# Quality Over Quantity



## mjschijf (Oct 1, 2007)

I was planning on heading out with my brother again this weekend, but he unexpectedly had to work, so it was another solo trip for me. My last trip to Panguitch brought quite a few fat, healthy fish, and I have heard that the fishing there has still been hot. There a couple of other places that I have been wanting to hit up as well, but the short drive and best chance for some nice fish had Panguitch calling my name yet again.

I made an effort to get off to an early start for once, as I had some other plans for later in the afternoon. I was out the door at about 7:15, and after a quick stop for gas, then breakfast and coffee at McDonalds, I was on my way.

On my way up Cedar Mountain, I noticed some cool icicles forming on the canyon wall. I pulled over and snapped a few quick photos.

























When I arrived at Panguitch, I was greeted by a sheet of ice covering about half the lake. :| I wasn't really expecting that. I was under the impression that it didn't ice over until January. There was still plenty of open water so it was no big deal. My "normal" spot was out of the question though.

When I went to get my wading boots out of the trunk of my car, I found them to be frozen solid. Probably not the best idea to leave them in there all the time when the temperature is down into the 20's at night. I sat in my car with the heat on full blast until my boots were thawed out enough to cram onto my feet.

When I finally got down to the water and started to fish, I started off casting a gold jointed Rebel that I had pretty good success with during my last Panguitch trip. Nothing seemed to be interested this time around. Never even saw a fish chasing it, which is strange because last time I was there fish were chasing that thing to the shore every three or four casts. I decided I was just delaying the inevitable because I always end up using my jigs when nothing else seems to be working. This time, I decided to not wait around and see if something else works before tying on a jig. I would not be disappointed, and after just a few casts had one fish on, and let's just say :shock: was my reaction when I got it to shore.
















I think it was in the 18 to 20 inch range, but wow...I have never caught a trout even close to being so fat. That thing looked like its belly was about to burst open it was so obese! :lol:

Well, I continued fishing and had another hookup, maybe two, but the fish got loose. I tried a few more lures but the fish didn't seem to want anything. Even the jigs went dead for the last couple of hours I was there. Nobody there seemed to be having a whole lot of success except for a couple of people hucking Powerbait near the boat ramp. There was a fly guy that I talked to who was also having a slow day.

So I ended the day with just the one fish landed. When I left, I had to keep reminding myself that the one fish I caught was a hog to avoid slight disappointment. I think it's because the one that I caught was during my first hour of fishing, then had another get loose, then it went dead for the rest of the time I was there. I think I would have been way more stoked about catching that fatty if it came later on in the day. Still though, I'd say the one fish I caught was well worth the outing. I'm guessing it was by far the heaviest trout I have ever caught. Like the title of my report suggests, I'd rather catch one hog than several little guys any day. Today was no exception. I'm going to label this weekend as another good one in the books. 

Hopefully next weekend I'll be able to get my brother into some fish. That would be an awesome way to cap off the softwater before hitting the hard stuff!


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## REPETER (Oct 3, 2007)

What a fatty! Looks like some of my girlfriends in HS :shock: :lol: Too bad you didn't bring your auger and ice rod :wink:


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## Dwight Schrutester (Dec 3, 2007)

Talk about a football! I have to say that I love that place down there. I hope that the Fish & Game keep a watchful eye on it so it can reach its potential.


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Who in the heck has been planting those sea trout in Panguitch !?!? :? 

I think your fish also stopped at McDonalds for breakfast....nice fish !!


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## The Naturalist (Oct 13, 2007)

Good Job. You should have played with him a little bit more. Looks like it needed some exercise!


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## Nueces (Jul 22, 2008)

Wow! That fish is FAT!!! Thanks for sharing.


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## mjschijf (Oct 1, 2007)

REPETER said:


> What a fatty! Looks like some of my girlfriends in HS :shock: :lol: Too bad you didn't bring your auger and ice rod :wink:


 :lol: 
That's funny stuff right there.

I'm pretty sure the ice sheet on the lake wasn't safe to walk on. It looked pretty thin. I wasn't going to risk it anyway. I actually don't have an auger OR an ice rod yet. I'm hoping to pick up an ice rod within the next couple of days, and hopefully an auger in the next week or so.



Dwight Schrutester said:


> Talk about a football! I have to say that I love that place down there. I hope that the Fish & Game keep a watchful eye on it so it can reach its potential.


