u/Initial_Weight_3622

I’m not trying to start a “nobody should ever keep fish” argument. Legal harvest is part of fishing, and there are definitely situations where keeping fish is fine or even encouraged depending on the species and waterbody.

But I’m starting to wonder if Utah reservoirs are getting hit harder than people want to admit, especially with more pressure, more people fishing, more social media attention, and very little visible enforcement at a lot of the places people fish.
My concern is not someone keeping a legal meal of fish.

My concern is:
People not knowing the water-specific regulations
People keeping fish over slot limits or size limits
People stacking multiple limits in a day
People keeping bass, walleye, trout, perch, etc. without understanding how different reservoirs are managed
Very few visible license/limit checks at popular reservoirs
More pressure every year while drought and low water already stress fish populations

DWR obviously manages harvest very differently depending on the water. Some places have increased limits because water levels are dropping and fish may not survive anyway. Other places have slot limits, special rules, or species-specific limits because the population needs protection. That only works if people actually know the rules and there is some realistic chance of enforcement.
I fish a lot of northern Utah reservoirs, and I almost never see wardens/DNR checking coolers, livewells, licenses, or limits. Maybe I’m just missing it, but it feels like enforcement is basically invisible at a lot of these places.

Again, I’m not anti-harvest. Keep fish legally. Eat what you keep. Don’t waste fish. But if everyone treats public reservoirs like unlimited grocery stores, eventually the quality of fishing is going to suffer.

I’d like to see more:
Visible checks at ramps and popular shore spots
Better signage at reservoirs with special regulations
More education around slot limits and species-specific rules
Anglers calling out obvious violations instead of ignoring them
More people voluntarily releasing fish that are valuable to the fishery, especially larger breeding-size fish

Curious what others are seeing. Are people getting checked where you fish? Do you think overharvest is becoming a real issue in Utah, or am I overthinking it?

Anyone else pretty bummed about Pineview being drained down for the pipeline work?

I get that infrastructure has to be fixed, but taking one of northern Utah’s better fisheries down that low is just sad. It feels like a lot of fish are going to die or be wasted, and it’s another example of Utah losing good fishing water.

Curious what everyone thinks. Are we overreacting, or is Pineview about to take a serious hit?

Anyone recently been to Rockport and know how the water levels are looking? I’m wanting to bring the boat out there for some bass fishing but don’t want to basically be using it as a canoe the whole time.

One thing that stands out on a rewatch is how much less disciplined Better Call Saul becomes in its final two seasons.

I don’t mean bad. The show is still good. The cinematography is incredible, the performances are excellent, and there are plenty of great episodes. But I think Seasons 5 and 6 get treated as if they’re beyond criticism when some of the sloppiest writing in the series happens during that stretch.

The best example is Jeff.

The common explanation is that the actor changed, but the character didn’t. I don’t think that’s the issue. Jeff is written like an entirely different person.

His first appearance is one of the most tense scenes in the show. He recognizes Gene, corners him, and creates the feeling that Gene has finally run into someone he can’t manipulate his way out of. He’s confident, intimidating, and genuinely threatening.

Then he returns and feels like a completely different character. Suddenly he’s awkward, insecure, easily manipulated, and almost comic relief at times. The explanation always seems to be that Gene regained his confidence and turned the tables on him. That’s part of it, but it doesn’t explain how dramatically Jeff’s personality changes. It feels less like Gene outsmarting a dangerous person and more like the writers softening the character because they needed the story to move in a specific direction.

The Gene storyline in general starts feeling less grounded than it did earlier.

The entire premise of Gene is that he’s terrified. Every scene is built around the idea that one mistake could destroy him. He’s cautious to the point of paranoia. Then after the Jeff situation is resolved, he almost immediately starts taking increasingly reckless risks. I understand the argument that Jimmy McGill was always underneath the surface and that getting away with the Jeff situation reignited something in him. That’s a reasonable explanation. The problem is how quickly the transition happens. The shift feels abrupt compared to the careful character work that defined earlier seasons.

Another issue is that the show increasingly prioritizes cleverness over realism.

The early seasons were at their best when everything felt grounded. The schemes were believable. The mistakes felt human. The characters behaved intelligently even when they were making bad choices.

The later seasons occasionally feel more interested in creating memorable television than believable character progression. The plots become more elaborate, the schemes become more complicated, and sometimes it feels like the writers fell in love with the cleverness of an idea before asking whether it felt completely natural.

Lalo is another example.

He’s an entertaining character and easily one of the highlights of the later seasons, but by the end he starts feeling almost superhuman. He’s smarter than everyone, a better investigator than everyone, constantly ahead of everyone, and seemingly capable of overcoming any obstacle placed in front of him. Earlier villains in the Breaking Bad universe felt dangerous because they were human. Lalo occasionally feels like he exists on a different level from every other character in the story.

The biggest underlying issue is that the series starts feeling more destination-driven than character-driven.

The first several seasons felt like a chain reaction. Every major event seemed like the natural consequence of decisions made earlier. The story went where the characters took it.

In the final seasons, there are moments where it feels like the writers know exactly where everyone needs to end up and start guiding characters toward those endpoints. Most of the time they pull it off. Sometimes they don’t. There are several decisions throughout the final stretch that feel less like the smartest or most believable thing a character would do and more like the thing that needs to happen for the plot to arrive at its predetermined destination.

That’s ultimately why the final seasons don’t work as well for me as the earlier ones.

The show never becomes bad. Not even close.

I just think the early seasons were remarkably disciplined and grounded, while the final two seasons occasionally sacrifice that discipline in favor of bigger moments, more elaborate plots, and getting everyone into position for the ending.

The ending itself is strong. The path to get there is where I think the writing becomes far more debatable than many fans are willing to admit.

Rewatching Better Call Saul for the first time since it originally aired while I’m on a bit of a Breaking Bad universe binge.

I’m deep into Season 5 and finding parts of it a lot harder to buy this time around, especially Kim’s storyline.

Jimmy’s transformation feels earned because the show spends years building it. We see the setbacks, rationalizations, compromises, and gradual descent. With Kim, though, her shift toward increasingly unethical behavior feels much more abrupt to me. She’s a highly disciplined, successful attorney for most of the series, and then suddenly seems willing to blow up her career and reputation in ways that don’t feel fully supported by what came before.

Maybe I’m missing something, but on rewatch it feels like the writers had a clear roadmap for Jimmy becoming Saul and a less convincing one for Kim’s evolution.

Does anyone else feel this way? If not, what moments or themes do you think best explain Kim’s behavior and make her arc work?

Recent trips to Pineview and Jordanelle have left me wondering where the small mouth actually are around here. Anyone got an insight on this/also struggling? Plenty of perch and even some cats, but no mas on the bass!