Anvil Draw July 15 and 16

[jacksonman]

After my only trip to the Gorge last year in August, I swore I would fish it 4 or 5 times this year. Well work, wife and kids have a way of keeping you closer to home.

So I made my first trip last weekend and was planning to fish big bend, but heard reports of stained water and slower fishing. SO we decided to focus on the Anvil Draw / Pipeline area. We started a touch north of Anvil and only caught 3 or 4 small kokes in two hours. We noticed an armada of boats further south and decided to join in the fun. Immediately bigger fish on. We were fishing between 25-38 ft as that is what all the reports had said.

But we weren't catching anything over 2 lbs so my buddy decided to drop down to 45 ft. Next fish hit that one and went 3 lbs. Sweet. So we started fishing 45-55 ft and the fish were consistently bigger.

Both days used only RMT gear, orange worked better early in the morning and pink by 8 or so. Best combo of the trip was the bahama mama with cotton candy squid at about 48 feet.

We didn't catch any bigger than about 3.25 lbs and heard that bigger ones were being caught at big bend but we were having too much fun at Anvil. We caught 20-30 kokes in 3-4 hours each morning and saw the RMT boat. Almost stopped to say hello and thanks. It did seem that many boats were fishing too shallow and were not catching nearly as much as we were. We were also using an electric trolling motor and trolling slower than most of the boats.

We filleted our first day limits at Lucerne and kept our second day limits in the same cooler. FIsh and game were checking everyone so we just handed them our cooler and told them to count. We were confident we had done nothing wrong. Ended up they counted it as a double daily possession limit and we received a $240 ticket. Of course the officer kept the bag of the already filleted kokes. Does this seem legit? How do you all take 2-4 day trips up there and bring home limits for multiple days? Do you just hide them or were the wardens out-of-line? They checked us for everything else including boat safety equipment and everything passed. It was clear we were trying to keep the law.

I also realized how dang expensive it is getting to fish the WY side of the gorge. 460 miles of gas roundtrip, $30 boat stamp, $10 recip. stamp, $5 daily fee, etc. Then add a $240 ticket to it. Hopefully I can get one more trip in this year.

 

[TrophyBoat]

good report, sucks about the ticket but it does clearly state that your possesion limit is 3 fish regardless of days on the water.
Looks like so solid kokes though.

 

[Propnut69]

Looks like someone needs to read the regs. Its a three fish(kokanee) limit,with no more then a three koke limit in your possession. sounds like you put one day's catch in the cooler with ,another days catch.Giving you way over a legal limit of kokanee. Gotta watch out for them guys in the red shirts,as they take no prisoners.

As for how expensive it is to fish the wyoming side. You could of just fished the Utah side,and would not of had to buy a AIS sticker. In Utah just show them some online test you took,and your good to go.

You ask others what they do to CHEAT the system. Do you really think anyone is going to tell you how to break the law on the internet.?

 

[jacksonlaker]

Nice job on the Kokes Jared. I wish I could have been there. I know what you mean about trying to get to the Gorge more. I always say once a month, but it never works out. That sucks about G&F taking your fish. That is the law ,though. I guess you are supposed to eat all your fish before going out again !! Once again, good report...Tom

 

[Targa165]

Great informative report, good detail on depth, lures, and area fished. Thanks, the info will be very appreciated by everyone that plans on getting over there soon. Sorry to hear about your being over the limit and getting a ticket, but the possession limit is one daily bag limit. I wish it were two days bag limit but it is only one. I haven't heard of anyone saying they have kept more than one limit on this forum. Sounds like you had fun and there are worse things than losing $240. I am surprised they only took your over limit and didn't keep all your fish. Sounds like you guys got off pretty easy compared to what might have been. Once again thanks for the great report.

 

[jacksonman]

The ironic thing is that neither of us like to eat fish much and we were planning to give the fish to neighbors anyways. I guess it doesn't pay off to be a nice guy. The warden let us off easy because it was obvious we weren't trying to break the law and everything else he checked was in compliance.

I am not looking for pointers on how to get around the law. It just seems like people post pictures of limits of dead kokes every day of the three days they fish. I doubt that everyone is eating three kokes every night so they can catch a limit again. That is why I didn't read enough into the regs. At least I knew the limit was 3 and not 4.

I may just have to store one days limit with a friend in Green River next time. For those of us who can't go home at the end of the day before returning, the one daily possession limit is lame, especially when the fish are only really planted to be caught and can only be caught 3 or 4 months of the year.

But still a fun trip. Hoping to make it back out the end of the month.

 

[Ryno]

I doubt that everyone is eating three kokes every night so they can catch a limit again. That is why I didn't read enough into the regs. At least I knew the limit was 3 and not 4.

I would bet a lot of the anglers that catch kokes at the Gorge are eating them each night and taking a limit home their last day. Many fish for kokes because they are a blast to catch, but most also love the taste so they don't last long!

I may just have to store one days limit with a friend in Green River next time. For those of us who can't go home at the end of the day before returning, the one daily possession limit is lame, especially when the fish are only really planted to be caught and can only be caught 3 or 4 months of the year.

