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Show S? reams will be high and muddy br opener By John C. Dickerson Div. of Wildlife Resources This Saturday marks the big day for Utah's fishermen as as estimated 300,000 anxious anglers wait for opening day. Fishing in our area will he confined almost exclusively to reservoirs reser-voirs because streams are high and dirty from the heavy runoff. We have not stocked any streams at this time and some of the reservoirs have not received catchable fish because access by vehicle is still limited. Oaks and East Parks both fall into this latter category they will be planted as soon as the weather permits. Bullock Draw Reservoir, which is between Lapoint and Gusher should provide pretty good fishing for small rainbow trout, and Brough Reservoir, which is approximately ap-proximately three to four miles north of Pelican Lake, just off Highway 88, should also come up with some nice fish mostly rainbow trout. Every year we are asked to "make a prediction" on fishing waters in our districts, and every year we say "Look out for Steinaker, it could be a real sleeper," and usually the fishing turns out to be only fair at the best. But once again, we will go out on a limb and say that Steinaker could be a big surprise. Our gill netting this spring showed good numbers of real nice rainbow trout in excellent condition mostly around a pound, but a few big German brown trout. There is still a good population of bass but they are usually caught incidental in-cidental to trout fishing. Some bass in the 4-5 pound range have been taken by anglers fishing specifically for bass, so it certainly is worth your time to try for a few. The last few trout plants we have made in Steinaker have been early in the spring; the water has warmed ud and later in the fall after the water has cooled off this hopefully will catch the bass in"cooler water when they are less active and less likely to prey on the small trout. We also went to a larger size fingerling hoping to further reduce predation and it appears that these changes in management have paid off, hopefully. Pelican Lake, although open year around, should draw a big crowd. The-fishing The-fishing has been very good lately but pretty much dependant on the weather. If we have a cold snap the fishing pretty much slows down, but a few days of warm weather gets them going again. Bluegill are the big attraction at Pelican and they are running extra large this year. I've checked numerous limits this year that will average a half pound and that is really a nice mess of fish. If you want to make someone happy, have your kid dig some worms and take him out there this lake has to be the number one fishing water for kids in Utah they really get a kick out of hauling in a few of these scrappy bluegill. |