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[#0000FF]A quick put-together trip for TubeBabe and I. With state holiday tomorrow, birthdays and sloppy weather forecast it was about our only shot at fishing this week.
Launched at Walsburg about 6:40...with the full moon just sliding down on the other side of Timpanogos. 60 degree air temp and 73 water temp. Warmer than I thought it would be.
I crossed the channel to the north side and TubeBabe worked along the south side. I started scoring small smallies with almost every cast on my small jigs. They ranged from 6 inches to 10 inches. Fun on light tackle but no danger of line breakage.
After about an hour, I started getting fewer whacks. But the fish were a little bigger. Got quite a few ten inchers and a few footlongs. My largest for the morning was a 14 incher...with a notch in the top of his head. Gotta be a good story there somewhere.
One of the highlights of the morning was the swimmer that came up on me from behind. He had been fairly quiet but suddenly started really splashing. I thought I might be under attack from Moby Carp. Snapped a quick pic as he cruised by.
TubeBabe announced on the walkie talkie that she was also catching quite a few "smallettes". But nothing over about 8 inches. Like myself, she had lost a couple of bigger ones to long-line releases when they jumped and flipped her the jig.
I pushed eastward until I ran out of Walsburg Bay. Got really shallow with a channel only slightly deeper. Cruised around back and forth over the channel and didn't see any fishkind on sonar. I did see a few sheep grazing near the water on the fresh green growth on the mud bank newly exposed by the dropping water level.
Oh yeah, I also found a small inflated raft some child evidently lost in the breeze and it ended up at the back corner of Walsburg. Boo hoo.
TubeBabe and I agreed we would make an early day of it. Fewer and fewer bites by only small smallies. Saw quite a few suspended fish that had lockjaw and upraised fins on our sonar screens. We don't need that kind of dissing. We get plenty from kids and grandkids.
On the way back TubeBabe crossed over and reworked the north shoreline that I left to go try her side of the channel. The lake is always wetter...or however that goes. I promptly began catching her sub-dinks and she scored a few larger small ones.
I did get to enjoy a brief but interesting aerial battle between a hawk and what appeared to be a couple of blackbirds. The smaller and more agile birds were attacking from above and the rear and the poor hawk was unable to do much about it but kick in the afterburner and boogie.
No other species besides smallies today. Had one six inchish perch drop off at the tube. Would have liked to score some other species...and bigger fish. But, it was a nice morning and we got enough play from the smallettes to keep us from smelling skunk. We released everything except for a few in the 10 to 11 inch range.
Fought our way to the ramp through the blossoming power squadron and a couple of yakkers just heading out. On the road shortly after 11. Had better days but had worse too. I am properly grateful for any time on the water.
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It's almost like white bass fishing at Utah lake for those 8-10" smallies up there. Wish more people would keep the little ones and leave the big ones to eat the little ones, maybe find a balance?
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[#0000FF]I have long believed in thinning in the middle...keeping the hungry teenagers and letting the adults get bigger.
We kept about 8 of the "underfooters" today. And just about every one of them had either a freshly eaten crawdad or a small sunfish in it's gut. Those mid-sized ones eat more proportionately than the bigger fish...and clean up a lot of the food that would help make the big ones bigger.
Here are a couple of CSI pics from today's fillet board.
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Great report, TD. Always straightforward and honest, whether it be great, poor or midlin'.
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At least you got out and enjoyed the great morning we had today!
Great post as always! Thanks!
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[#0000FF]I am a firm believer in the old saying "You gotta taste the bitter to appreciate the sweet." Really has a lot of application to fishing. We all have trips that are not so great...along with a few that are stellar and memorable. The former definitely helps you to enjoy the latter even more. And the latter makes it easier to endure the former.
If fishing was just about the catchin' there would be a lot fewer fishermen. Still too many who measure the success of a trip by how many fish they bring home.
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[#0000FF]Thanks back atcha.
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Nice post as always, and a beautiful morning on the water by the looks of it.
Loved the Wooly Buggers. Can't wait to see you strip back one of those on the end of your fly line. Be sure to snap a shot or two so we can see how it's done.
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Good detective work finding the crawdads. Whenever I rarely keep a fish, nothing shows up lol.
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Another wonderful report! Gotta love it when the smallies want to play.[cool]
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Well I'll be a monkeys uncle.
People are going to accuse me of telling fish stories if this keeps up. [  ]
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"Loved the Wooly Buggers. Can't wait to see you strip back one of those on the end of your fly line. Be sure to snap a shot or two so we can see how it's done"
[#0000FF]I'm fairly sure that if you had a rig big enough to cast one that stripping wouldn't be a problem.
By the way, "stripping" a sheep is known as "shearing".
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[#0000FF]No worries mate. I've been fishing long enough to know that fish move around...for their own reasons. What was plentiful and active one day could be long gone the next day. They can either return...or not.
With the water levels dropping and water temps rising it is not surprising to find the venue empty. Saw quite a few "suspenders" in deeper water that could have been migrants. And they were completely inactive. That is common with that species.
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[quote FishingLunatic]Good detective work finding the crawdads. Whenever I rarely keep a fish, nothing shows up lol.[/quote]
[#0000FF]I almost always check stomach contents in the fish I put to the knife. Great education. A good chance to see both what the fish are eating and how plentiful their food supply is. If all the fish are fat and healthy, with a high percentage of them having recently eaten goodies in their tummies, the fishery is good and the fish will grow and prosper.
