# Community Ponds May Have Limits Lowered



## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

I attended the RAC Northern Regional Meeting last night.
As many already know, there is a proposal to lower the limits at Community Ponds, from 4 fish to 2 fish.
I support this change as it will help to keep fish in the ponds longer and make for more enjoyable fishing trips at these ponds.

As a side note,
Holmes Creek Pond in Layton would be taken off the Community Ponds list, if this passes.
The DWR feels that HC needs to have more fish harvested than the lower limits would allow.

This would make for some very fun Ice Fishing next year.


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## Size Matters (Dec 22, 2007)

I agree they should Lower the limit but also wonder if that will help all that much from what I have seen some people dont seem to know or care about limits at these ponds. :|


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

One area where this will help is that it will be a lot easier to tell when 1 or 2 fish are on a stringer. If someone tries to put 3 or more fish on that stringer, you will be able to see it.
I have had a hard time telling whether there are 4 or 5 fish on a stringer in the past.
So other anglers will be able to see when someone has too many fish and either call the authorities or confront the person and let them know that they have too many fish in their possession.
Yes, there will still be those that will blatantly disregard the law.
It will be easier to spot them now, if the regs change.


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## Size Matters (Dec 22, 2007)

Yeah I hope it helps but one thing that I have seen happen is people can take there fish home just around the corner and be back at the pond it a few minutes and continue to catch them I think they should make some of these ponds either for kids only or catch and release.


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

Utah State Law prohibits kids only waters.
Also the Feds with the ADA ACT prohibits this,
As far as C&R goes, the fish in Community Ponds are in there for put and take fishing.
The ponds are working quite well as they are.
We just need to keep people more honest, if possible.
Remember that these ponds are not the only place that people break the laws.
We just see more of it there because we see more people in a concentrated area, at community ponds.

I can't even begin to imagine how many illigal cutthroat trout are taken out of Strawberry Reservoir every year.
I would bet that it is more than all the community ponds put together.


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## Gameface (Jun 7, 2008)

I think a 2 fish limit is fine, but I bet a 4 fish limit would be fine too if people followed it. I think there should be a lot of signs that make the limit clear along with the number to the DWR to report poaching. The best weapon against over harvesting is to make it abundantly clear what the limit is so that the honest people at the pond don't assume that the poachers just don't know what the limit is.


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## Vivid-Dawn (Jul 18, 2008)

Grandpa D said:


> As a side note,
> Holmes Creek Pond in Layton would be taken off the Community Ponds list, if this passes.
> The DWR feels that HC needs to have more fish harvested than the lower limits would allow.
> 
> This would make for some very fun Ice Fishing next year.


That's good. I decided that if (IF!) I decide to do ice fishing this year, I would at least try Holmes Creek. It's close - just down the road from my house - so if I got too cold/tired/bored, I could just go right home and warm up fast. Plus, it's small, and I can actually walk out to the middle of it without being exhausted, unlike places such as State Park reservoirs... I've seen pictures of people walking clleeeaarr out on those things!

So... if it's not a Community Pond, how would we get access? Last I knew it's on private land, and only allowable to fish since it's "Community" status. So now would we have to submit an application for written approval to be there, or something?


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

Access to Holmes Creek won't change.
Just the daily bag limit.
Holmes Creek is a fun place to ice fish but the walk back up and out to the road can be a little difficult when the trail is either ices up or covered with heavy snow.
This can make pulling a sled back up a bit of a chore.


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## mrdanner (Sep 21, 2009)

Hi there grandpa D 

I used to go by hydroteck. I would like get more involed with the Community Pond programs, I did volunteer in 2007 at the Jensen Nature Park Pond in Syracuse but since then I have had a five way bypass done and just recovering from a knee replacement surgery so for the past two years I have not been fishing as much has I use to, and gotten out of touch with some things. Has for lower the limits on community ponds I would agree with doing that with the fish that stock in the in the ponds but for fish like Blue Gills or Sunfish should be raised in some of the ponds. Let face it four Blue Gills does not make a large meal.


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

mrdanner said:


> Hi there grandpa D
> 
> I used to go by hydroteck. I would like get more involed with the Community Pond programs, I did volunteer in 2007 at the Jensen Nature Park Pond in Syracuse but since then I have had a five way bypass done and just recovering from a knee replacement surgery so for the past two years I have not been fishing as much has I use to, and gotten out of touch with some things. Has for lower the limits on community ponds I would agree with doing that with the fish that stock in the in the ponds but for fish like Blue Gills or Sunfish should be raised in some of the ponds. Let face it four Blue Gills does not make a large meal.


