Here Is a copy of an Email I sent to DWR yesterday and the reply I got today
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Hello, I have fished Strawberry quite a bit in the last month or so. I do not generally keep any fish but last 2 times I have been up there I have kept 1 rainbow on each trip. While at the fish cleaning station at the marina there have been people cleaning slot cutts each time. On Sunday October 1st I saw at 10 slot cutts being cleaned in the few min. I was there. Can there be an officer there more oftin to help protect this fishery?
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Thanks for you email concerning enformcement at Strawberry. I have cc'd your comments below to our law enforcement section. I can tell you that Strawberry receives significant enforcement by our officers but I will have an officer reply with some details to you.
I do the public relations for the region and am continually creating public awareness of the regulations at Strawberry. I have produced brochures just for the purpose of educating anglers on identification of fish and on the regulations. The brochure has both illustrations and photos to leave little doubt on fish species. Unfortunately, the brochures are limited in number and don't get to all anglers. I therefore just had several large full-color signs created, which if not already posted, they will be shortly posted around the reservoir at access areas (and probably at fish cleaning stations) which will help with the problems we have of anglers not complying with the regulations.
Hopefully, they will be in plain view at the main access points, marina, cleaning stations, etc. Compliance has actually been much better by anglers over the last several years (as per results from check points and enforcement reports of anglers on the lake). Of course, I and other DWR staff have been promoting the regulations since the reservoir was treated and restocked with fish in 1990 through countless news releases, television stories, magazine articles, presentations to
angling groups and to the public. After all of this, we still have
anglers that claim to not know the difference between a rainbow and
cutthroat trout. We will continue to educate the public but with over
a million angling hours a year on Strawberry Reservoir (it is easily the number #1 most heavily fished water in the state) it is easy to see how several anglers just don't get the word. I think signage with photos and illustrations will be a big help to this problem. The regulations are working well at limiting the number of harvested cutthroats and chub numbers are effectively being controlled. We will keep trying to get better compliance at the reservoir and promoting the regulations.
Thanks again
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Scott Root
DWR Conservation Outreach Mgr.
Springville (801)491-5656
Buy your fishing licenses online @ wildlife.utah.gov Take someone fishing![/size]
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I really think they should throw the book at them. If they were fined a bunch and fishing privelages revoked for a few years. Then make sure it gets covered in the papers and on the news. Quickly people will be too scared to conveniently "not know the rules". They sure made a big deal about those at Bear Lake keeping too many Cisco a few years ago. I have been extra careful about counting those little things ever since.
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Unfortunately finding people with illegal fish is about as hard as finding someone speeding on the freeway some days. Instead of all the articles and stories on how to tell the difference they need a couple of days of busting people on the news. People pay attention to those stories much more then the nice ones. Fear seems to motivate people to learn faster then anything else.
I think it is a no win situation for the DWR though. Education take time and resources while only reaching a small pecentage of people using the lake. Strict enforcement has a tendency leave the DWR looking like they just don't care.
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It kinda sucks to be the one to tell them they have broken the rules on cutts . I seen it all to often while fish from shore and I believe some have no idea what is the regs on Strawberry . I always try to be nice about it if I have to be the bearer of bad news but I seen my share of ones you know break the rules and know it . People taking the fish to the fish cleaning station must not have a clue at all , or all kinds of nerve , because if I was the DWR I would camp out there to check everyone out .
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We saw the same thing last saturday.
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You said it, TightLine! It's amazing to me how so many people feel the need to kill everything they catch. And as long as they're dunking PowerBait and such at the Berry, swallowed hooks and dead cutts will continue.
We witnessed a dad and a couple of kids on the bank Saturday, and dad was teaching the kids how to dash a fish in the head with a rock after catching it. Unless they were somehow catching 'bows in the same area we were jigging up cutts, they too were keeping slot trout. But either way, the behavior itself was stunning to watch.
And yes, they need to throw the entire library at these poachers, not just "the book".
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If you see someone intentionally or unintentionally, do you call the "help stop poaching hotline"? I think a call to an officer could result in some tickets...call a CO and allow them the opportunity to issue a citation or investigate the people who appear in violation.
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I'm here to tell ya that it does work when you call the hot line and turn some one in. Last year some one I knew was taking his limit of fish home every time he went. So I called the hot line and turned him in. Fish cops showed up at this person house and actullly searched his freezer for the fish...BUSTED
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I'm glad people have had sucess with the hotline as I have not. I have called it twice and never got past recordings. Before anyone thinks I quit early I stayed on 20 and 25 minutes respectfully before giving up. Each time the offenders packed up and took off in a hurry. Now that I have a camera phone I guess a picture and more patience might prevail.
