There is no official start to the Utah fish season. If there were, it would be from Saturday — Free Fishing Day — on.

It's the start of what is typically the best fishing of the year; a time when fish-planting trucks are their busiest.

Thus far, said Jim Karpowitz, director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, "We've planted more than 200,000 fish in Utah waters. Before the summer is over, we will have planted, counting the smaller fingerlings, more than 8 million fish.

"Our reservoirs are full, most of our hatcheries are in full production and we have fish to stock. I think this is going to be one of our best summers for fishing in a long time."

The DWR kicked off its summer fish-planting season by stocking a number of 4- and 5-pound catfish in Willow Pond in Murray.

Some 60 children received invitations to be the first to fish for the whiskered fish. Several were caught; many more were left to be caught.

It's all part of a program to redesign the state's fishing program to offer more fishing opportunities.

"We're going to put more emphasis on stocking reservoirs close to the Wasatch Front," said Karpowitz. "We started last fall. We put an extra 40,000 rainbow in Deer Creek. When we pulled the nets this spring they were full of big, fat fish."

Special effort is also going to be put on community fisheries such as Willow Pond, Farmington Pond and Kaysville Pond.

Anglers will also find a new fishing license program in place this year. Instead of going from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, new licenses are good for 365 days after purchase.

"What that means," added Karpowitz, "is that someone going on vacation this summer will be able to use the license all the way until next summer."

COMMUNITY FISHERIES: Some of the community fisheries are receiving considerable pressure. All community fisheries have started to receive catfish. This stocking will continue every other week. Trout stocking will stop the middle of May.

• BOUNTIFUL POND: Fishing fair. Anglers have reported success catching catfish using night crawlers from the bottom. A few rainbow trout have been taken using worms and PowerBait.

• CLINTON CITY PARK POND: Fishing slow to fair. Anglers reported catching a few catfish using night crawlers.

• FARMINGTON POND: Fishing slow. Catfish stocking has started.

• FORT BUENAVENTURA: Stocked the week of May 1.

• GLASSMANS POND: Fishing fair to good for trout. Catfish stocking has started.