Free Fishing Day Follow-Up

[Guts]

I am curious to everyone's experience this past Saturday. If Free Fishing Day is suppose to be a time to fish without a license, wouldnt it seem sensible for the DWR to stock the waters in an effort to have people catch fish and want to go and purchase a license so they can continue fishing?

I went to one of the Community Ponds and there were at least 20 people there with kids and no one was catching anything. Did anyone else have similiar experiences?
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[bassrods]

Fishing is fishing not catching the fishing was slow all over.

That does not mean that there are no fish.
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[CBR]

The fish were most likely there. The cold front that came in did slow things down and the fishing was spotty on Saturday where normally it would be excellent this time of year.

Some stocking does go on in most of the community fishing spots before this day.
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[PDS]

I was at the Clearfield (Maybe) pond and didn't catch a fish. Although a group of teenagers came and one ended up going swimming (Brrrrr). Only had two bites and didn't set a hook into either of them. My 5 year old decided to go swimming too, unintentionally. He fell off a rock and was up to his neck. As you can imagine our trip was cut short.
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[Out4Trout]

[cool]Went to Soldier Creek Saturday late afternoon/evening for about 4 hours. The bite was slow up there too. Only caught one 19-incher that I thought was a bow 'cause he was fighting so hard, but after getting him to shore, I saw that he was a cut, so he's still swimming. Wanted to bring a couple of bows home for the grill, but that's alright. It was just great to get up there and breathe in all of that fresh air. Got rained on a little, but I had my umbrella and I dressed for it, so it was very relaxing anyway. Oh yeah, also got about 40 crawdads. I just used cooked chicken bones from my cold fried chicken that I brought. I think I would have gotten more if I was at my primo 'dads spot by the Soldier Creek Campgrounds, but I wasn't that serious for the 'dads this time, just out to relax and chill. Good times!
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[Likes2CatchBass]

Except for getting a little wet, ok soaked. [] I thought it was a great day.

The weather fronts do affect how fish act. It was raining cats and dogs that Sat afternoon, and I still got two bass, and UTBASS got six, plus a rainbow, and a walleye. The fish still eat, heck, they are eating machines. They just eat differently during different times of the day, and during different conditions. It is up to you to figure them out. Persistence pays off, in the long run.

Stocking fish alone, won't make fishing better. In my opinion, assisting in the development of the baitfish is the best way to improve a fishery.
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[icefool]

What area of the pond were you fishing?And what were you using. We were over there a few days ago and we were getting alot of bluegills and a couple of bass. This is one of my favorite places to take my young grandkids and they usually always get some bluegills out of there.
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[PDS]

We were over by the rec center, fishing off of the handicap access ramps. I have done very well for bluegill and channels off of it in the past, but the weather seemed to shut them down on that day. We were using bits of nightcrawler for the bluegills and chicken livers for the cats. Only had one bite on the worm and one good pull on the liver. I wasn't paying attention when the fish hit the liver it was too late to feed it more line. I should have just left the bail open. We tried small jigs for a while also, but never had a single hit. This warm weather should improve the fishing there. It never has really warmed up yet to get the cats really active, at least the times that I have been able to break away and take the kids.
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[DKStroutfitter]

Free Fishing Day was a great success at the Meadow Creek Pond in Roy City.
Sportsman's Warehouse come to the pond with a lot of fishing tackle that they gave away to the kids. The pond was lines with kids and their parents, many for the first time fishing ever.
The Community Ponds were stocked with Cat Fish a few days earlier and many in the 5# to 6# size were caught over the weekend. Several big cats were caught by first timers that are now hooked on fishing.
I would have to say that Free Fishing Day has proven to be a good thing in my opinion.
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