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Hi, I need a little help from our awesome Utah forum members. I recently became acquainted with a fellow Utahan who raises and trains hunting mink.
I mentioned that the chubs on Scofield are out of control and fairly easy to catch and recall that BLK mentioned he caught a bunch with a casting net. I caught 70 about the same time in an hour with my son.
Is the stream below the dam frozen over and are there still schools of chubs down there? Catching them while it was cold would be ideal so they could be transported in tubs. He's like to fill a chest freezer full of them to feed his mink.
What are the rules about taking chubs with a cast net?
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks.
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The cast net is legal, but I have not verified rather a maximum size or diameter of net comes into play.
Can't help you on the rest. Hey, at least I bump you back to the top. LOL
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[#0000FF]Cast nets are legal...and effective. Only restriction in Utah is that they can be a maximum of 10 feet in diameter...that's 5' radius...from top to weights.
If you have not already bought your cast net, here are some thoughts. Most on the market have 3/8" mesh. They work fine for the larger chubs. But if you want to catch more of the smaller ones spend a bit more money and get a good 1/4" mesh net.
Here is a writeup I put together on cast nets.
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Pat, You are the best! I still need to meet you sometime and go fishing.
Your cast net article is very simple to follow. My mink friend would like to target the larger chubs in the 10-12 inch length or bigger to feed to the mink. Although the smaller ones would do just as well.
One of my friend's concerns with carp is getting them from Utah Lake and feeding the mink PCBs. Feeding farm mink that only live for a year isn't a problem, but a pet mink may not be a good idea with UL carp. What other bodies of water would have decent enough populations of small carp to harvest with a cast net in the late fall or early spring that would be good and clean?
Any other lakes or stream we could try with a cast net to catch none game species of fish?
Matthew
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[#0000FF]Because of the PCB thing in Utah Lake fish it is probably not a good idea to use them for valued pets. Although some of the carp netted by the Loys go to hog and chicken feed...or so I'm told.
Lots of carp in Farmington Bay. Also in Willard and Pineview. Deer Creek swarms with them during spawn time. Timing is everything. When they are inshore and busy it is too easy.
Mona Reservoir and the outlet stream were formerly good carp habitats. But the recent drought dried it up and killed everything.
Yuba is also full of carp, and can be easy pickins with rod and reel...or a net. But it is a longer drive and subject to weather variations that might move the carp around.
If it is large chubs you are after, there is probably no better place than the outlet below Scofield.
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[#0000FF][#0000FF][b]Make sure you have a sturdy net and not a flimsy monofilament net if you target large carp. I found out the hard way at Farmington Bay. Threw a net to try to get some chubs and small carp in one of the outlet channels. The water boiled as three huge carp began thrashing around in my new net. By the time I got them to shore and untangled the thin monofilament mesh from their barbed fins my net was trashed.[/#0000FF][/b][/#0000FF]
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Pat,
Thank you for the reply. Valuable information!
Matthew
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