Thought I'd give a report on the ice fishing contest over on Steinaker Reservoir near Vernal held on the 18th.
I spoke with a couple park rangers that were wandering around on the ice and they told me they had only 35 entries. Based on what I observed during the measuring, I think only about a half dozen fish were caught all day. Personally, I managed to not catch anything and didn't have to bother with measuring or cleaning fish.
The park had a number of prizes that were given away during a raffle after the measuring. Seemed like most people managed to win something.
Park rangers indicated that this will be an annual event so look towards next year for announcements.
I have no photos of my lack of fish.
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I was there too. Even though I hate to admit it my son and I had the big goose egg too. We drilled 18 holes in 4 different areas and between the two of us we had one fish on briefly and two very, very light bites. I believe I saw about a dozen fish at the weigh in but still not very many for normal Steinaker.
I attempted to fish the prior day in the open water from my tube and got zero bites over 3 hours. I've gone 0/3 at Steinaker this winter, very unusual! Must be my year for humility.
Couldn't believe that one kid won the youth contest plus went home with 6 or 7 raffle items to boot. It was his day for sure.
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It was one of the slowest days I have ever seen on Steinaker. I only caught 2 and both within 30 minutes of drilling my first hole. Just lucky they were both big ones. Here's a pic of the winner, 18 1/2 Brown.
Welcome to the site Jtrain, nice looking brown. Are there a lot of big browns in Steinaker? Way to go on catching the winning fish.
WH2
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[quote wiperhunter2]Are there a lot of big browns in Steinaker?[/quote]
Not many browns at all. The DWR has been rather surprised at the number of browns being caught there this year. I've fished it for several years and have never caught a brown of any size. I spoke with a DWR biologist who said they usually only get a few browns in their sample nets each year.
This contest was the first time I had ever seen a brown taken out of there. I wish there were more. Congratulations to you Jtrain on the win.
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Nate is right about there not being many Browns in there, I lived about 10 minutes away from Steinaker for 2 years and fished it very regularly and that is the first Brown I have ever seen.
Thanks for the warm welcome. I have been reading you and others posts here daily for over a year now to plan all my trips and it has been great, just hope I have something useful to share now and then.
I'll be looking forward to your post, we don't get a lot of reports from your side of the state so it really helps. Even poor reports, as far as catching, are better than no reports because most of us don't get a chance to get over there much. By they way, isn't Steinaker the place that has the walleye problem? If so, were any eyes caught there during the contest?
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If there were any walleyes caught, they weren't produced. The rules limited the entries to browns and rainbows.
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Red Fleet Reservoir is the water with the illegally introduced walleye.
Mike
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Are those two Res close to one another? I remember reading about the lake that had them illegally introduced and read that they were getting up to 5 lbs or so. Were they put in Steinaker at the same time or were they illegally stocked there as well? Thanks for the info guys.
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Red Fleet Reservoir is north of Vernal on the route that takes you toward Flaming Gorge. You drive right past Steinaker Reservoir on the way to Red Fleet. I believe the two lakes are within the same drainage, although I could be mistaken on that point.
I know the walleye were illegally introduced to Red Fleet several years ago and they have prospered with the abundant food available to them. I haven't heard of anything recently being discussed on what action the DWR may take to deal with the walleye in the reservoir. I have heard that some local fishermen have been successful in targeting the walleye, but I haven't been over there for several years.
I do not know anything about walleye, if there are any, being in Steinaker Reservoir.
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Steinaker is on Ashley Creek, sort of, via a diversion canal. Red Fleet is on Brush Creek so the two don't share any water. The Walleye were illegally introduced in Red Fleet several years back. According to DWR reports they got nearly as many walleye in their sample nets as trout this past spring and some over 6 lbs. From what I understand, they don't plan on treating it due to several water use issues but they don't expect the walleye to continue to do very well once the forage is gone. If they can thrive on bluegill after the trout are gone they should do well for several years. There's no limit on them so if you know how to catch them once you find them you could have a heyday and some great eats plus helping the fishery.
There are no known walleye in Steinaker at this time just rainbows, browns, LM bass, bluegill and green sunfish.
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