Good point.
They also thought about a required release of all bass but the RAC didn't wan't a lot of regulations on community ponds.
They felt that it would be too confusing to kids.


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## Tony (Dec 28, 2007)

I am all for this change. Seems like the ponds are stocked, people hear about it, show up, fill the coolers, and the fish are all gone in the matter of a few days. Consistent fishing would be great, especially when your teaching someone to fish. People have to catch fish when they go in order to establish a desire to keep fishing


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## JAT83 (Sep 9, 2007)

Tony said:


> I am all for this change. Seems like the ponds are stocked, people hear about it, show up, fill the coolers, and the fish are all gone in the matter of a few days. Consistent fishing would be great, especially when your teaching someone to fish. People have to catch fish when they go in order to establish a desire to keep fishing


+1 Good point! I agree, the fish do go quickly


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## Troll (Oct 21, 2008)

That is to bad about the Bass. I would think that having a simple regulation like no bass harvest would be worth way more in teaching about 
1. Fish identification
2. Selective harvest
3. Species management
4. F&G laws and regulations 
would be worth way more than worrying about to many regulations.
Not to mention that after a few years, the thrill of catching a really big bass.


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## scartinez (Apr 22, 2008)

Very good point Troll. Why teach them that fishing is all about keeping fish? Plus Bass grow excellent in these shallow low elevation ponds.


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

Well it's official.
The Board passed the change in regulations today.
The new limit at Community Ponds will be 2 fish total starting January 1st.

Holmes Creek will be put back on general regulations and the daily limit on Perch will be 50 statewide.

The Bass issue may be addressed again in a few years.
They will have to address the Cormorant problem first.


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## troutwhisperer (Jan 1, 2009)

I think this is a good thing, but laws are only as good as they are enforced, DWR, local police & users of these community ponds all need to do ther part. Thank you Grandpa D for your input and keeping us informed.


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## Troll (Oct 21, 2008)

Commorants are really a problem, they treat the community ponds like a free "Chuck-a Rama". I'm not sure what can be done about that other than casting 1oz sinkers at them. For the life of me I have no ideas. Give me a while though, I'm bound to come up with something.
Trained dogs maybe?


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

The DWR is working on ways to get the Cormorants out of the ponds.
They have to get Federal approval for anything that they do to the Cormorants.
As we all know, getting something OK ed by the Feds can take time and be very frustrating.


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## mrdanner (Sep 21, 2009)

The commorants are not the only birds that eat at the Community Ponds, there is the sea gulls, pelicans, and sometimes eagles. I just think we should leave them alone. They may seem to be doing a great deal of perdation but in a big picture it is most likely very litte.


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

mrdanner said:


> The commorants are not the only birds that eat at the Community Ponds, there is the sea gulls, pelicans, and sometimes eagles. I just think we should leave them alone. They may seem to be doing a great deal of perdation but in a big picture it is most likely very litte.


I wish that this was true.
The Cormorants literally wiped out all of the fish in Meadow Creek Pond by June of the last 3 years.
On any given day in April or May there are as many as 60 of these birds, eating up to 6 fish each, per day.
The pond gets about 500 fish stocked each trip.
Do the math and you will see what they leave for the anglers to catch.
Nothing, no blusgill, bass or trout.
The pond will be completely empty of fish by the time the DWR starts to stock Catfish in June.
None of the other birds mentioned come close to causing this kind of damage


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## mrdanner (Sep 21, 2009)

OK, I wonder what it is about Meadow Creek Pond that attracks so many commorants to that pond. If that is the pond in Roy I have only fish it twice and that was this summer for catfish. I have not seen more than 4 at Jensen Nature Park, Maybe Pond, Kayvilla Ponds or Farmington Pond and it was usually less than 4. I can see 60 birds at one pond would be a problem and something does need to be done to control them.


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## jubal (Feb 2, 2009)

They need some stripers in there to pull those birds down under.


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## caddisguy (Sep 10, 2007)

> Well it's official.
> The Board passed the change in regulations today.
> The new limit at Community Ponds will be 2 fish total starting January 1st.


Is that two fish or two black garbage sacks full? I fished Tibble Fork reservoir on Veteran's day from my float tube. There were still plenty of the 9-inch rainbows the DWR placed in there a couple of months ago. There are substantially fewer due to one jerk fishing off the south bank using seven poles! He had six poles baited and out in the reservoir while he cast a spinner with the seventh. I was busy catching and releasing my own share of fish so I didn't watch him every minute the three hours I was there but I stopped counting after he put the fourteenth fish on his stringer. He was in his late twenties, 5'10", 245 lbs, black hair and moustache, gray hoodie, wearing charcoal cargo pants and a black ball cap turned backwards. He didn't seem too concerned he would be caught and he wasn't. I did get his license plate number and reported it on the poaching hot line.

