Ice fishing didn’t sound like fun to me either up un til this year. It was just my idea of having fun getting out in the cold to go fishing. But now I’m hooked, There are places you can get to if you don’t have a boat during the softwater season that you can get at during the hard water season. I even caught more fish during the hard water time than the soft water time.
I went at it with the mind set that I was going to have fun and lo & behold it was fun. Some minor investments in fishing efquipment and I was set!
OK MY REPLAY TO TROUT HAVING TO LIVE IN CLEAN CLEAR WATER IS. I HAVE COUGHT THEM IN THE JORDAN RIVER EVEN AS FAR DOWN AS ROSE PARK. CLEAN CLEAR WATER NOW THAT IS A LAUGH. TROUT LIVE IN DIRTY WATER TO. I JUST HAD TO SAY THAT.
BUT THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR INPUT I HAVE LEARNED ALOT THANKS ALL [:)]
That’s why I said they “Generally” need clean water. Yes they do live there but they don’t thrive like they used to. I’d bet most people wouldn’t eat one out of the Jordan either and if that was the preferred habitat for trout I think they’d be called “trash fish” as well. Apart from that it’s well documented that trout have fairly strict water quality needs. Otherwise there’d be great trout fishing all the way down the Green to Lake Powell.
Let’s say you lived long enough to remember the days when Utah lake was full of big Cutts and then saw the water quality decline and those fish replaced by Carp and funny looking fish with spines sticking out all over? I just don’t think it’s hard to understand why people look down upon so called “warm water” fish here in Utah. That’s all.
The best way to change it is to take more people out and show them what fishing for Bass, Walleye, Catfish, Panfish or whatever is all about. I wouldn’t have dared touch a Perch with a stick until a friend took me fishing for them and now I love it and I’d much rather eat them than trout but I think trout are still my favorite fish.
Different strokes for different folkes. I grew up only fishing for trout, but that got boring so I moved onto other species. I love fishing for bass because of the style of fishing it takes to catch a bass, I also think they fight harder. I fish a lot by myself so bass fishing keeps me busy and interested. Your constantly casting and taking fish off the hook. I also like fishing for catfish for their size and fight, but I only fish for cats if I have a twelve pack of beer and some friends to BS with . Catfishing is a little slow so I have to have some entertainment to keep me busy. You can chill and catch any fish, but I choose cats for their fight and size.
I think you should decide what kind of fishing you want to do(trolling, baifishing, jiggin, flyfishing, and lures) where you want to go, and then choose the species of fish you want to catch.
I just have to weigh in here. I was raised on the banks of the Bear River in Cache Valley. As a kid most of the fish I caught were carp and mudcats. When the hay was put up my dad and I would go “Trout Fishing”. I would get a great thrill out of catching something other than the normal. It still thrill me to catch a trout. Especially if it is a big trout. I can catch a 5 lb. striper or catfish and even though they may fight harder than a 2 lb. trout, I would rather catch the 2 lb trout. If any of you are hunters, to me it is like the difference in shooting a greenhead over a mallard or a buck over a doe.
I love to fish and love to catch anything that will bite but nothing thrills me more than being on a high mountain lake or stream and seeing that big fish roll up an take my fly or hopper.
I started out fish for nothing but trout since i live next to a good trout river. I didn’t even know the others types of fish existed in utah for a long time. Once I tried bass fishing i became hooked. I took a friend out bass fishing last fall (he had only fished for trout before that) and he loved. I think warm water fish will grow in popularity
I think I like all kinds of fishing, but one thing few have mentioned is catching different kinds of trout. I used to fish Strawberry Reservoir quite a bit. I would mainly catch rainbows. When I would catch a cutthroat I could tell as soon as it was hooked because they generally didn’t fight as hard as a rainbow. The cutts would do head shakes and body rolls, but the rainbows would run hard. The difference in fight between a 20 inch cutt and a 20 inch rainbow is night and day. There was a period when they stopped planting rainbows in Strawberry because of a sterilization problem, and I stopped fishing Strawberry because of the cutts. Also, as far as trout go, hatchery fresh fish will not fight as hard as wild fish or fish that have been in the water for awhile, and a fish with only a fly in its mouth will fight much harder than a fish with a treble hook in its gut.
I like a variety of species. I fly fish 80% of the time but not just for trout. Let me tell you an 8lb bass on a 7weight fly rod is all you can handle. THe great thing is you can taylor your rod weight whether you are fly fishing or not to match the size of the species that you are after. A big bluegill on a 3 weight rod is heck of a lot of fun. The same goes for an ultra light spinning rod. I love going after cats with 15lb line so they will not break me off in the rocks. It really does not matter what the species is as long as you change the rod and line size to make it a sport. If trout are getting too easy then chase down trophy trout or differnt species.
I have lived in both Idaho and Wyoming and in my opinion Utah is the best managed state as far as variety goes.
Lets stop this spitting contest between the bait fisherman and the fly fisherman, the trout and the warmwater people. Lets just learn how to fish from each other no matter what the style.[angelic]
