02-04-2021, 04:36 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-04-2021, 04:38 PM by obifishkenobi.)
Personally, I do not believe the increased pressure from anglers is a long term problem and in some cases is a good thing. Many of the species of fish that people are targeting like trout, wipers and Kokanee are designed to be a put and take fishery, so if a particular body of water gets fished out, which this years creel surveys will indicate, stocking numbers can be increased and those fishery's should rebound quickly because of increased forage, due to reduced bio mass. When we return to a new normal I suspect pressure will also go back closer to the level before the pandemic. I also think that increased pressure will lead to better quality fish of some species particularly Crappie and Perch who tend to over populate and stunt. Hyrum is a good example, last year it was no secret that there where lots of 8" easy to catch perch which is when they become attractive to harvest and lots of people did. This year there are fewer that are harder to catch but they are larger 10" perch, I would rather catch a dozen 10" perch than 40 8" perch. I love that people are hammering the crap out of the 6-8" Crappie at Pineview this year because that will result in 10-12" Crappie next year. As far as non residents, they are good for the bottom line of DWR budget and the local economy's where they spend there money so, on balance I don't take issue with them. Just my two cents.