Well, as many of you may know I have been asking for fishing lessons lately as I have been getting my butt handed to me by the lakes here in Utah as I am trying to learn them.
I headed to the Berry this morn with a friend that has not fished in 6yrs and it was a dang good day.
We hit the water a little late about 7:20am and took some advice of the board and headed to the ladders to do some jigging once we found some fish but obviously still need lessons here as nothing so at about 8:45 went to trolling and by 1:00pm I had landed 19 fish with 2 over 22" and a beautiful/fat 21" cutt-bow.
Found the right lure and it was good going from there...I lost a very large fish after about 5 minutes of fighting it...got one little peak and that was it.
Could only catch 'em on gold and with the downriggers but back to try it again tuesday.
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Sure sounds like a fun trip. The berry can be a fun place to fish, but she can be cruel sometimes. That's all part of the learning game though. Good luck on your next excursion.
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I am wondering what the regs are if the fish is dead and is between 15-22"...had one I tried to revive for 25minutes today (never took him out of water) but he would not come to as he tried a few times but went belly up shortly after tryign to swim so I would go over and try again...finally became seagull food.
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The regs are pretty straightforward, keep a cut between 15-22" and you get a ticket. No provision is made for the condition of the fish, just release it. It is difficult to leave a fish laying there in the water you know is dead (or will be shortly), however, for enforcement reasons, the regs have to be the way they are. Catch 'em over 22" if you want to keep them!
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Its all part of the circle of life. I hate it when a fish doesn't make it as well but the sea gulls and pelicans make quick work of it usually.
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Glad to hear you were able to find some willing fish. I had the same problem with two fish on Friday but was able to revive the fish by trolling with the fish in the net, it seemed like the water rushing over them got them going again but I'm not sure it would work every time. I think one of the problems is the high water temps, trout don't seem to like the temps when they get that warm. We were reading water temps of 70 and 72 degrees for a high on Friday. Years ago I caught a nice 18 or 19 inch trout from a little lake in Idaho that had a min. size restriction of 22 inches. The fish swallowed the lure and was bleeding bad before I got it to the boat. I felt the same way you did about letting the fish go but that was the law. As we got a few hundred yards from the fish a bald eagle swooped down and picked up the fish, that made me feel better, knowing the fish did not go to waste.
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It is good to hear others have had to do this as I very rarely keep fish unless I am camping in the high county and will eat them for dinner. I simply get more fulfillment from catching than eating them.
It is the first one I have not been able to save when fishing with a lure/artificial.
I tried trolling and everything I could think of - when I finally had to let him float the guy with me said "Damn I thought you were going to give it mouth to mouth - it's the only option you had left."
Also I have never really had to deal with a slot limit so it is new for me as well....atleast it really helps you learn how to judge a fish's size LEGITIMATELY and minimize the fish stories.
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My techniques are simple - no matter where I am,I usually do the "hook and release" for anything over the slot and snag, mortally wound, bleed to death, multi-hook or worse all the ones in the slot and am left with a real conundrum - cut the line or do fish CPR and end up with an ICU next to me!!!
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