Reduced channel catfish limit on Cutler

[BagABigOne]

I know some of you guys don't keep the big catfish, but the people that keep any please be informed. This is new this year. The limit is four (4).
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[lavaman]

Interesting. I wonder what brought about those changes? I'm a catch and release variety myself, but are they doing this to increase the overall size of those Channel Cats?
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[SkunkedAgain]

Idea was to create a trophy lake with bigger fish, but really 4 fish at 24” or better is a lot of meat per trip. I hope it helps but I don’t know if it will make a lot of difference since most of the people fish at night and if they want to be illegal they’ll probably not get checked and get away with it. So I hope it makes bigger fish, but I doubt we’ll be able to tell a real difference. I think it would’ve been better to say only one over 24” per day, and allow three other cookie cutters. That way it preserves the bigger fish. Then I think you might see some size increase. Just my thoughts. Later J
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[gmwahl]

I'll have to trust that the DWR is making the right call on this one....

I rarely catch many under 22" there.....unless it's the 10-12" variety. The area around the Benson marina bridge and boat launch gets hit pretty hard and catching a bunch of decent cats is pretty hard to do there, but get in a boat and take advantage of the other 95% of the reservoir and it can be disgustingly easy to catch a couple dozen nice cats in a nights fishing!

Keeping four nice 22-24" channel cats is plenty for a couple or more good meals anyway. However, it would actually bug me if I could only keep one nice one because sometimes I want to keep some meat, but no need to keep 8 unless I'm trying to get enough for a family reunion.....not very likely that I'll need to do that!

It is a rare night when I go there for an all nighter on the boat and catch less than 12 or so nice cats (I think Derek can vouch for that), but even after catching that many I usually only keep 2-4 of them to eat. I know us Utah anglers are used to thinking of 24" channel cats as "big", but that is really just an average mature cat on Cutler. I've caught many over 30" and a few up to 33". I'm thinking there are crap loads of the 22-28" cats and I'm not sure the limit reduction is going to matter at all, in fact I'm a little worried that it could cause stunting, but I'm all for it because 4 nice cats is plenty.....especially if there are more than one of ya fishing and keeping them. Heck, one 28" fish is enough for a family of 5 to have a big meal of fried catfish!

The perfect size catfish in my opinion is 18-20" for a meal, but I catch WAY more in the 22+ inch range than I do in the smaller 16-20" range on cutler.

Just my .02 cents.

Mike

P.S. I think you are right Jeff, if they are going to keep more than the limit then I'm sure they won't worry about the law and will just do it anyway. It would be great to see DWR check people more often at night there to make sure this is being enforced.
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[BagABigOne]

Do you know who the biologist is for Cutler? Maybe we can get the reasoning behind this change.
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[lavaman]

Mike, I can attest And I agree with all you said there.

I also wish the DWR would check people more. With more common sense fishing and people not feeling the need to keep everything they catch, that place would be Blue Ribbon if it isn't already. Same goes for Utah Lake.

It's always that 5% that ruin it for everyone, at least it seems that way.

Mike I'm jealous you've caught lots over 30" ! Last summer I caught my first two at the 30" mark, and I released them. I'm hoping for more of those big boys this year!
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[BagABigOne]

And on another note the setline fishing should probably be rescinded if the limit is only four. There is a good chance of going over with 15 hooks on a setline. I've seen it with the 6 bass limit. I guess you could cut the leader if you had to many.
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[SkunkedAgain]

Sorry Rod I don’t know who it is. I think the change is good. No worries about the cats over populating yet Mike, they are by far the fattest cats I’ve caught compared to Willard anyway. Later J
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[SkunkedAgain]

Seems like I get mostly carp on my setlines and it’s such a pain I bought the permit and only put it out once because of all the tangles but was fun to try. Later J
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[gmwahl]

I tried a set line twice on cutler and only got one channel cat each set. I did get mudcats and carp and it was more of a pain than it was worth. Also, if I WOULD have got more than a limit it would have possibly killed too many because everything I caught was hooked deep.

I fish firstly for sport and secondly I like to keep a few to eat. The potential to catch too many is there. It also didn't seem to me like much sport and was just a way to get meat. I can get meat while having fun reeling in fish..hehe. I don't think I'll ever buy a setline permit again or ever use one again. It just wasn't really any fun unless you count the anticipation of what may be on the other end right before pulling the line in.

Mike
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[SkunkedAgain]

I think they are kind of fun to play with but they are more of a pain than they are worth. But I’d like to have a chance to do it if I want to. Wish they had a jug fishing permit instead, so you could put a hook on a float and then retrieve them when you got a fish on. That way you wouldn’t get the tangle ups. I loved to see the big floats on my setline being pulled around, those big carp were great. But that’s about all I got was carp. But I can see the over limit concern so maybe less total hooks. Another thing I’d like to see is allowing more poles on Cutler for ice fishing. It’s a tough pond that takes hours to find fish on the current rules and maybe 6 poles like Flaming Gorge would make it so you could get a few more fish per trip. Tough to spend hours for two fish. Just my wish list. Later J
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[killerhook]

probably a good idea to have a 4 fish limit. I never keep more than that anyway and only the smaller ones. Could be the DWR is on to the folks that are keeping way to many and hurting the populations.
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[SkunkedAgain]

It might also be that the division is starting to realize folks like catfish and are fishing for them a lot more than they figured so they are taking steps to maintain a great population of good fish. I can't believe how popular the catfish contest is on this site. It is over twice as popular as the ice contest and the ice contest covers all the trout species... So I'm impressed with the popularity of catfish these days, they are for sure more important to the state these days than they were in years past. I think they realize that and are doing something to keep the populations healthy.. At least I hope that is their reasoning... Later J
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