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Show Trouv svamp pros and eons By Hartt Wixom, Vernal Express Outdoors Writer The proposed Utah trout stamp, at any price, will be debated again in late January just as certainly as the Bonneville Bon-neville Cisco will appear on the eastern shore of Bear Lake. Most sportsmen have argued aginst it. Fears such as "taxing" every other species on the fishing and hunting proclamation pro-clamation have been raised. The angler also suspects the money will only go to fatten some paper shuffler's pay check. Deep back in the recesses of most of us there is also a feeling, sometimes more hope than knowledge, that man does not provide "good fishing" anyway. Nature does it. My own opinion: I'm in favor of a trout stamp-providing it is used for the announced an-nounced purpose and no other. That purpose pur-pose is to raise more hatchery fish. Let's realize that most of the trout caught on opening or any other day once swam the concrete runways. Less money, fewer trout. That is precisely what is going to happen hap-pen with the ill-advised closing of the federal hatchery at Jone's Hole Creek. This spring-fed, cold water plant north of Vernal is the most efficient producer, quantity or quality, of any hatchery I ever saw in an aperation of that size. False economy is closing it, for with some 50 percent fewer trout in Flaming Gorge, fishermen will catch some 50 percent per-cent fewer fish. License sales will dwindle dwin-dle among average anglers, and so will local tourist trade. But here is the kicker to the trout stamp issue. If it is to raise more hatchery hat-chery trout, those waters designated as "quality," with self-propogating browns and cutthroats, should not require the stamp. For instance, if I am fishing the Whiterocks, lower Provo, or other waters where no stocking is done, why should I have to purchase a "hatchery trout stamp?" Or why should a bass fisherman fisher-man never casting into trout waters require re-quire one? As a matter of fact, I do very little fishing in any lake or stream I know to contain the planters. The fly-fishing Wild Strawberry River for example (before heavy dewatering in the Central Utah Project) was one I helped get set aside for quality fishing and I enjoyed fishing such a place where no naive, flacid, pale, and scaley rainbow might inhabit. But the truth is, the vast majority of Utah fishermen not only catch their first trout, or first thousand, from regularly-stocked regularly-stocked waters, but hie back to them on most subsequent excursions. It is a great way to acquaint your youngsters with their first catches also. And there are more waters dependent upon hatcheries than we might at first admit. Off-hand, the Uinta Mountains, Strawberry Reservoir, Reser-voir, Lake Powell, and many others would not be the magnetic attractions they are without aerial or truck infusions. Local creeks and Wasatch Front waters, plus those near towns and cities, depend upon the periodic sweetening process pro-cess to keep license buyers happy. And it is a fact the hatcheries are in trouble-not trouble-not the kind already hard-working state personnel can do anything about without money from aging and crumbling facilities, lack of sufficient and higher-priced higher-priced feed, up-to-date equipment for eyeing and raising the fish after eggs are stripped, and sometimes a long haul to the new habitat. |
