# Fishing Utah Lake



## medicblue (Apr 17, 2011)

I'll be moving to Utah from San Diego May 1st, We will be living in Eagle Mountain, my oldest son has been living about a 5 miute walk to the North Eastern side of Utah Lake, He says all he's heard about the lake is that there was only Carp and Catfish in there and that the PCB levels were high enough that you can only eat a few ounces of the fish caught there per month. In fact there is a little sign posted near a little pond attached to the lake right near his house that warns of this. :shock: 

We had pretty well written off doing anything there except maybe a little Geocaching. I started reading in this forum about people fishing Utah Lake and looked further into it. Just talked with someone at Utah Lake State Park and he says that the fish is safe to eat. And in fact there is quite a lot of fish there. This would be awesome to me and my sons. But what is the deal with the toxins in the lake? Has anybody here heard anything about this? I'm hearing two extremes of the scale, what the heck? :?


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## utahgolf (Sep 8, 2007)

I know lots of people that eat fish in there without any issue....I personally don't, I think that lake is nasty, the smell alone doesn't help but I still love fishing there and have really got into cat fishing and also like the white bass fishin down there.


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## medicblue (Apr 17, 2011)

lol, yea, looking at it on Google Earth is iteresting


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## brfisherman17 (Jan 21, 2011)

I have never heard anything about any "toxins" in the lake, but I see people take fish from there and eat them all the time. Today alone I saw about 5 walleye caught and kept. So I assume it's safe... I personally wouldn't eat em though...


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

medicblue said:


> lol, yea, looking at it on Google Earth is iteresting


If you look at the lake on Google Earth you need to go up to the clock and change the date stamp since the one that it is showing showes 90% of the lake covered in ice.

As far as eatting the fish out of it there is no problems I and wouldn't hesitate to eat any of the bass, catfish, or walleye out of it.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

There is an advisory for both carp and channel catfish for PCB's. After the carp were tested to be high, they also tested the other species in the lake for levels that required an advisory. The channel cats tested high, but the other species, ( white bass, walleyes, crappie, bluegills, largemouths, etc) all tested *safe*. Another contaminant of concern in Utah is mercury. There are several waters that have mercury advisories on them. For instance, Jordanelle has an advisory on the brown trout and the smallies. Utah Lake was tested and the fish, including the channel cats, *all* tested safe. In fact, the raw numbers were some of the lowest values for mercury in the state!

There is no advisory for panfish, walleyes, white bass, etc. and they have been tested safe to eat. I will eat panfish out of UL with greater confidence than I would at say, Jordanelle or for that matter most Utah waters.

It seems though that if people cannot get over the murky water and the Utah lake smell, it doesn't matter how many studies declare the fish safe, psychologically, the fish will still be yucky.


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

Catherder said:


> There is an advisory for both carp and channel catfish for PCB's. After the carp were tested to be high, they also tested the other species in the lake for levels that required an advisory. The channel cats tested high, but the other species, ( white bass, walleyes, crappie, bluegills, largemouths, etc) all tested *safe*. Another contaminant of concern in Utah is mercury. There are several waters that have mercury advisories on them. For instance, Jordanelle has an advisory on the brown trout and the smallies. Utah Lake was tested and the fish, including the channel cats, *all* tested safe. In fact, the raw numbers were some of the lowest values for mercury in the state!
> 
> There is no advisory for panfish, walleyes, white bass, etc. and they have been tested safe to eat. I will eat panfish out of UL with greater confidence than I would at say, Jordanelle or for that matter most Utah waters.
> 
> It seems though that if people cannot get over the murky water and the Utah lake smell, it doesn't matter how many studies declare the fish safe, psychologically, the fish will still be yucky.


Yes and no, I think. What is the government's definition of "safe?" Just because they say it is safe to eat X fish out of Utah lake, doesn't necessarily mean I would want to feed it to my kids.

If my nose, eyes, and tongue tell me that there is something wrong with the ecology of Utah Lake, I don't care if they gave a AAA bond rating. I'm not in.

That said, I think they do a service when they identify lakes, such as Jordanelle, where the lake (or the fish) would pass the sniff, look, and taste test where there may be excess mercury, etc. But, just because it is "ok" to eat an 8 oz portion every month, doesn't mean I'm going to make sure I get all 8 oz.

Utah Lake fish are for pullage, not for eatin'.


