number days as there are 186 of those as opposed to 179 even numbered days for common years. Leap year would make it 187 to 179. That could be evened out by having one of the two groups get the odd days on odd years and even days in even years. But that is more complex and will lead to confusion by a lot of our under-educated population. As a fisherman, I would gladly give the Power Squadron those extra 7 or 8 days every year so I wouldn’t have to put up with their ignorant attitudes while I’m fishing.

The other solution that might work to decrease overcrowding but would not help decrease confrontations between the fishing folks and the power squadron folks. Use the odd/even numbered days along with the last digit on your boat number. If your boat number ends with an odd number, then you can only launch it on an odd numbered day. One area where this would be a better solution is in our overcrowded duck marshes. Some of our WMAs are total chaos on weekends and holidays. This solution could reduce the number of boats by close to half.

Anyway, I just thought I’d throw that out there for your consideration and thoughts on the matter. I’m not sure how one might go about getting either solution enacted into law, but possibly some of you might have some ideas about that from your past experience with other grass root issues you’ve been involved with.

What say you?

2

To start, let’s ban Baffle boats on most lakes. I have had dangerous encounters with on Willard, and one killed a person on Rockport a couple of years ago. They destroy the shoreline and stir up sediment in shallow lakes. I know, State wants money so they will not do that, but, it is the most important thing to do. Perhaps if the legislature got criminally charged as an accomplice to a crime it might help.

Next, impose speed limits, and then enforce them. Yes, I get up on plane and travel faster when it is safe, but having joedirtbag wakeboarding or skiing around fishermen just so they can see the trouble they cause us is not safe.

OK, you got me on a grumpy day.

3

One idea is to add more No Wake zones. The wake board boats seem to be exempt. They can be half a mile away from the launch ramp and still send huge waves into the launch area. That can be dangerous. I am thinking of attending some of the meetings in the future to voice my concern. The State could look at the areas where wake boaters may go and recreate safely and then fishermen and other boaters can go and stay safe too.