Yeah, Panguitch is awesome. I really hope that the chub situation stays in check, for a while anyway. Right now the fishery seems to be headed in the right direction. Even the average sized fish in there are really nice, and I have yet to catch one that wasn't very healthy looking. Hopefully the DWR will do what they can to keep it that way. I know sometimes the chubs become beyond anyone's control, but hopefully it's at least a long time before that happens again. I've only been there a few times, but have yet to see a single chub. That seems to be a good sign, so hopefully it stays that way.


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## Puddles (Nov 28, 2007)

That fish needs to take a dump. What a hog!


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## Gameface (Jun 7, 2008)

Looks like you made your own version of Free Willy. That's a fatty!


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## brookieguy1 (Oct 14, 2008)

Wow what a beautiful chunk 'bow! I hope they don't remove the slot regs on the rainbows in there so they can reach max potential. I never fish there, but for the sake of the fishery I hope they leave the slot alone. Screw the fish keeping whiners!


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## mjschijf (Oct 1, 2007)

.45 said:


> Who in the heck has been planting those sea trout in Panguitch !?!? :?
> 
> I think your fish also stopped at McDonalds for breakfast....nice fish !!


Just an FYI, I am not as fat as the fish that I caught, and only eat McDonalds for breakfast on rare occasions! :lol: Egg McMuffin's aren't that unhealthy anyway.



brookieguy1 said:


> Wow what a beautiful chunk 'bow! I hope they don't remove the slot regs on the rainbows in there so they can reach max potential. I never fish there, but for the sake of the fishery I hope they leave the slot alone. Screw the fish keeping whiners!


I was just checking out the 2009 proclamation, and they're actually changing the regs. You can keep up to four Rainbows of any size. The 15-22 inch slot will still apply for all other trout species (there are Cutts, Tigers, and a few Browns in Panguitch as well). I'm not too stoked about the change being a catch and release guy, but I'm sure the DWR knows what they are doing. Hopefully the average size of the fish won't decrease. Who knows, maybe thinning some of them out will make the remaining ones grow bigger and fatter because they won't have as many fish to compete with for food. I guess we'll find out soon enough. :|


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Holy crap!

What a tank! Gorgeous color too. I'd be happy all week with a bow like that.

I like the ice shots, too. I took a few of my own today. 

Glad you got your hog. How was the fight?


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## metal_fish (Mar 19, 2008)

What An Amazing Fish, fatter is always better when it comes to fishing!!
Wonder if it was pregnant?


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## kastmaster (Nov 20, 2007)

That is one fat rainbow!! Did you check what was in its belly? Cool ice pics also.


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## orvis1 (Sep 7, 2007)

very nice piggie you got there!


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## RnF (Sep 25, 2007)

mjschijf said:


> I was just checking out the 2009 proclamation, and they're actually changing the regs. You can keep up to four Rainbows of any size. The 15-22 inch slot will still apply for all other trout species (there are Cutts, Tigers, and a few Browns in Panguitch as well). I'm not too stoked about the change being a catch and release guy, but I'm sure the DWR knows what they are doing. Hopefully the average size of the fish won't decrease. Who knows, maybe thinning some of them out will make the remaining ones grow bigger and fatter because they won't have as many fish to compete with for food. I guess we'll find out soon enough. :|


Yeah, they did change it.

You can read about it here. Some short sightedness going on down there.
http://www.utahonthefly.com/forums/show ... =panguitch


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## mjschijf (Oct 1, 2007)

LOAH said:


> Holy crap!
> 
> What a tank! Gorgeous color too. I'd be happy all week with a bow like that.
> 
> ...


The fight was ok, but not what I would expect out of a fish of that size. Maybe it was just too fat to make much of an attempt to get loose. :lol:



metal_fish said:


> What An Amazing Fish, fatter is always better when it comes to fishing!!
> Wonder if it was pregnant?


I wondered the same thing, but Rainbows generally spawn in the springtime. I'm guessing it probably just had a belly full of food.



RnF said:


> mjschijf said:
> 
> 
> > I was just checking out the 2009 proclamation, and they're actually changing the regs. You can keep up to four Rainbows of any size. The 15-22 inch slot will still apply for all other trout species (there are Cutts, Tigers, and a few Browns in Panguitch as well). I'm not too stoked about the change being a catch and release guy, but I'm sure the DWR knows what they are doing. Hopefully the average size of the fish won't decrease. Who knows, maybe thinning some of them out will make the remaining ones grow bigger and fatter because they won't have as many fish to compete with for food. I guess we'll find out soon enough. :|
> ...


