03-23-2023, 06:08 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-23-2023, 06:09 PM by SkunkedAgain.)
I called Chris Penne today and talked to him about some of my questions I've had over the last year or so and he took some time and told me about the divisions plans. I forgot to ask if it was okay to pass this on, but I assume it should be okay.. Some things I know he mentioned would be best to not mention, so I won't say anything there, but let me pass on a little bit about Hyrum...
First off I must have had my numbers off on reading the stocking report, because they had planted similar numbers of fish in Hyrum as Wellsville pond, not twice as many like I had mentioned... They planted about 9000 in each, but the fish going into Hyrum were larger fish 12" and this is according to their plan of planting larger fish that have a better survival rate than the smaller one... I assume birds don't get as many... Anyway he mentioned that they have seen some good success at Rockport and I forget the other reservoir but what they are trying to do is run the perch and rainbows so they get good size fish of both species and over the past 3-5 years they say this program has been working well with increasing the size of both the perch and bows. So he said we're two years into the Hyrum management plan, so he told me to hold on and wait the results should start to show up before too long...
I know the numbers fishing Hyrum really fell off this year, due to no fish, so hopefully those 12" last fall trout made it through the ice season and will start to show up as better bows this spring or next fall... I know there aren't very many of them, but hopefully they will get some good size eventually... I know the perch population has crashed the last two years so we'll have to give them two or three years to come back as well... Anyway sounds like a reset time period for Hyrum so expect tough fishing for a while, but hopefully it will start to do like Rockport and turn into a great location a couple years down the road... Chris also mentioned like many of you that they have limited resources and lots of demands this year with water returning to most of the state and they don't have the capability or capacity to raise anymore fish than what their facilities will handle. Anyway a thought we kind of discussed was don't expect an instant return to prime fishing conditions, it takes time to let the populations build back up after the low water we have had for several years... Plus now we have fewer fish scattered over a lot more acres of water, so keep that in mind...
We talked Cutler a bit, but he mentioned it really isn't on their active management plans since the popularity isn't as great as other locations but he did take my suggestion to look at lowering the panfish limits... He wasn't as in favor of allowing more rods for the ice fishing season and when he explained his reasoning for that, I tended to agree with him... He said with the new technology that allow you see to the side, (livescope, 360 and etc) that his thought was two rods should be plenty... Since I had tried the 360 this winter, I had to agree with him, because my reason for wanting more rods was to try and locate the fish better. Well that and being able to bait for different species. But the 360 really did fix the fish location part of that equation... So i was okay with not needing extra fishing poles through the ice...
Anyway I enjoyed visiting with Chris and it's nice to hear what some of the thoughts are for fish management... Later Jeff
First off I must have had my numbers off on reading the stocking report, because they had planted similar numbers of fish in Hyrum as Wellsville pond, not twice as many like I had mentioned... They planted about 9000 in each, but the fish going into Hyrum were larger fish 12" and this is according to their plan of planting larger fish that have a better survival rate than the smaller one... I assume birds don't get as many... Anyway he mentioned that they have seen some good success at Rockport and I forget the other reservoir but what they are trying to do is run the perch and rainbows so they get good size fish of both species and over the past 3-5 years they say this program has been working well with increasing the size of both the perch and bows. So he said we're two years into the Hyrum management plan, so he told me to hold on and wait the results should start to show up before too long...
I know the numbers fishing Hyrum really fell off this year, due to no fish, so hopefully those 12" last fall trout made it through the ice season and will start to show up as better bows this spring or next fall... I know there aren't very many of them, but hopefully they will get some good size eventually... I know the perch population has crashed the last two years so we'll have to give them two or three years to come back as well... Anyway sounds like a reset time period for Hyrum so expect tough fishing for a while, but hopefully it will start to do like Rockport and turn into a great location a couple years down the road... Chris also mentioned like many of you that they have limited resources and lots of demands this year with water returning to most of the state and they don't have the capability or capacity to raise anymore fish than what their facilities will handle. Anyway a thought we kind of discussed was don't expect an instant return to prime fishing conditions, it takes time to let the populations build back up after the low water we have had for several years... Plus now we have fewer fish scattered over a lot more acres of water, so keep that in mind...
We talked Cutler a bit, but he mentioned it really isn't on their active management plans since the popularity isn't as great as other locations but he did take my suggestion to look at lowering the panfish limits... He wasn't as in favor of allowing more rods for the ice fishing season and when he explained his reasoning for that, I tended to agree with him... He said with the new technology that allow you see to the side, (livescope, 360 and etc) that his thought was two rods should be plenty... Since I had tried the 360 this winter, I had to agree with him, because my reason for wanting more rods was to try and locate the fish better. Well that and being able to bait for different species. But the 360 really did fix the fish location part of that equation... So i was okay with not needing extra fishing poles through the ice...
Anyway I enjoyed visiting with Chris and it's nice to hear what some of the thoughts are for fish management... Later Jeff
When things get stressful think I'll go fish'en and worry about it tomorrow!