Been working up in Gunnison area, try to hit the cleaning tables when going through area. All accounts have been lots of little RBT and browns. Kokanee fishing which should be at peak right now is totally in the toliet. So CPW you promised use the "best kokanee fishing in the nation" when you killed our lake trout. Thanks again for making my choice to fish Utah so easy..........Flaming Gorge trophy lake trout and 4-5 lb kokanee , CPW needs to go over and get so basic biology lesson from the Utah DNR.......
Blue mesa Update
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Hey, Bobco the salmon fishing has been decent. I agree the numbers havent been as good as the last two years but the quality has been better.I was there less thantwo weeks ago and we kept 19 all between 2.5 to 3 pounds plus. I have a buddy that was there on July 4th weekend between two of them they kept 16 same story. I have made two previous trips and have almost limited out with all quality fish. We have also lost many nice ones.The fishing is decent you just have to work for them.
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Maybe they need to throw some Burbot in there!!!
i think you will find this fall when they run the numbers are very low, sorry 16 fish in a weekend is not by Blue Mesa standards great. The size is up which an indication of lower numbers (per Dan Brauch).
Flaming Gorge: Limit on lake trout, BM no limit killum all
Flaming Gorge : 3 kokanee limit, BM 10
Flaming gorge : law enforcement on lake protecting resources, BM CPW is to busy milking marmonts to show up at Lake? Dont know what they do all summer 22 years I have fished never once seen CPW on lake..
Flaming Gorge : lake spawning natural reproduction of Kokes, BM hatchery raised salmon.
Awesome rant. FYI- both Utah and Wyoming stock hatchery raised salmon into FG:
https://dwrapps.utah.gov/fishstocking/Fish
http://wgfd.wyo.gov/web2011/Departments/Fishing/pdfs/GR_ANGLERNEWS_20140005895.pdf
yes they do but majority is from natural reproduction i believe. those number show 1.5 million total approx including RBT in Wyo since they did not break it out. Gorge is like 4-5 times bigger than Blue MEsa, Blue mesa stocks 3.3 million plus every year , wonder why Gorge is fishing better than " top kokanee lake in Nation? could not be fisherys management? somethings broke at Blue Mesa, lake trout are all but gone and still problems? maybe they killed the wrong tarket? perch have exploded but they are not a problems ? yup rant on and i would take Wayne or Ryan any day over these bozos we have at Blue Mesa, from what I hear from the guides on Blue Dans been busy answering his phone............
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Interesting. I was told by the Wyoming Dow when camping at fontinelle, that the flaming gorge salmon stack up super thick under fontinelle dam, which is why they close the river to fishing end of September. Do the salmon not successfully spawn?
Not being a cockring, just asking a legit question.
Could it be management? Sure. I have mentioned this before, Utah simply takes a different approach compared to Colorado on their large reservoirs, they employ a team of biologists to manage a specific body of water- Powell (Wayne), FG (Ryan), Bear Lake (Scott), and Strawberry (Alan). These biologists spend the vast majority of their time on these waters, and for the most part they have them dialed in. If Braunch spent 90% of his time specifically on BM would the results be different? Yeah probably so.
Do not also forget FG has had a very prolific and reliable forage base (Utah Chubs) that help recruit all those sportfish into the good sizes that FG is known for.
What you were told is correct, they do get successful spawners on the whole length of the Green from Fontenelle to FG. What is that about 60+ miles of river, lots of opportunities to get their groove on. Sheep Creek on the Utah side also sees a major run.
The kokes are in the river starting in Aug.
yeah, Utah/wyo also closes the salmon season to protect the spawners. The CPW put out news bullitens to fisherman to come up and beat the crap out of the spawners running to the roaring judy hatchery, different management techniques , yes very much so.
Utah chub ? really? they are long gone from FG. your dating yourself now Clacker, they were the reason for the huge browns of past, heard of any big browns lately? Kokanee, rbt and now the wild card Burbs are the lake trout diet, I have to say they are real nice healthy fish as well, amazing when you see how many that lake supports.
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Suffice to say that perhaps BM isn't a lake to managed as a trophy salmon lake since the intro of perch? Now the salmon suck and so do the lake trout, perhaps managing it as a trophy laker lake would be better. Oooppps, I guess its a little late for that considering all the dead trophy fish.
What kokanee season does UT/Wyo close? On the Green they close about 1 mile of river right below Fontenelle. The rest of the 60+ miles is open year round.
Doesn't CPW prohibit the taking of kokanee from BM to the confluence of the East and Taylor Aug to Oct? If yes, then CO has tighter restrictions to protect the spawning fish coming up river compared to Wyo.
Gone really? Besides crawfish what do think is feeding the burbot, rbt, smb and small macks. It is the chubs. They are still there and contribute significantly to recruitment from small fish to bigger fish.
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So CO has tighter restrictions, and the fishing still sucks. Could it be the perch. Or the lack of enforcement?
Why are you so anti lake trout?
flaming on
Utah/wyo closes the Flaming Gorge to Kokanee fishing I beleive Sept 1 st to protect the spawners. Yes the CPW does close east river to taking of kokes but encourages anglers to come catch/release during run, they have put articles in Denver post "best salmon fishing south of Alaska! well anybody that fishes kokes knows they dont catch and release well. Leave the fricking fish alone! But once again it is not biology it is tourism dollars
. once again different management techniques, if CPW was really concerned about those spawners they would close the river down for as long as they are running. I seen done in Alaska, it is called protecting the resource.
'
Chubby found this from 1990's timeframe
At one point the Utah chub was the Macks' primary food source. In the mid-1980s Brayton said there was a rapid decline in the chub population, which was about the time the lake trout numbers started to increase sharply. By the end of the 1980s, the chub had been eliminated from the lower two-thirds of the reservoir. They remain in the upper third only because the waters there are not as deep and warmer, two conditions lake trout don't favor.
With the elimination of the chub, the lake trout turned their attention toward kokanee and rainbow. Biologist noticed that about the time the chubs vanished, kokanee numbers suddenly stopped increasing
Utah/wyo closes the Flaming Gorge to Kokanee fishing I beleive Sept 1 st to protect the spawners. Yes the CPW does close east river to taking of kokes but encourages anglers to come catch/release during run, they have put articles in Denver post "best salmon fishing south of Alaska! well anybody that fishes kokes knows they dont catch and release well. Leave the fricking fish alone! But once again it is not biology it is tourism dollars
. once again different management techniques, if CPW was really concerned about those spawners they would close the river down for as long as they are running. I seen done in Alaska, it is called protecting the resource.'
Chubby found this from 1990's timeframe
At one point the Utah chub was the Macks' primary food source. In the mid-1980s Brayton said there was a rapid decline in the chub population, which was about the time the lake trout numbers started to increase sharply. By the end of the 1980s, the chub had been eliminated from the lower two-thirds of the reservoir. They remain in the upper third only because the waters there are not as deep and warmer, two conditions lake trout don't favor.
With the elimination of the chub, the lake trout turned their attention toward kokanee and rainbow. Biologist noticed that about the time the chubs vanished, kokanee numbers suddenly stopped increasing
really ? never seen one in lake trout throat, seen allot of kokes?
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