Share Your Fishing Ideas with the DWR

Please share your ideas no later than June 1

Even though Utah’s 2008 fishing regulations won’t be decided until
this fall, Division of Wildlife Resources biologists already have some
ideas they’d like to the share with the public.

And the biologists are also anxious to hear ideas from anglers and
others across the state.

“If you have an idea for a fishing regulation change in 2008, please
share it with us,” says Roger Wilson, cold water fisheries coordinator
for the DWR.

“We need to hear from you no later than June 1. Summer is the time
when we put our fishing recommendations together. We need your ideas by
June 1 so we can consider them as we’re putting the recommendations
together.”

All of the changes the biologists are considering for 2008 are
available at www.wildlife.utah.gov/public_meetings/next.php.

“These potential changes are only proposals at this time,” Wilson
says. “We’re very open to what anglers think about our ideas.
We’re hoping they’ll let us know.”

How to Share Your Ideas

In addition to the DWR’s Web site, you can learn more about the
biologists’ ideas, and share your ideas with them, at any of the
following Regional Advisory Council meetings:

Southern Region
May 15
7 p.m.
Beaver High School
195 E. Center St.
Beaver

Southeastern Region
May 16
6:30 p.m.
John Wesley Powell Museum
885 E. Main St.
Green River

Northeastern Region
May 17
6:30 p.m.
Western Park, Rm. #2
302 E. 200 S.
Vernal

Central Region
May 22
6:30 p.m.
Springville Junior High School
165 S. 700 E.
Springville

Northern Region
May 23
6 p.m.
Brigham City Community Center
24 N. 300 W.
Brigham City


If you can’t attend one of the meetings, please send your ideas to
one of the following addresses no later than June 1:

- e-mail your ideas to DWRComment@utah.gov

- mail your ideas to:

Sport Fisheries Coordinator
Division of Wildlife Resources
Box 146301
Salt Lake City, UT 84114-6301


Bass Fishing

DWR biologists aren’t proposing any major bass fishing changes for
2008, but they’d like to start a discussion with the public about
smallmouth and largemouth bass regulations in Utah.

“Right now there are six or seven different bass regulations across
the state,” Wilson says. “We’d like to reduce the number of
regulations. That would make it easier for anglers to know what the
regulations are.”

Wilson stressed that the DWR is not proposing any statewide bass
regulation changes for 2008. “We just want to get a discussion going
so we can learn more about how people feel about the bass
regulations,” he says.


Among the changes DWR biologists are considering for 2008 are the
following:

- allowing anglers to keep yellow perch at Yuba Reservoir in
north-central Utah. The DWR is proposing a daily bag and possession
limit of 10 perch. Between Jan. 1 and April 30, anglers would be
required to keep all the perch they caught, up to their 10-perch limit.
They would also be allowed to use dead yellow perch for bait at Yuba.

- lowering the trout limit at Woodruff Reservoir in northern Utah
to two trout, and allowing anglers to use artificial flies and lures
only. “This change would create a trophy fishing water in northern
Utah and would also protect the cutthroat trout in the reservoir. We
don’t stock cutthroats in the reservoir, and we want to make sure we
keep plenty of cutthroats in the reservoir for anglers to catch,”
Wilson says.

- increasing the bass limit at Sand Hollow Reservoir in
southwestern Utah to six bass. Only one of those bass could be over 12
inches. “The bass in the reservoir are doing really well. In fact,
there are so many bass in the reservoir that they’re starting to
compete with each other for food,” Wilson says. “We’ve noticed
that the bass aren’t growing as fast as they used to. This change
would allow anglers to take more of the smaller bass home. That would
help the fishery by removing some of the smaller bass. The new limit
would also protect the larger bass.”