Estimated read time: 8-9 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
thanks for tuning into KSL Outdoors, I'm Adam Eakle and let me introduce Greg Sheehan, the director of the DWR. Where are we at? (greg) we are at Flaming Gorge on a beautiful early May day, trying to get some fish today. (adam) I understand the fishing is hot, let's hope our guide is any good. I don't know about this guy. (greg) yeah I don't either, he probably knows more than I do, so we'll roll with him today. (adam) let's go find out huh? (greg) ok.>
< (Ryan Mosley, UDWR Flaming Gorge Project Leader) fishing has been excellent.>
<(Ryan) We we're out yesterday did really well, caught several rainbows in the 2-3 pound range. Some even approaching 4 pounds.>
<(Ryan) yeah we are going to have fun today.>
<(nats throttle up)>
Most Utahans when they think of the gorge thing of monster macks or tasty kokanee. But, I'm here to tell you, some of the biggest rainbows in the state are right here.
<(Ryan) It doesn't get as much publicity as it probably should. Even working with you, we've only covered rainbows just sporadically while we've been doing other shows but it is a phenomenal rainbow fishery especially this time of year it's a lot of fun. As you can see there is not a whole of people out here.>
<(Ryan) and we are going to be throwing marabous, pinks and blacks, yesterday we did a little bit better with black, probably because it was such a sunny, clear, calm, day.>
Ryan says when these rainbows are spawning in May you'll find them stacked up near boat ramps where they were initially released or near tributaries.
[Notes:There is another fish jumping on 223 @ 13:42 if you think it works better?] <(Go pro nat of fish jumping into camera)>
<(Ryan) so cast that out, and most of the hits are coming on the fall, so I keep a tight line while it's falling. And then occassionally give it some pops.>
<(Greg Sheehan, DWR Dir) There's one, fish on, fish on.>
<(Ryan) nice spawning male, good job Greg.>
<(net fish) (greg) look at that. (ryan) beautiful rainbow.>
<(Greg) ok, well that didn't take long about 10 minutes into it. We are already getting 3-4 pound, look at that big old male, that's beautiful and believe me if I can do this anyone can.>
<(Greg) we are going to let him go. We'll save him for one of you folks to come and get a crack at.>
<(nats fish release)>
<(Adam) So once the spawn is done, then how do you catch them. (ryan) So later in the summer especially when kokanee get more active, it's not uncommon to just catch rainbows side by side with kokanee. So trolling dodgers and squids, small spoons.>
<(ryan hit and miss) oh.>
<(Ryan) For people that don't have a boat and are isolated to fishing on shore. You can still use the standard marsh mellow and a night crawler, still works really well.>
<(ryan another hit and miss) Oh!>
<(Ryan) Last year we had a phenomenal cicada hatch, we still saw a lot of fish up shallow, hitting on the surface and fly fisherman did extremely well. During that cicada bite.>
<(Adam) There he is, Mosley is on him now. Doubles, oh I lost mine. (ryan) can you hand me that net? (looses fish) oh, nevermind.>
<(Greg) you are going to win the award for the most near misses!>
<(Ryan) we had a double, but we didn't even get a single. (adam) I know we didn't get nothing.>
<(Ryan hit and fish) got him.>
<(nats fish splash and net) (ryan) that's a pretty fish. I like the spotting on that. That's a pretty fresh fish too.>
<(Ryan) so we've been releasing some of those spawning fish, but this is a perfect example of a fish that you'd want to keep to eat. It's not involved in the spawn, it's going to have really good texture in it's fillets, so these are the ones that are really good to eat.>
Right now is a great time to fish the gorge. You can fish for kokes or bows in the morning and then target the lake trout or even the smallmouth in the afternoon. The scenery, in the canyon reach is amazing.
<(adam) how cool is that!>
You never know what you're going to see.
