Great night catching at Scofield

[a_flyfishin_kid]

Fished Scofield yesterday from 4-9pm with fellow BFT member crappielover89. It wasn't as much fishing as it was catching because we iced around 80 fish. All were cutthroats and most came between 10-14 in but we had a few in the 14-17 in range. We fished in the dam arm and the ice was around 10 in thick with a few inches of bad ice on top. The bite totally shut off at 9 so we decided to leave. And let me just say that CL89 knows his stuff. He must have out fished me 2-1 and our holes were right next to eachother. He is one of the biggest fishing addicts I know. Attached are a couple photos of some of the larger fish we iced. Overall it was my best trip ever on the ice and thanks CL89 for making it happen.
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[Flyfishinglover]

Nice job[] but we still have to go fishing someday together.
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[albinotrout]

Thanks for the report[cool]
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[TyeDyeTwins]

Night ice fishing always feels special in some sort of way. Great report!
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[copple2]

Nice work! I'm gonna take the kidos out there tomorrow. Hopefully we'll find a few!
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[fsh4fun05]

Thanks for the report. I think I better get out soon.
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[Out4Trout]

[cool]Thanks for the report. Yep, those are just like the little dinks that I caught and the folks around me last Saturday in the same general area. That, and a ton of chubs. It dens me to see how far down that fishery has come in the last 5 years... Believe or not, 5-10 years ago in that same area it was not uncommon to catch 10-20 big fat football shaped 'bows about 19 inches and 2-3 lbs, many with live crawdads in their bellies. And now, it's come to this. It still beat being at work though.

Scofield won't be seeing much of me until they get the chubs under control and the average sized trout in there start getting some decent size to the again...
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[Fishrmn]

And that's not likely to happen until the UDWR decides to poison the chubs.



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[big_apple]

[quote Out4Trout][cool]TBelieve or not, 5-10 years ago in that same area it was not uncommon to catch 10-20 big fat football shaped 'bows about 19 inches and 2-3 lbs, many with live crawdads in their bellies. And now, it's come to this. It still beat being at work though.[/quote]

It definitely beats being at work and just about any other place as well. While it is that the big bows aren't as common as they used to be, I don't think the chub situation merits a complete purging of the lake. I get out on Scofield 40-50 times a year and rarely do I pull up any chubs (be it open water or hard deck). I do wish that there were more big rainbows to be had and I guess for that, we will all just have to go to Strawberry, but if big fish is what you want, Scofield is like a pretty woman on the first date: you are going to have to really work for it.

And to prove that I am not just spewing fish tales, I came across this study that offers a lot of interesting, yet positive, insights.

http://www.usu.edu/fel/research/scofield...il2014.pdf

"Our results suggest that the high rates of piscivory of Cutthroat Trout and Tiger Trout in artificial lentic ecosystems are likely sufficient to effectively reduce the overall abundance of Utah Chub and control their ability to dominate fish assemblages. Further, since 2009, there has been a dramatic reduction in Utah Chub catch rates and the population no longer appears to be increasing. Additionally, Tiger Trout caught in the reservoir have been of state record status, an exciting aspect of this new fishery for anglers. Management regulations that protect large Cutthroat Trout and Tiger Trout and increase predator densities may provide the predation pressure necessary to suppress overabundant Utah Chub populations, whereas Rainbow Trout have little potential for responsive management manipulations."
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