Thanks for that link. The more I read about it, the more I feel disappointed that they are doing away with the slot for Rainbows. With a limit of 4 with no size restrictions starting in '09, I have a feeling hundreds of bait huckers are going to flock to Panguitch every weekend to catch their limit of fish. I know I sounded somewhat optomistic about the situation in my previous post, but the more I think about it the more I have a hard time seeing much good that will come out of it. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with people keeping a couple of fish. However, Panguitch seems like it will be easy pickings for people to catch their limit of good sized fish, spread the word, then come back with a group of friends and relatives the following weekend, catch and keep their limit again, etc., etc., etc. I would be surprised if we didn't see the numbers of good sized fatties decrease in the following years, as long as those regulations are in effect.

Sorry for venting, but it is a little upsetting to me.


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## Chaser (Sep 28, 2007)

It would have been interesting to cut that thing open to see what he had been eating. Who knows, maybe he had a week's worth of chubs in there!


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## mjschijf (Oct 1, 2007)

Chaser said:


> It would have been interesting to cut that thing open to see what he had been eating. Who knows, maybe he had a week's worth of chubs in there!


Yeah, it definitely would have been interesting to see what was in its belly. I didn't measure the fish, but I don't think it was out of the slot so I probably wouldn't have been able to keep it even if I wanted to. I probably would have released it either way. The thickness of that thing made up of for any lack of length, that's for sure. I wonder how much it weighed.


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## hamernhonkers (Sep 28, 2007)

> Thanks for that link. The more I read about it, the more I feel disappointed that they are doing away with the slot for Rainbows. With a limit of 4 with no size restrictions starting in '09, I have a feeling hundreds of bait huckers are going to flock to Panguitch every weekend to catch their limit of fish. I know I sounded somewhat optomistic about the situation in my previous post, but the more I think about it the more I have a hard time seeing much good that will come out of it. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with people keeping a couple of fish. However, Panguitch seems like it will be easy pickings for people to catch their limit of good sized fish, spread the word, then come back with a group of friends and relatives the following weekend, catch and keep their limit again, etc., etc., etc. I would be surprised if we didn't see the numbers of good sized fatties decrease in the following years, as long as those regulations are in effect.
> 
> Sorry for venting, but it is a little upsetting to me.


Getting ride of the slot is the second best thing that can be done for the lake. The best thing would be to make it artificial only. Have you been there when the dwr goes around after a large holiday weekend and cleans up all the dead fish that had bait hooks riped out of them and then thrown back to die. Now the idiots can just keep the fish and quit killing all of them for no reason.


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## mjschijf (Oct 1, 2007)

hamernhonkers said:


> > Thanks for that link. The more I read about it, the more I feel disappointed that they are doing away with the slot for Rainbows. With a limit of 4 with no size restrictions starting in '09, I have a feeling hundreds of bait huckers are going to flock to Panguitch every weekend to catch their limit of fish. I know I sounded somewhat optomistic about the situation in my previous post, but the more I think about it the more I have a hard time seeing much good that will come out of it. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with people keeping a couple of fish. However, Panguitch seems like it will be easy pickings for people to catch their limit of good sized fish, spread the word, then come back with a group of friends and relatives the following weekend, catch and keep their limit again, etc., etc., etc. I would be surprised if we didn't see the numbers of good sized fatties decrease in the following years, as long as those regulations are in effect.
> >
> > Sorry for venting, but it is a little upsetting to me.
> 
> ...


I have never seen seen the DWR cleaning up dead fish, but I have only been there a few times. I know that is a risk for any water with a slot limit that also allows bait fishing. However, I think the current slot turns many bait fishermen away from fishing Panguitch at all. I think it's safe to say that most bait fishermen are looking to keep the fish that they catch, so why go to a lake in which 8 or 9 fish out of 10 are in the slot? Don't get me wrong, I still see bait fishermen every time I go there but from what I have observed, they cut the line when the fish are hooked deep and don't try to dig out the hook. I realize that doing this still doesn't give the fish a GREAT chance of survival, but it is certainly better than the alternative.

I am willing to bet that starting in '09, many baiters start to flock to Panguitch who had never, or rarely, been there before because of the change in regulations. Big 'bows, fairly easy to catch when conditions are right, limit of four with no more slot limit. Hell...why wouldn't they start flocking to Panguitch? I have a tough time seeing how this is will be good for the fishery.

What I do agree with is that I would be stoked if Panguitch became an artificial only water, but that is just my biased opinion. I am not one to push for these kind of regulations because I am not one to judge others for their preferred method of fishing. However, I do think the fishery would benefit from it.


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