Here in lies the problem with the two fish limit, how are we going to enforce it? With an 800 million dollar deficit in the State budget, I can guarantee you the number of officers is going to be cut. How do we police ourseves?


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

Community Ponds are also within the jurisdiction of local Police Depts.
Call them and not the hot line for faster response time.
You on you that you did call though.
It will be up to anglers to help with enforcement to regs on Community Ponds.


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## catch&release (Nov 8, 2007)

with the way the wardens are spread out so thin its totaly up to the anglers to be the wardens.

If I catch ANYONE poaching, I simply use my cell phone and dial the hotline. Usualy the wardens dont take more than 15 minutes or so to show up and it makes me feel pretty good to have these people get hammered by the wardens. 

Community ponds or out in the middle of nowwhere these jerks are stealing from every fisherman that follows the rules. 

Its up to all of us to put these guys in there place and when enough have been caught then word will spread and they will start to think twice about breaking the laws


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## catch&release (Nov 8, 2007)

commorants are a hugh problem in the lakes around my house also. You should see how these birds get the stocking paterns down. They hang around the freshly stocked lake for about three days and devaste the trout then move on to another freshly stocked lake. We have three lakes within a five mile radius and they always find the fresh lake and when you drive bye the lakes that havent been stocked in a week they are nowhere to be seen. 

Worthless birds, almost a bad as the pelicans.


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## Kevin_Vandam (Dec 22, 2009)

Grandpa D said:


> Well it's official.
> The Board passed the change in regulations today.
> The new limit at Community Ponds will be 2 fish total starting January 1st.
> 
> ...


Why?! I think this is a really bad move from the dwr. :evil: The fishing at Holmes creek last year was the best it's been in over a decade, and I believe it's because of being under the protection of a community fishery. The dwr thinks there are two many fish in there? Why is that a bad thing, at least people are catching fish? How did they come to that conclusion? Why don't they stop stocking it with slimers then? I predict that the fishing will plummet there because of this decision. If you've fished at Holmes during the summer then you'll know why, everybody and their dog fishes there. Now instead of a stringer of four fish they'll be able to take home 6 bass, 50 bluegill, 50 crappie, 8t catfish, 50 perch, 10 walleye, 4 trout and unlimited white bass. Yes, I have caught all these species there, and some were VERY nice fish. Holmes Creek is too close to an urban population and too well known because of being in the community fishery booklet to be considered under the statewide fishing regs. Hopefully they'll realize this mistake by next year and change it back to being a community fishery.


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

Time will tell but I doubt that there will be any ill effect by the change.
The low water will be a bigger factor, in my opinion.

Holmes Creek has limited access and the fish will do just fine in there.
It would be difficult if not impossible to catch a limit of anything in there shy of Trout or Catrfish, which are stocked in there every year.

There are too many fish in Holmes Creek for all of them to get the food that they require.
Taking fish out will be good for the place.

This makes me think about other waters like Yuba.
The Perch limit will go from 10 to 50 at the firsat of the year.
Will this distroy the Perch fishing there?
No, it will help it by thinning the Perch out and allowing them to grow larger.

Give Holmes Creek a couple of years under the new regs and then let's revisit the issue.
I'm thinking that all will be well there, as long as the water levels are good.


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## scartinez (Apr 22, 2008)

Kevin_Vandam,
You mentioned that holmes was the best last year then it's been in years. What kind of fishing you catching? I used to fish holmes quite a bit back in the day. Before the rebuild the dam. Used to be some dandy bass in the pond. I would love to see it get back to it's glory days. I could care less about the planter trout and cats.


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## Kevin_Vandam (Dec 22, 2009)

There still are some dandy bass in there. However, they'll be at the mercy of anglers when the limit goes up to 6.
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## katorade (Sep 23, 2007)

I was wondering how that bass was stickint straight sideways then I realized you rotated the pics. :lol:


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## waltny (Sep 8, 2007)

There are some awesome bass in Holmes creek, felt the tug and held 'em. They are still swimming as far as I know. My biggest question on Holmes reg change is will we be able to float it now?


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## Troll (Oct 21, 2008)

The no Boating, Floating, Swimming and Wading regulation is in effect by the owner (it's privately owned). I would imagine that will stay in efect and only shore fishing will be allowed, unless there is ice to get out on.

I would live to tube HC, but I'm glad it is not allowed as I think the shore fishing only is one thing that keeps the fishing good. If you allow guys like me out there with our tubes, fish finders, multiple rods and bait, we could put a hurt on it in a hurry. 
Look at Bountiful Pond as an example.


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