<(Ryan) The mule deer stocking program at Flaming Gorge is obviously going really well. (greg) you know we are talking about providing more opportunity. We've even got deer in the lake now. (ryan) and this actually the one species we haven't seen any impacts from burbot yet.>
<(Adam) boy Mosley you've got to love this time of year, waterfalls, wildlife swimming across the reservoir, Osprey running around catching fish, beautiful time of year
You know here on the show we really try to give you an idea of where your money is spent when you buy a fishing license and so who better to talk to than the Director of the Division, Greg Sheehan, sir thanks for joining us. (greg) thank you Adam, glad to be here today. (adam) It's been a year and a half. What are you most proud of so far?>
<(Greg Sheehan, DWR Director) I guess what I'm most proud of is I think as a division and partnering with a lot of our sportsmen groups out there we are really working hard to get families and people back into the outdoors.>
<(Greg) so how are we doing that? We are providing some opportunities we haven't seen in a lot of years in the past.>
<(file of rooster taking off)>
<(greg) this past fall we released about eleven thousand rooster pheasants in the state and those are all in public areas, they are near our big metropolitan areas and rural Utah. We released those in 33 different locations.>
<(greg) this year we even extended the season two weeks longer in many areas of the state so you'll have a full month to hunt pheasants. We didn't even have that when I was young. So we really are trying to get back in touch with our sportsman. Angling opportunities is really fun. Here we are today at Flaming Gorge catching lots of big rainbow trout. Just on real simple, light tackle, that anybody could go pick up for a very low cost, but closer to our cities, community fisheries. We've now exceeded fifty community fisheries and most of those right around the Salt Lake Valley. Virtually everybody lives in Utah within 15 minutes of one of these great urban fisheries we've got. We are stocking trout, bass, any number of fish.>
<(Greg) so it's exciting what we've got with fishing right now.>
<(nats of helicopter landing with deer)>
<(adam) You've had a lot of help with sportsman's groups studying our deer herds. We are in our second year, I believe we have a few more years in this study. Are we learning much from it yet? (greg) You know we have and a lot of people thought they really understood what's involved in moving deer, can deer survive when you move them. Are they going to understand the migratory patterns, food sources and water sources, but they are really doing quite well. We've moved a lot of deer from Southern Utah to Central Utah, from Antelope Island to a variety of places. We've even been moving urban deer out of some of our cities, deer that were being hit by cars and having to be shot because they were in trouble or hurt in other ways. We are getting those deer out of the cities and we are doing it with our sportsman.>
<(file goat relocation off of willard peak?)>
<(Greg) we've done the same thing with mountain goats, we've created brand new mountain goat herds just doing this past year on Mount Dutton and the Lasals. We've brought back big horn sheep, we've created a brand new big horn sheep unit down on the Oak Creeks near Scipio, most of you are probably familiar with that and in a few years we are going to have big horn sheep there. Almost anywhere in the state with big game we've got a lot of good things going on, a lot of opportunity. Again, that's what we are trying to do. We are trying to create awareness, that's another thing that I'm really focusing on in our agency is really stepping to the occasion is. How do we let all of you what these opportunities are. It's one thing if we've got a great opportunity like this but how do we communicate that to you.>
<(Greg) and it's not expensive and it doesn't take a lot of time and skill. We are getting videos on-line, so if you don't even know how to bait a fish hook or where to go or what equipment to buy. Any number of our stores, Sportsman's Warehouse or Fish Tech, all of these folks are glad to talk to the beginner.>
<(Greg) I think you mentioned to me yesterday. I think you said, you know we can get people out here for fifty dollars. (adam) yeah, as much as you'd spend on a couple of pies, pizza, you might as well take them out, throw some sandwiches in a bag and go catch fish or go catch dinner. (greg) Exactly.>
<(Greg) You live in a beautiful state. Take advantage of it, we've got lots of public land, lots of places to go. We are putting lots of fish, and birds and growing deer and elk. This is the time. Enjoy living here in Utah because I can tell you a lot of places in the country they really envy the lifestyle and opportunity that we have here. So let's get out and enjoy them.
