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Utah DWR: Don't Catch and Release...Just Catch

On subject I was up last weekend in the high Uintas camping. We hike up to a little lake that was secluded and sat on the shore fishing, drinking and cooking everything we caught right as we caught it.

I almost never catch and keep just because it is a pain to get it home and my wife wont eat fish so its just me. Although this summer I caught some large trout at Strawberry and brought them home for the in-laws to eat at Sunday dinner. They had never had fresh caught trout. They were a little grossed out at the image of the fish but when they tried it they liked it. I ended up eating most of it them.
 
franklin said:
I'm no fan of the game wasting laws. In a world where you have to manage resources, and stock fish like we do, what's the point of anti-wasting and tight bag limits that encourage anglers to throw back smaller fish in hopes of taking all the bigger ones?

Utah Lake has no bag limit on white bass. There are millions of them and they're pitifully small. They typically grow about 1.5 lbs (and up to 4 in the 70's), which is large enough to get some killer fillets from. Now they're all about 8 oz and nothing better than catfish bait.

I don't know what the state did to the sunfish and perch, but they're pathetic too. We used to have several lakes with large perch but there aren't any left. I blame it on walleye vulture fish but that might not be true.
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The small white bass are a result of carp, plain and simple. I could go into it, but trust me on this one. Same goes for the perch, at least in UL.

I C&R 99.8% of the time simply because I haaaaaatttte cleaning/filleting. Another issue down south is the heat. Unless you're in a boat with a nice live well, your catch spoils pretty damn fast. I love fresh fish that I can cook on the campfire, but other than that, I'm not a fan. Sand Hollow is a prime candidate for stunting, and in my non-biologist opinion, it is already in bad shape. I've never heard anything about it at RAC's or online, but especially with the water situation down here, the bass population is in trouble.

If I had someone who would fillet all of my fish for me, I'd keep a limit every time it go out.
 
My bro in law is a master filleter. I used to go fishing with him a lot looking for perch and blue Gill and the like and once saw him cleanly filet about 30 such fish in less than 20 minutes. He had his filet board all set up with nails and clamps and **** and can just plow through those suckers, although we never fileted any suckers.
 
E.J. Wells said:
The small white bass are a result of carp, plain and simple. I could go into it, but trust me on this one. Same goes for the perch, at least in UL.
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10-4



E.J. Wells said:
I C&R 99.8% of the time simply because I haaaaaatttte cleaning/filleting. Another issue down south is the heat. Unless you're in a boat with a nice live well, your catch spoils pretty damn fast. I love fresh fish that I can cook on the campfire, but other than that, I'm not a fan. Sand Hollow is a prime candidate for stunting, and in my non-biologist opinion, it is already in bad shape. I've never heard anything about it at RAC's or online, but especially with the water situation down here, the bass population is in trouble.

If I had someone who would fillet all of my fish for me, I'd keep a limit every time it go out.
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That's sad. SH is the only decent bass pool in the state. I'm surprised they kept it strong for this long.
 
E.J. Wells said:
The small white bass are a result of carp, plain and simple. I could go into it, but trust me on this one. Same goes for the perch, at least in UL.

I C&R 99.8% of the time simply because I haaaaaatttte cleaning/filleting. Another issue down south is the heat. Unless you're in a boat with a nice live well, your catch spoils pretty damn fast. I love fresh fish that I can cook on the campfire, but other than that, I'm not a fan. Sand Hollow is a prime candidate for stunting, and in my non-biologist opinion, it is already in bad shape. I've never heard anything about it at RAC's or online, but especially with the water situation down here, the bass population is in trouble.

If I had someone who would fillet all of my fish for me, I'd keep a limit every time it go out.
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Could you use them for chum?

I've wondered about the feasibility of trying to bring a pet food manufacturer to the shores of utah lake. Maybe the state could offer a tax incentive or build a processing facility that they could lease out on the cheap.
 
heyhey said:
Could you use them for chum?

I've wondered about the feasibility of trying to bring a pet food manufacturer to the shores of utah lake. Maybe the state could offer a tax incentive or build a processing facility that they could lease out on the cheap.
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It's not legal to chum in Utah.

There is actually a huge effort to reduce the number of carp in UL. It has been somewhat successful but the task is enormous. The driving force behind the effort and what is funding it is that the endangered June Sucker is in Utah lake and no other body of water.
 
Gameface said:
It's not legal to chum in Utah.

There is actually a huge effort to reduce the number of carp in UL. It has been somewhat successful but the task is enormous. The driving force behind the effort and what is funding it is that the endangered June Sucker is in Utah lake and no other body of water.
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Has it always been illegal? I had a step dad that always had a bucket of chum. It wouldn't surprise me tbh. He was one of those African Safari going hunters without an ecological conscience.

Yeah I know. Problem is that the company that does the fishing was hit pretty hard when a warning was issued about eating too much fish from UL. (mercury) A lot of the asian buyers dried up. Last I heard the dude was talking to fertilizer manufacturers.
 
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heyhey said:
Yeah I know. Problem is that the company that does the fishing was hit pretty hard when a warning was issued about eating too much fish from UL. (mercury) A lot of the asian buyers dried up. Last I heard the dude was talking to fertilizer manufacturers.
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It was PCBs, and Loy Jr. got a big *** government contract (5,000,000lbs/yr @ $0.20/lb) when his market went away.
 
franklin said:
It was PCBs, and Loy Jr. got a big *** government contract (5,000,000lbs/yr @ $0.20/lb) when his market went away.
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Yes I get that he gets gov funding. I thought cat food may be a good idea to help monetize the carp. That's all.
 
heyhey said:
Could you use them for chum?

I've wondered about the feasibility of trying to bring a pet food manufacturer to the shores of utah lake. Maybe the state could offer a tax incentive or build a processing facility that they could lease out on the cheap.
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Franklin pretty much covered it.

heyhey said:
Yes I get that he gets gov funding. I thought cat food may be a good idea to help monetize the carp. That's all.
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Mercury laced cat food? Not a bad idea, really.
 
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