Utah Fishing Slot & Creel Limits

Utah Fishing Reports & Discussion Utah Fishing General
41

Since this is an opinion based thread I will add my 2 cents.

The biologists and the DWR have made that reg, there must be a few good reasons for it. That said…

I rarely go to those places as the SLOT SUCKS! I am a meat angler amd I want meat dammit! I aint “feeding the fish” so to say with my tackle, I am feeding myself for that pricey lure I just put out the bucks for! The berry isn’t gonna be fishless anytime soon just cuz they laxed up the slot by a few fish or even got rid of it entirely. And the chub question is one I feel might not be as bad as some potray on here.

I really doubt the reg will ever change, which sucks, at this point I blame the chub for this! That is what I hope the slot is for. The other reasons are in the rolling eyes category to me.
But as I have stated many times “the DWR is aware of the impacts the anglers have on a certain body of water”. That works for me and against me. It’s great when I can say that to someone who is un-happy with me taking my limit at a body of water and it sucks when the berry slot issue comes up. I don’t have to like it but it is what it is sometimes.

Yet you are always fishing Little Dell and Lower Bell??? Even lost a few lures there.[;)]

On this topic, I agree with Uintaman :sunglasses:

As stated before

“the DWR is aware of the impacts the anglers have on a certain body of water”. That works for me and against me. It’s great when I can say that to someone who is un-happy with me taking my limit at a body of water and it sucks when the berry slot issue comes up. I don’t have to like it but it is what it is sometimes"

Never did I mention C&R places Flygoddess. I don’t drive 70 miles one way to those spots either.

42

Haha! Just saw this and was ready to punch someone.

Anyone who can’t understand and appreciate slot limits is a selfish, short-sighted individual.

Last I checked, fishing was about fishing, since we can all buy fish from the store to eat for a lot cheaper than it costs to fish. I can also relate to the mentality of wanting to eat what you catch, but the slots also allow for this (usually 4 fish total, one cutt over 22").

If you can’t catch a decent bow or cutt out of the slot on most trips, maybe you should complain less about the slots and start learning more about fishing (not referring to you doggone).

If it were up to me, all of the best trout fisheries would have extremely restrictive slots (24 inches)allowing for the harvest of only 2 fish per trip; one trophy fish over the slot and one fish under the slot. There is absolutely no reason that someone needs to keep 4, let alone 6 or 8 fish, per trip. We all know most of these fish end up with freezer burn and thrown out.

Fishing is about FISHING and CATCHING. Eating fish can be done WITHOUT fishing and for much cheaper. Being able to take a fish or two home on occasion is a bonus.

It is our job as educated, experienced fishermen to educate younger generation about selective harvest, balance in nature, and all the other stuff Tarpon Jim stated.

I would personally rather take my daughters out to catch 50 good sized fish and let them all but one go then to take them fishing and catch only 4 or 5 fish but be able to keep them all. If I want to eat fish, I have three grocery stores within 2 miles of my house.

Ok so you don’t like to eat them. That is obvious. Well I do. So what grocery store has bass, crappie, cutts, browns, grayling, and bluegills just to name a few? Besides a lot of those grocery store fish are farm raised too.

What is the reference to the freezer burn therory again? Can you site your source? Opinions are great and all but lets try to stick to the facts.

The DWR has issued that reg to control chubs, and that apparently is a high prority to them. Hopefully one day the chubs will fade out and with that the regs will too.

43

Years ago, I used to belong to the Strawberry Anglers Association. When the slots were put into place, Roger Wilson was in charge of Strawberry. There was numerous meetings throughout the months before the change in regs.
Roger explained, the biomass of Strawberry, was just about tipping ( to the point of no return) to favor the chubs (and rotenone was out of the question).
In order get the chubs under control, they, the biologists, decided to put a slot limit on the lake. Bear Lake cutts become meat eaters when they reach sexual maturity. That is when they reach the magical size of 16". That’s why the 15-22" slot and the 2 fish under 15" limit. I do remember in those meetings, the " oldtimers" were bitching up a storm, that that it! They’re never going to fish the Berry again. This didn’t happen in the ‘good ole days’.
A few years later, when people started to pull some big cutts out constistantly, their tune changed really fast. More people than ever started to fish it. More people started to understand the reason behind slot limits. And more people are in favor of the slots. Now put a slot lomit on the 'bows and make the rest of us happy.
And bajapablo, call Alan Ward and educate yourself and your family. You might be glad you did.
And say NO TO TIGERS IN STRAWBERRY!