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I'd love to see a plainclothes CO down by the fish cleaning station. Maybe a couple more up at the road. Ticket the ones with slot fish and when the others see whats going on, the road CO's nail them. Make the rounds. Hit all the fish cleaning stations a couple times a month. Word will get around, then change tactics. Walk the shore lines. You won't catch everone, but any little bit helps.
In the past they have had roadblocks/checks as you leave to get to 40. Put the names in the paper like tightline says. Embarass the hell out of them.
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[cool]I totally agree with this. Somebody should forward a link to this thread to the head C.O. of Strawberry (whoever the hell that is...)
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[cool][#0000ff]I forwarded a link to this thread to Alan Ward. [/#0000ff]
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i agree with most of you on this issue. yes it is poaching to keep slot cutts. i think dwr might be better off placing a species wide slot on fish. most of the rainbosws i catch out of the berry are over the slot anyways. i dont know that that would happen or if it even is a good idea, but i think it is worth some looking into. as far as law obiders like most of us on this board(and we all know there are people lurking the board that read this very post that have kept slots) seeing people taking or even more, smashing the heads of slot cutts, we are to blame as well. if i see a person taking a illegal fish im not going to demand them to put it back, but simply let them know of the local laws and why they are in effect. if everyone realized that the slot will make a better big fish fishery they might change there tactics. as for powerbiat anglers, i have started a fight that cannot be won. the marina itself encourages fishing power bait on treble hooks, but not just powerbiat but worms too. the guy that ran the shop sold 4 people trebble versus single hooks before i said something about mortality rates being high because of that. the only way to remove powerbait and deep hookin would be to make it a artificial fly and lure only lake. and to put it simply, i dont think that will happen, ever.
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The DWR is usually dispatched by the Utah Highway Patrol. Call their dispatch center if you need an officer. Therefore, you will get a live person on the phone right away. Although in my experience, even dispatch has a difficult time locating these officers most of the time.
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[cool][#0000ff]I sent an email to Alan Ward (DWR) about the obvious violations on Strawberry. This is his reply:[/#0000ff]
I quickly browsed through the thread, and can provide a few comments related to the enforcement at Strawberry. First of all, our officers do a great job up there with the resources they have. We also get considerable help from the Forest Service and Wasatch County officers.
It is a daunting task to cover as much area as our officers are expected to cover. The Strawberry Valley has an officer dedicated to the task,
but he also has to cover all of the hunts, and fill in for other officers as well. He writes a lot of tickets, but there is no way to be everywhere all of the time. As most who fish it are aware, Strawberry gets an incredible amount of pressure.
However, on a positive note, things are getting better rather than worse overall. The overall violation rate was higher during our saturation patrols and road blocks in 2002 (7% prior to the new regs), than it has been since (averaging about 2.5% since 2003). This means that almost 98% of the people checked are not in violation. However, most of the violations in recent years have been slot limit violations, whereas prior to the slot limit the bulk of the violations were for
fishing without a license or fishing with two poles etc. During the saturation patrols we typically have 2 officers at each boat ramp, and other officers patrolling the other access points to check every boat and angler on the reservoir, searching coolers and live wells. The road blocks are intended to stop every vehicle on the road out of the marina, and again check vehicles for fish.
Any violation of the regulations is not a good thing, and we know that it happens. Peer pressure from fellow anglers, and people reporting
violations does help, so keep it up. However, the bottom line is we are seeing positive improvements in the fishery at Strawberry. Cutthroat numbers and size have increased dramatically over the last few years, and more importantly, the chub numbers have decreased (by 60% from the fall of 2002 to the fall of 2005, and one year old chubs have decreased by 95%).
We will be conducting our gillnetting surveys again next week, so be looking for those results in an upcoming meeting (i.e. SAA or Stonefly meeting) as we get those numbers tabulated. The purpose of the regulations was to reduce chub numbers, and we are seeing those benefits. My hat is off to those anglers who do follow the rules, and I would like to thank you for the positive results we are seeing. I think that much of the public education efforts (signs, pamphlets, etc.) have been working to some degree.
I am also forwarding this to the officer who works at Strawberry so he is appraised of the concern, as he probably could have answered this better than I. Again, thanks for the concern and keep reporting the violations you do see.
Alan Ward
Strawberry Project Leader
UDWR
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