You still have to watch the legalities of this. Possession in either UT or WY is your bag limit and that includes fish in your livewell, tent, cooler, home refrigerator, freezer, etc in any form. They are part of the possession until consumed, so smoking or canning on the shoreline doesn't count either. Like you suggest, there has been discussion about doubling the possession for fish(much like you see with upland game and waterfowl). If you just like to catch fish anyway, you could always drop down and target pup lake trout which are also hitting really well right now.

Just so you know, most of the kokes you catch in FGR are a result of natural recruitment, not stocking. Although high numbers of kokes are stocked (1.1 million in 2010), those fish are only 3-inches in length and success is about 8-10% the first season.

Hope it helps.

 

[Downrigger]

I am not looking for pointers on how to get around the law.

Okayyyyyy.

I may just have to store one days limit with a friend in Green River next time.

Looks like you do need some pointers. My first one is to read, and comprehend, the rules. My second one is to follow them.

If you don't even eat them why are you keeping them in the first place? Is it really worth driving to Green River to poach fish you aren't even going to eat?

I just don't get it. And seeing other people do it isn't an excuse. Call the hotline if you see people poaching.

 

[jacksonman]

I want to keep more than three because well, they are salmon, I want to east some and my neighbors love them, and well, I pay a butt-load of money in all the fees, licenses and stamps to fish there. In reality, the mortality rate of kokes released seems to be much higher too, probably close to 30-50%. It would be nice to be able to keep a few that are obviously going to die then to release them for the birds.

But I now understand the rules and will limit myself to three at one time. I'll have to be more selective about what I keep.

 

[Downrigger]

I want to keep more than three because well, they are salmon, I want to east some and my neighbors love them, and well, I pay a butt-load of money in all the fees, licenses and stamps to fish there. In reality, the mortality rate of kokes released seems to be much higher too, probably close to 30-50%. It would be nice to be able to keep a few that are obviously going to die then to release them for the birds.

But I now understand the rules and will limit myself to three at one time. I'll have to be more selective about what I keep.

I appreciate what you are saying.

1. They are tasty and I want to eat them and share them with others.

2. It costs a lot of money to go catch them.

3. They are just going to die anyway. (The "Strawberry Excuse," as I call it).

I don't particularly disagree with any of those things. But, the law doesn't say 3 in possession unless you caught 10 that were going to die anyway or 3 in possession unless you spent more than $200. The law says 3 in possession, period.

I'm not coming down on you Jacksonman, I only post this for the benefit of others that do use those same excuses on a regular basis to poach. Poaching is poaching and I will call every time I see it. I hope that all those here would do the same.

 

[jacksonman]

I hardly keep fish so I am one of the first to call in against poachers. The Strawberry excuse is valid, especially for those using bait. That is why I would be more than happy to turn Strawberry into an artifical only where the tipping of jigs is still legal AND/OR to allow keeping one fish in the slot to allow anglers to keep a fish that would die anyways.

Knowing the current rules of FG, I would agree that it would be nice to allow a two day possession limit considering most anglers are from out of the area and the mortality rate is high for kokes regardless of how you fish them.

 

[SmokeOnTheWater]

Some GOOD Discussion going on here! Love to hear these kind of folks that agree with the LAW. Sorry Jacksonman that you had to find out the hard way 4moremney but thanks for being man enough to admit you were wrong and let that be known to all the others reading this thread.



The Wyoming Game & Fish are SERIOUS about protecting their part of Flaming Gorge. My wife and I were checked every time we went fishing last year. This year, I haven't seen WG&F on the water at all. 101noharte101

 

[Downrigger]

I hardly keep fish so I am one of the first to call in against poachers. The Strawberry excuse is valid, especially for those using bait. That is why I would be more than happy to turn Strawberry into an artifical only where the tipping of jigs is still legal AND/OR to allow keeping one fish in the slot to allow anglers to keep a fish that would die anyways.

Knowing the current rules of FG, I would agree that it would be nice to allow a two day possession limit considering most anglers are from out of the area and the mortality rate is high for kokes regardless of how you fish them.

I'm glad you call on poachers. As I said, I hope everyone here does.

I think my point is that the all of the excuses are irrelevant. You make a choice to go fishing. If you make that choice, you don't get to choose which laws you follow and which you don't because you like some rules more than others.

The DWR generally knows what it is doing. They've been running the wildlife in Utah (or the Wyoming equivalent) for probably more than a hundred years. They know what happens when the public gets a break - keep one in the slot if it was going to die anyway. You know what will happen if that's the new rule? The slot will no longer work. It won't take too long for that 1 fish to go from 22 to 20 to 18 to 15 as all the older ones are taken because they "would have died."

We can debate how intelligent the laws are. We can debate whether that should actually be the law. But, we do not get to debate whether or not we will actually follow the law.

It would be nice if you could keep a few more kokes over a couple of days. Heaven knows that 3 smoked kokanee don't last much longer than a day at my house. But just because one angler might disagree with the possession limit, that is no excuse to keep more than 3.

Fish mortality is 100% for the fish that don't go back.