That is currently the status in Deer Creek. But why are there so few larger bass? Overharvest by anglers? Spearfishermen? I suspect it is a combination of the two. Bass grow slowly and it takes a few years for them to reach a decent size. As they are harvested along the way the numbers of potentially larger fish decline. And if all the big ones are caught or killed by happy harvesters or spearos...well, then there ain't any left.
A lot of anglers see the abundant small bass in Deer Creek and the lack of larger ones and cry 'STUNTING". Not true. As long as there are crawdads and fry from perch, sunfish carp, crappies and other species the bass will have enough to eat and grow.
Jordanelle is another matter. There is no big crawdad population there...and the perch population took a bit hit a few years ago. Just now coming back a bit. The bass rely heavily on perch fry for their growth and survival. And not many bass caught in Jordanelle are fat and sassy...with full tummies. They are struggling. Maybe some stunting n Jordanelle.
Always good to know what the fish are patterning on. Helps you either use the right bait or throw the right lure...to imitate the food of choice. And keep records. It can help you in years to come.
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Hmmmm, interesting. Most of the fish I've caught at Jordanelle, though still small, have been larger on average than those from Deer Creek this year.
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Over the years I've seen a lot of folks mention the spear fisherman and their impact on the fishery.
I know nothing of the spear fishing community. Do they really harvest enough to impact the ecosystem at a specific lake?
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[#0000FF]Hard to make side by side comparisons and draw any specific conclusions. Each ecosystem is unique unto itself and over several years the species numbers, size and health can vary widely. One lake can be going through an upward cycle while another can be on the downward swing.
All of the smallies I caught at Deer Creek were small but healthy. (see pic)
I caught quite a few smallies in Jordanelle last week and most of them were a bit on the skinny side. And the two I kept for the knife were empty...no food...and had no internal fat. Also heard from one of the guys who fished a tournament there recently and said that some of the fish were spitting up tiny 1" young of the year perch. As the baby perch get bigger the bass will get more to eat with each munch. That should put some weight on them before winter. But if the lake gets too low then it is potentially a whole new matter.
As we both agree, it helps to thin out a large population of the smaller fish to provide more food for fewer fish.
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[quote AFFamily]Over the years I've seen a lot of folks mention the spear fisherman and their impact on the fishery.
I know nothing of the spear fishing community. Do they really harvest enough to impact the ecosystem at a specific lake?[/quote]
[#0000FF]There are a lot of arguments...pro and con...about the effects of spear fishing on the game fish populations at Deer Creek and Jordanelle. Admittedly, the spearos do a good job at carp management by killing and removing lots of the bronze buglemouths. But they also kill and remove a significant number of gamefish...walleyes and bass.
The pic below shows a couple of walleyes taken from Deer Creek. No weight or measurements available on those fish but the largest looks like it could be a state record if taken on hook and line. Any angler would give up a valuable appendage to be able to catch even one that size. Some spear fishermen harvest several over a season.
[inline "DEER CREEK WALLEYE.jpg"]
Big walleyes and big bass have something in common. They both take several years to get to trophy size. And with the relative small sizes of both Deer Creek and Jordanelle...compared to the huge impoundments of the midwest...there are really not many fish that size in our reservoirs at any given time. Each one removed represents the end of the chain for what began as thousands of little ones. And each one removed leaves a big hole in the population...both for spawning and for availability to anglers.
There has been a big increase in the number of spear fishermen in Utah since the spear fishing laws have been liberalized and it has been made legal to shoot game fish. Many states still do not allow this practice...even with greater fish populations. It must also be noted that many newbie spear fishermen are not unlike newbie rifle hunters. They get itchy trigger fingers and just want to kill something. And since bass are notoriously complacent about divers approaching them...within easy spear range...they make good targets for spearos who just wanna put a hole in a fish.
In fairness, not all spear fishermen are happy harvesters. Most of the seasoned fish stickers are respectful of the resource and only occasionally shoot a game fish. The problem is that they are almost universally "trophy" hunters...shooting the biggest fish they can find. ALSO...there is no catch and release with spear fishing.
Bottom line? Spear fishing DEFINITELY impacts the big fish numbers in any waters in which it is legal to shoot fish with spearguns. Anglers...especially those who practice C&R on larger bass...have a minimal impact on the numbers of large fish at any given time. There ARE some large bass that are harvested by the meat fishermen. But the truly big bass are usually too wary to be duped by anglers who do not have the savvy, the equipment and the techniques to fool them. And even the best anglers do not always catch the biggest fish in the lake. Can't say that for spear fishermen.
My personal opinion is that spear fishing should be disallowed on any water in which the gamefish are already having a difficult time reaching larger sizes. Doesn't matter about slot limits, C&R or selective harvest among anglers if the fish they allow to grow bigger leave the lake with a hole in their sides.
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Wow you could have just showed the picture of the walleye and that would have been enough to convince me!
After reading through your post I'd have to agree with you on the impact of fisheries. Are all game fish in those waters able to be taken by speargun? I check the AZ regs to see what the rules were for Powell since it shares a border with both states. AZ only allows carp and stripers to be taken. Interesting that Utah allows other species to be taken.
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[#0000FF]There have already been lots of "discussions" on the allowance for other game species in Utah. Notably the spearing of tiger muskies and big lake trout while they are shallow spawning in the fall. Finally got some special regs for Fish Lake but not before the word got out to the spear fishermen and lots of huge macks were slaughtered in their spawning areas.
Kind of interesting that Utah bow fishermen can only shoot carp...and you can't use a speargun or crossbow above water. But if you go underwater with a speargun you can kill 'em all.
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