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## Hnaf (Jan 23, 2008)

Some great info on utah lake can be found at the Utah Lake Commission site: http://www.utahlakecommission.org/

They also put together some videos to give some great history on the lake. Very much worth the time it takes to watch each part of the whole show: http://www.youtube.com/user/utahlakecommission


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

Dodger said:


> If my nose, eyes, and tongue tell me that there is something wrong with the ecology of Utah Lake, I don't care if they gave a AAA bond rating. I'm not in.





Dodger said:


> Utah Lake fish are for pullage, not for eatin'.


As I said before, people that cannot get over preconceived bias against the fish will never enjoy a fish meal there so why force it. No big deal. However, if one understands that the water is murky due to suspended bottom sediments stirred by wind and not pollution, has odors from a eutrophic lake, algae blooms, and abundant nearby marshes and not a failing ecology, and the fish meals themselves actually taste great (esp. the jumbo bluegills and crappie), then it is no problem for me to enjoy a plate of fillets and I have no problems feeding them to my kids. (something I *won't* do with smallies from Jordanelle) I also don't blindly listen to what the government says, but I also have enough degrees on my wall in biology and related sciences to make my own decisions and I am quite comfortable in mine.

So bon appetit :EAT: if you want, C&R if you wish, its all good. Just don't look down on us eating UL fish while you munch on your mercury laden fish out of Jordanelle, Joes valley, and other ponds.


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## medicblue (Apr 17, 2011)

> If you look at the lake on Google Earth you need to go up to the clock and change the date stamp since the one that it is showing showes 90% of the lake covered in ice.


I never knew I cold do that. Didn't change the way it looked though unless I just didn't do it right. It does look iced over, but now I'm thinking that the photo is over exposed or something. I can see boats in motion. Thanks for the heads up on being able to change the photo date, thats cool.



> As I said before, people that cannot get over preconceived bias against the fish will never enjoy a fish meal there so why force it. No big deal. However, if one understands that the water is murky due to suspended bottom sediments stirred by wind and not pollution, has odors from a eutrophic lake, algae blooms, and abundant nearby marshes and not a failing ecology, and the fish meals themselves actually taste great (esp. the jumbo bluegills and crappie), then it is no problem for me to enjoy a plate of fillets and I have no problems feeding them to my kids. (something I won't do with smallies from Jordanelle) I also don't blindly listen to what the government says, but I also have enough degrees on my wall in biology and related sciences to make my own decisions and I am quite comfortable in mine.


That actually makes quite a bit of sense, and reading the links that Hnaf posted seems to point at some certain level of "safe" too. I guess I'll have to wait till I get there and see if my eyes and nose throw up any flags, but I'll keep the natural cause explanation in mind. I'll keep searhing for more info on it too.

Maybe someone could answer another question about the lake, My son, (who actually lives more to the north westwern side instead of the north eastern), has also been told that the lake is only 9 feet deep at its deepest point, seems kinda shallow, true? not true?


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

medicblue said:


> > Maybe someone could answer another question about the lake, My son, (who actually lives more to the north westwern side instead of the north eastern), has also been told that the lake* is only 9 feet deep at its deepest point*, seems kinda shallow, true? not true?


Close.....here's a link you might want to read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Lake

Natural pollutants?.....not hardly.


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

Catherder said:


> Dodger said:
> 
> 
> > If my nose, eyes, and tongue tell me that there is something wrong with the ecology of Utah Lake, I don't care if they gave a AAA bond rating. I'm not in.
> ...


That's fair enough Catherder. I don't have the biological expertise to critically analyze the information available. But, I do know how the government works and I don't believe that something is safe just because they say it is. I have to rely on my own judgement which tells me the safest course is to not eat fish out of Utah Lake because that's the only way to be sure. It's not a psychology issue. It's an issue of not eating a subway sandwich in a port-o-john. -O,-

I also said that I don't eat fish out of Jordanelle either.


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## brfisherman17 (Jan 21, 2011)

medicblue said:


> > My son, (who actually lives more to the north westwern side instead of the north eastern), has also been told that the lake is only 9 feet deep at its deepest point, seems kinda shallow, true? not true?


The deepest point of Utah Lake is 14 feet.


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## Guest (Apr 27, 2011)

brfisherman17 said:


> medicblue said:
> 
> 
> > > My son, (who actually lives more to the north westwern side instead of the north eastern), has also been told that the lake is only 9 feet deep at its deepest point, seems kinda shallow, true? not true?
> ...


yeah its a pretty shallow lake, which makes it so dangerous when it comes to runnin boats on it.


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