I want to try catfishing but also don't want to travel to far either. Being that I'm from the Cache Valley area I started to browse the internet about cat fishing in the Northern area. I know that Willard Bay and Cutler have catfish but the bugs and I don't get along so I don't fish there as much. As I was browsing on the Utah fishing info I did a search for what lakes have catfish. The search brought me to several lakes but what was surprising is that it pulled up Hyrum Reservoir and said that it has catfish in their.
Can anyone confirm whether that's true?
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I love to catfish, i grew up in mississippi where i would catch monsters either on a rod and reel or noodling on a regular basis, the only places ive found around here for decent size cats is either cutler or the bear river where i normally fish for them. As forhyrum ive never heard of any cats out of there, as far as my knowlage the only fish in there are trout, lmb and perch. Look on utahfishininfo web site. It will tell you what species are in what lakes and rivers
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Bluegills too. They have the planter bows (a plenty), browns, and tigers oh my.
Back in days of old I'd heard of Catfish being pulled from below Hyrum, but not heard of them planted or populated IN the reservoir.
Newton on the other hand has had some. Again - back when - hear they got big. They are one species that can probably handle the drop-down better than others.
I'd suggest your best option is Cutler or Bear river in CV for cats. Daytime with a bit of breeze - the bugs really aren't bad. Depends on where you go too. Nothing like Willard bugs for sure, and the cats are potentially bigger IMHO.
For me - part of the key is getting away from the pressure points. Though this cold and wet front coming in, they could get fired up or go into hiding.
If anyone knows different about cats in Hyrum - would love to hear it. Never have targeted them at Newton. They have a sign posted by the cleaning station at Hyrum that lists the species.
Early this spring someone (sorry I forget who it was) posted a picture of a monster cat that had died and floated to shore... Turns out it was a Hyrum cat... I didn't know they were in there either, but there was at least one big one, unless they were pulling my chain and I believed it... I don't think the numbers are real high, but you might find one in there if you try hard enough... Not sure how you will keep everything else off long enough to catch the big cat, but it might be possible... You sure don't hear of many cats caught out of Hyrum so if you catch one that will be a good story... I'll bet they would be really good to eat if you get one out of there.. Good luck....
I was hoping this was a report on the fishing at Hyrum, is anyone fishing there this summer? Are they biting? How is the size, any over 14" yet? Maybe the waterskiers and wake boarders are ruling the waters these days... Anyway thanks J
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Years ago when the last time Hyrum was killed ( rotenone ) I helped with the clean up- there were a few pretty decent cats that popped to the surface.
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Curious how long ago that was, and why'd they kill it? Needed to make room for more rainbows?
Guy showed me a toad Tiger picture - not sure if I believe the claim for pounds, think he said 7. Though there were some hog Browns iced this winter. I can believe there's cats below, but hard to imaging they'd be upstream of that reservoir.
Guess they have plenty to eat so they don't grab anglers lines very often. Guess I never fish for them so it would have to be an accidental hook up if I ever caught one. Thanks for the confirmation. Later J
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I don't think there are any more after the treatment- 1988 I think. For a few years prior Hyrum had record perch in record numbers- they were from a bucket biologist- why they did so well was that there was a massive amount of shiners in the lake. Large minnows in massive schools. The perch grew to be beasts and I think myself, a buddy and a guy from Michigan were the few that hit the fishery quite a few times a week. Baskets of large perch that would straighten out the handles on the metal mesh baskets. I grew up on Lake Eire and these perch were much larger on average. Took the perch once they hit that size 2 years to wipe out every minnow in the lake- another 2 years and the over populated- started breeding at 6 inches long and that was the end of that fishery- 4 million 4 inch perch- it was killed then to restock with trout.
Yote- you need to move to another cubilcle (0:
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Great history thank you. Very interesting. Later J
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Hey Crosby, that's not all he needs! haha
Thanks for the stories of long before I moved here. Always interesting.
I remember catching lots of Perch out of Hyrum back in mid-90's, and they had size to them. Not so much anymore. I think Hyrum gets more combined fishing/boating pressure than anywhere else around here. Newton a close second.
D
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