08-22-2009, 06:16 AM
I love the trout fishing that we have here and I think that Utah is definitely a worth while stop for any serious fly-fisherman. Trout are beautiful, they live in pristine waters with mountainous backdrops ( as well as urban mud holes they are thrown in to), they are scrappy fighters, and no fish is more suited to fly fishing, which I find to be immensely rewarding. The problem is that I love other species for they're unique habits and table fare and I think that the DWR limits the exploration of successfully managing multiple species in common waters. Yes, I'll elude to EC. Since I learned of the presence of crappie there, I went after them utilizing my knowledge of their habits that I acquired over several years of catching them in Oklahoma. I have spent the last 3 years catching them in great numbers and keyed in on the habits of the larger fish and landed some very respectable crappie at EC. Last fall, 50,000 tiger trout were introduced and this year the crappie fishing has gotten, well, crappy! I know the crappie were introduced illegally and I believe the tigers are there to keep their numbers in check which will be successful in the short term but prove unsustainable. I also know that the trout fishing there has been awesome for anyone that knows what they're doing and the SMB are not as over-populated as some may think and some are growing really big. The crappy didn't prove as big a threat as they were percieved to be and the fishing for everything in EC over the last few years has been exceptional. Now the crappie are being thinned out by genetic hybrids. Guess what is gonna happen when the meal-sized crappie are no longer available? The tigers are going to turn to the next best food source and young smallmouth and trout will be inhaled next spring. Then the trout fry will be on the menu. The reservoir will be plagued with drastic boom and bust cycles for all species until the tigers die off. Then It will start all over again. Case in point, the fishing at EC for the last few years has been, in my opinion, great for the dominant species in the reservoir and there is no need to try to protect a trout population that thrives in conjunction with an unfamiliar species and even recognizes the new addition as a food source. Maybe I am wrong and somebody has a scientific answer for the downfalls of certain species being introduced that negates my view, but I think that there is a way, though it isn't necessarily easily discovered, to successfully proliferate different species of fish in the same waters. So far as the crappie fishing this year...[frown]
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