Strawberry Fishing Proposition

[obifishkenobi]

I’m going to be up at the berry 6/23-6/26 with my boat and camp trailer. I pull the travel trailer and my wife pulls the boat but has to work Thursday and can’t come up until evening if someone can pull my boat with their vehicle from my house in Roy we can fish Thursday morning. I will also put $50 in your gas tank which is about half the cost of a round trip to the berry from my house. My wife will tow the boat home Sunday.

[MrShane]

My proposition would be to remove the stupid ‘no filleting’ rule.
Talk about dumbing down Utah anglers……
Out of staters are absolutely blown away by the literal stupidity of this rule and I for one am tremendously embarrassed by it.

[BearLakeFishGuy]

I’m going to be up at the berry 6/23-6/26 with my boat and camp trailer. I pull the travel trailer and my wife pulls the boat but has to work Thursday and can’t come up until evening if someone can pull my boat with their vehicle from my house in Roy we can fish Thursday morning. I will also put $50 in your gas tank which is about half the cost of a round trip to the berry from my house. My wife will tow the boat home Sunday.

Just pull off a Utah-weekend-warrior tactic and attach your boat to your trailer like 50% of the population of our state does. I've seen some $150K ski boats towed behind a camp trailer towed behind a 4 cyl SUV.  Just amazes me what comes up to Bear Lake in the summer.

[JArner]

I may be able to help you out. Sending a PM.

[dubob]

My proposition would be to remove the stupid ‘no filleting’ rule.
Talk about dumbing down Utah anglers……
Out of staters are absolutely blown away by the literal stupidity of this rule and I for one am tremendously embarrassed by it.

[RockyRaab2]

I do not fish Strawberry, but it would seem that the "no fillet" rule is there because it would be impossible for an enforcement officer to determine if a filleted fish was legal to keep or in the slot.

[obifishkenobi]

I do not fish Strawberry, but it would seem that the "no fillet" rule is there because it would be impossible for an enforcement officer to determine if a filleted fish was legal to keep or in the slot.

The rule should be no fillet of trout and the skin must be left on Kokanee.

[RockyRaab2]

That would seem to be workable. Has it been suggested to DWR?

[fishnotphish]

That would seem to be workable. Has it been suggested to DWR?

My guess is that DWR has heard this before. But the weak link is the skill of the person cutting the filets. I've seen some pretty messed up filet jobs that ended up with a pile of fish meat nuggets instead of whole filets. DWR doesn't want to be trying to put together a fish jigsaw puzzle to determine how many fish are in your cooler.

It's one of the many reasons why we can't have nice things.

[obifishkenobi]

Thanks Jim for volunteering to tow my boat up Thursday I’m looking forward to getting out there.

[wiperhunter2]

Anyone that has been to the cleaning station at Strawberry already knows this but for those that don't fish the Berry, you can go to it on any given day and see people cleaning, in the slot cutt, when you tell them that the fish they are cleaning is a cutt, they will deny it and claim they are cleaning a Bow or a Koke. Instead of getting into an argument with them, most of us just shake our heads and walk away because you just can't help some people, the  thing is that the DWR will rarely ticket people for this at the cleaning station, that I have seen. My theroy for this is, if the word out out that they were ticketing people for this, that it would cut down on the number of people that fish there and are there just to have fun but can't bother to actually find out the difference between what a cutt looks like compared to a Bow or a Koke, IMO of course.

[dubob]

For those of us that know the difference between a cutthroat, rainbow, and a kokanee, the rule is absolutely stupid.  The problem the CO faces is that most folks fishing any body of water in Utah don’t really have a clue and have never read the Guidebook.  I see the results at every fish cleaning station at every lake I fish.  Over limits of species, kept fish in slots, no clue what species they have, etc.  And for the most part most of these under educated folks don’t really care.  They just want to catch fish, take them home, and eat them.

Most of the members of this forum are not in that group of under educated folks.  But you have seen the occasional questions posted here on ‘What is this fish?’, ‘What is the limit at this lake?’, ‘Is it legal to do this?’, etc.  Most, if not all, the answers to those type questions are in the Guidebook.  But they can't be bothered with doing their own research; it's way easier to have us do it for them.  Know what I mean Vern?

IMHO, the no fillet rule at Strawberry is there to make the CO’s job easier.  If you’re filleting fish at Strawberry, then you are in violation and the fish species doesn’t matter.  Checking to determine species isn’t required of the CO and that’s one less thing he has to worry about; i.e., his/her job is easier.  The fact that it is a stupid rule for KNOWLEDGEABLE fishermen & women is irrelevant.

I would not recommend that anybody hold their breath waiting for the DWR to change this rule.