Edit- I found this. http://wildlife.utah.gov/strawberry/straw1.php

44

Bajapablo, I respect your seniority but I feel that perhaps your memory is decieving you. I really don’t care about Strawberry, but it is now as good or better than it ever was. No brookies, sadly, but the cutts and 'bows are as big and healthy on average as they have ever been, and this with a much bigger population of fisherpeople to please.

45

+1. These bigger bass are going to start dissappearing.

46

a great example of that is East Canyon. when i first figured out that there were bass in there i would catch 4 pounders consistently and now your lucky to

47

Thankfully you are not in charge of the regs…and I am even more thankful to the fact that we leave the “final regulation” changes to the actual people who are educated on the topic.

Dude! you haven’t learned a dang thing!!!

It’s the Wildlife Board that makes regulations. NOT the managers and biologists!! So, it is NOT the people “educated on the topic” making the final decisions. It is the people with the most political influence that get their way!

+1. These bigger bass are going to start dissappearing.

habitat, habitat, habitat. It’s not a harvest problem. It’s a habitat issue. Largemouth bass need vegetation for cover. The problem is that vegetation breaks down quickly, and disappears. How do you get that vegetation (flooded trees and brush) to regenerate? You have to have fluctuating lake levels that allow those trees and brush to re-grow. In a place like Sand Hollow, you should expect to see that vegetation disappear, after which the bass population will slowly decline into mediocrity. This happens all the time in the West with bass lakes – the new lakes go through “boom” periods, which then taper off and slowly go down hill, until the lake ends up as a marginal bass fishery.

Look at the cycle Lake Powell is currently in: levels have been raising and flooding lots of trees that were exposed for numerous years during low water levels. Combine that with new populations of shad, and you have a good recipe for great bass. Sand Hollow won’t last forever. Quail is a bit of an anomoly so far…

48

So are you saying keep your limit cause the bass are all gonna die anyway?

49

No. I’m not saying “keep your limit”. I’m saying: allow those who want to, to keep some fish.

It’s not so different from a trout slot. Look at some of the requests in this thread: increase the slot to 24", 28", etc. At some point, the slot no longer matters because the fish won’t reach that size anyway – so the regulation may as well be “C&R only”.

With bass fisheries, harvest isn’t going to be the limiting factor for healthy fish. Instead of worrying about the harvest portion, focus on the habitat. Improve the habitat, and you’ll see more large fish even with liberal harvest regulations.

with lakes like Sand Hollow and Quail, maybe one solution would be to work with the WCWCD on water levels that would promote vegetation regeneration?

50

The lakes I fish have great habitat and big bass, they are also lakes with heavy fishing pressure. I’m all for keeping some, but there are a lot of people that think you need to keep your limit every time, no matter the size. I’m totally in favor of slot limits, it’s the lack there off that has me worried. If me and the guys I fish with, not to mention all the other die hard bass anglers kept their limits every time out I guarantee it would put a huge dent in the population of bass especially larger ones. Big fish don’t get bigger by ending up in the fryer. If the regs say you can keep em then go for it, still doesn’t make it good for a fishery.

51

The lakes I fish have great habitat and big bass, they are also lakes with heavy fishing pressure. I’m all for keeping some, but there are a lot of people that think you need to keep your limit every time, no matter the size.

OK – so the lakes you fish currently have regulations that allow anglers to keep some bass. At the same time, these lakes have great habitat and big bass. So, please help me understand: why would you want to change anything???

I’m totally in favor of slot limits, it’s the lack there off that has me worried. If me and the guys I fish with, not to mention all the other die hard bass anglers kept their limits every time out I guarantee it would put a huge dent in the population of bass especially larger ones.

but, do you and the guys you fish with ever keep a limit of bass??

