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Show -V. v it '."v.". J 7 V. . ' yf ... ' r l 4 - i s " ' i - ""- -." f'V 1 . . "I ; " f t j f . t ' ' " I.- ' .f r-- v AS 1981 COMES TO A CLOSE will sage grouse hunting ever be this good again? Much depends on 1982. Hunting, vishing in '81,ouvloot for '82 By Hartt Wixora Verna Express Outdoors Writer The year 1981 closes with some happy memories afield. Hours along Utah's traditional trout stream, the Logan and Provo, Duchesne and Weber, Blacksmith Fork and others paid off with the usual glimpses of rising trout, kingfishers and bobbing dipper, mountain meadow air, and the sights and sounds of running run-ning water itself. In addition, fish catching wasn't off the pact of other years either. I didn't get much time in 1981 at two favorite places, Strawberry and the High Uintas. But, I plan to make up for that in '82. There are several more drainages to explore on both north and south slopes. The only question is whether to rought in via backpack, or bring in horses. Some of those evenings on Strawberry with a black barberpole and double renegade in foppish sizes of 4 or 2 remain etched in my mind as the Celestialized rung of fly fishing. I felt the walleye fishing dropped off at Utah Lake: fewer of the early April spawners on the feed. Willard Bay is picking up as a spring walleye haunt, but frankly I don't like it as well as Utah Lake. Aesthetics? They're helped by a striking fish, but a square, walled-in walled-in reservoir isn't as attractive as the lake west of Provo. But, then it probably wasn't possible for walleye fishing to be that good forever. It's more of a search mission now for each of the larger marble-eyed perch. Some of my best stream fishing came on the Duchesne. But, I wouldn't overlook the oversized browns on Logan, Blacksmith Fork, Weber near Peoa. I can't divulge the precise location, but I also caught lunker browns on a Weber tributary in Morgan County a stream worth returning to in the year ahead. If you enjoy a challenge, however, you might be planning a tryst for trout on the Blacksmith Fork, either on its two dams, or just above the upper one which grew a brown to 34 lbs. several years ago. The latter has not been seen or heard from lately apparently no one caught it but Utah State University biologists electro-shocked and weighed it more than once. I wish I had spent more time along the Green River below Flaming Gorge. But, with larger fish now, it is a must for 1982. It was a great year for hunting, with many bird species up. Chukars have a bright future, on the increase sufficiently suf-ficiently to fill in for pheasant shooting on the skids. Chukars remain open for hunting into January, of course. I havm't bof-n too high on rooster roundup the past few years as more gunners crowd less acreage. In my opinion, there is a surplus of forest grouse out thwe, especially blues in the West Drsert, Manti, and other ranges walked in 1981. We need more sage grouse, but we'll have to keep protecting the habitat: high sage Waterfowl hunting? We will have to ovoid draining more wetlands! Ortainly, we otiht to determine the effects of sagebrush spraying on the grouse's habitat and do further studies to bring these gray bombers back. The only large populations I've seen recently are in Rich and Tooele counties, with the country around Scofield not far behind. We hunt the Hungarian partridge of Rich, Box Elder and Cache but little (with a few in Wasatch) and need to learn more about the bird or at least try to for more diversity afield. The deer hunt had its problems with the wet opener, third in a row, but muleys are on the increase. With a mild winter, hunting could be better than ever in '82. Elk are on the increase in spite of unlimited open bull permits. But, it would still have to go some to equal Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, Montana. We can hope the bighorn sheep and mountain goats planted in central Utah flourish with poaching eliminated towards a huntable population in this decade. As for moose, they can be vulnerable in the winter, as they are in other big game seasons. We must do more to curtail illegal kills, or lose ground in the years ahead. These are just some of the goals for sportsmen and biologists from here on out. We have much to be grateful for and much to work toward. |