10-25-2014, 04:52 PM
[quote TyeDyeTwins]As a younger angler than yourself I think I should add some wisdom here.
No fishery stays the same forever so hit hard when they're good![/quote]
[#0000FF]Wise words, indeed. Especially so in Utah, where our fisheries are subject to so many vagaries of weather and other environmental factors.
Just last week I was reviewing past trips on different waters...via my collection of fishing logs. I was shocked and demazed at how different my reports are now compared to those of the past. And if I go clear back in my rememberies...before I kept fishing logs...the differences are even greater.
Deer Creek is a good example. Before smallmouth bass were introduced the lake held good numbers of largemouths...often reaching 5-6 pounds. And perch literally paved the bottom of Deer Creek. You could catch hundreds...almost anywhere on the lake...virtually any time of the year. Trout were pretty much the same except there were more browns. Nowadays we can count on a few dink smallmouths, still lots of rainbows, fewer walleyes and some new "exotic" species like bullheads, crappies and white bass. Perch are still there but very hard to find in numbers...consistently.
Yuba is another prime example. Going way back, it was full of chubs with a few brown trout and occasionally a rainbow or cutt. Then it went through cycles of newly introduced smallmouth and walleyes eating up all the chubs and going into a stunting mode...before perch "miraculously" appeared...to feed the hungry hordes. The perch population exploded and the walleyes grew big and fat. Ditto for the smallies. Chubs gradually died out. But new plants of hordes of rainbows turned the lake into a prime trout water. Still some ups and downs in the cycles but a much broader based ecosystem in that lake.
Yuba? Perhaps no other fishery in Utah has seen so many changes and so many up and down cycles. Subject to ten year weather cycles, Yuba's water levels rise and fall...as does the fishery. Some years have seen absurdly abundant populations of big perch and walleye. These were usually followed by drought and dieoffs. After the big drought ending in 2004 there was a big planting of rainbows to establish a fishery until other species could reestablish themselves. The bad news was that only carp and pike did any kind of reestablishing. Some perch were planted and did provide a good perch fishery for a couple of years, but then the blossoming pike hordes pretty much cleaned out both them and the trout. Only a scant few walleyes and perch still show up. And now the pike seem to have taken a downturn as well.
We can see similar ups and downs on just about every water. Sometimes it is a result of natural weather patterns and cycles. Other times there are necessary modifications or improvements to dams or other infrastructure that create problems for anglers. End result is the same.
Many years ago I wrote some dark verse. One such outpouring was "Change is Permanent". The repeating refrain was "Times, tides and people change. Doesn't it seem kinda strange...that things don't go from bad to good...and never turn out like we hoped they would."
You are definitely right. Take advantage of the good times while they are upon us. But how can we know when things are good and not doomed to get worse?
I tend to be an "optimistic pessimist". I am one who believes that my glass is half full...but that some sucker is gonna come along and knock it over.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]
No fishery stays the same forever so hit hard when they're good![/quote]
[#0000FF]Wise words, indeed. Especially so in Utah, where our fisheries are subject to so many vagaries of weather and other environmental factors.
Just last week I was reviewing past trips on different waters...via my collection of fishing logs. I was shocked and demazed at how different my reports are now compared to those of the past. And if I go clear back in my rememberies...before I kept fishing logs...the differences are even greater.
Deer Creek is a good example. Before smallmouth bass were introduced the lake held good numbers of largemouths...often reaching 5-6 pounds. And perch literally paved the bottom of Deer Creek. You could catch hundreds...almost anywhere on the lake...virtually any time of the year. Trout were pretty much the same except there were more browns. Nowadays we can count on a few dink smallmouths, still lots of rainbows, fewer walleyes and some new "exotic" species like bullheads, crappies and white bass. Perch are still there but very hard to find in numbers...consistently.
Yuba is another prime example. Going way back, it was full of chubs with a few brown trout and occasionally a rainbow or cutt. Then it went through cycles of newly introduced smallmouth and walleyes eating up all the chubs and going into a stunting mode...before perch "miraculously" appeared...to feed the hungry hordes. The perch population exploded and the walleyes grew big and fat. Ditto for the smallies. Chubs gradually died out. But new plants of hordes of rainbows turned the lake into a prime trout water. Still some ups and downs in the cycles but a much broader based ecosystem in that lake.
Yuba? Perhaps no other fishery in Utah has seen so many changes and so many up and down cycles. Subject to ten year weather cycles, Yuba's water levels rise and fall...as does the fishery. Some years have seen absurdly abundant populations of big perch and walleye. These were usually followed by drought and dieoffs. After the big drought ending in 2004 there was a big planting of rainbows to establish a fishery until other species could reestablish themselves. The bad news was that only carp and pike did any kind of reestablishing. Some perch were planted and did provide a good perch fishery for a couple of years, but then the blossoming pike hordes pretty much cleaned out both them and the trout. Only a scant few walleyes and perch still show up. And now the pike seem to have taken a downturn as well.
We can see similar ups and downs on just about every water. Sometimes it is a result of natural weather patterns and cycles. Other times there are necessary modifications or improvements to dams or other infrastructure that create problems for anglers. End result is the same.
Many years ago I wrote some dark verse. One such outpouring was "Change is Permanent". The repeating refrain was "Times, tides and people change. Doesn't it seem kinda strange...that things don't go from bad to good...and never turn out like we hoped they would."
You are definitely right. Take advantage of the good times while they are upon us. But how can we know when things are good and not doomed to get worse?
I tend to be an "optimistic pessimist". I am one who believes that my glass is half full...but that some sucker is gonna come along and knock it over.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]