If angler harvest were a problem, wouldn’t the DWR also want to take measures to limit the harvest?
If it’s a problem, let’s fix it. But if it’s just paranoia because some people keep some big fish – let’s get over it and allow some people to enjoy themselves. Obviously those lakes you fish are not suffering if, as you say, they are full of big bass…

…so, worry about preserving and regenerating the habitat instead of worrying about a few people keeping a limit of fish.

52

I should have clarified, the regs were changed last year, the bass I’m catching didn’t get as big as they are under the current regs, my worry is that the new ones are going to have a negative impact. 6 fish any size in my opinion is bad for most bass lakes in Utah. If you look at the “trophy” lakes they have implemented a slot, why?, to keep bigger bass there for people to catch and limit harvest, right? I’m not worried about a few fish being kept, I’ll take smaller bass home just to weed them out, hopefully leaving some more forage for the larger ones. You bring up the DWR but in all honesty unless the lake in question gets a ton of hype, they don’t seem to care either way. I just get defensive because I know how long it has taken for the lakes I fish to get to where they are. I guess that I also need to realize that people need to catch them first to keep em. I still don’t think the regs are the best but time will tell. And just to clarify I’m not trying to ruin any ones fun, have a ball, doesn’t mean I have to like it.

53

If you look at the “trophy” lakes they have implemented a slot, why?, to keep bigger bass there for people to catch and limit harvest, right?

Yes – but you have to know what was limiting the bass in the first place. Was it angler harvest? Or was it something else – like poor spawning habitat, bird predation, low water, etc.? Or, quite possibly, was it angler harvest? Without knowing what waters you are talking about, it’s hard to say.

6 bass of any size isn’t always bad. Look at places like Newcastle, Minersville, Flaming Gorge – all smallmouth waters. Allowing 6 bass to be harvested at those waters is NOT going to hurt them! You have to look at each place individually to determine what those limits will do.

You claim that the DWR doesn’t care about many bass waters – but I’d argue just the opposite. I find that the DWR watches and monitors those bass populations as much as trout. The difference is that our lakes and reservoirs provide better spawning habitat for bass than trout, so the perception (thanks to trout stocking) is that bass get the short end of the stick. Yet, look at how many lakes a reservoirs have great bass fishing, despite the perception that they are being ignored! There is a reason for it!

54

Besides the trophy lakes, where is there a slot? They have generalized the rest. I agree 100% some waters need fish to be harvested at 6 sometimes more per day, but those places are few and being able to remove quality fish from certain lakes at those kind of numbers is bad. Add in your environmental argument and it proves my point even more, mother nature wreaks havoc on fish and when we take more than we should it compounds the problem.

55

There are a lot of ways to approach your concern. I agree with most of the comments that I read, about educating your children, and conservation. Those are very important issues. There are other lakes in Utah that have histories of “keep what you catch” for instance Utah lake, and we can see that it once was an incredible trout fishery, and now… not so much. Now it’s the exact opposite, people are amazed if you catch a trout there, it’s nigh unto seeing the Loch Ness Monster. Not to mention the loss and near loss of a couple species and native trout habitat.
I have heard concerns like this before and, what they are saying is not so much of, “I caught this “huge” fish and I want to take it home to show off”, the concern really is, “People want a fish to take home to eat, otherwise they are wasting time.” If that’s the case, it becomes and economics issue. The economics of fishing make very little sense, spending several hours to catch maybe $20 worth of meat, when we consider the cost of travel and equipment, it’s a negative net gain. However the therapeutic benefits of fishing for me personally are off the scale. It’s so great to be out there and appreciate nature, and catching a colorful trout is a very rewarding experience.

There are a couple things to remember about fishing:

Its “Fishing”, not “catching”
It’s better than being at work
Everybody wins if we all play by the rules and regulations, ignorance is no excuse, unless your are a congressman.

56

One other thing I’d like to add. Catch a big fish, take a picture of it with the kid that caught it. It’ll last longer.

57

The whole purpose of finding steril rainbows was to apease the meat/keep crowd…keep the rainbows, turn the cuttys back…whats the problem…