Annual gill net survey gives good results at Strawberry Reservoir

Annual gill net survey gives good results at Strawberry Reservoir

(Ray Grass)


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WASATCH COUNTY — Each fall, for the past 25 years, DWR biologists have set gill nets around Strawberry Reservoir to conduct a survey of the various fish species. This year, the news was good for the most part, with a little dip in the number of trophy cutthroat.

The survey shows how well fish are doing at Strawberry Reservoir and the results from Friday show that the rainbow trout are doing well, cutthroat trout not as well, Utah chubs are holding their own, the Utah suckers are losing ground and the kokanee salmon are doing exceptionally well.

There is also no shortage of crayfish or crawdads, which means little to fishermen, but are a good fish food.

“We saw some good things,’’ said Alan Ward, project leader for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources at Strawberry Reservoir. “But, then we saw things that were not so good. I’m waiting for the year where everything is good.’’

Over a period of four days, each evening crews set four gill nets — two near the surface and two closer to the bottom of the reservoir. Each morning over the four-day period, they pulled the nets, returned to the fish station near the northwest corner of the reservoir and reviewed their catch.

“This gives us a trend through time. We compare the information we’ll get this year with what we collected over the past 25 years,’’ said DWR biologist Justin Robinson. “This information is very important to us, which is why we’re so consistent in when we set, where we set and how we set.’’

In all, crews set nets in 16 different locations around the reservoir — four each day. Two of the nets, called floating nets, hold in the top 6 feet of water. The second two nets, called sinking nets, hold roughly 6 feet off the bottom of the reservoir.

Back at the fish station, volunteers Mathew Wray, John Cook and Dick Taylor helped in untangling fish and crayfish from the nets. The fish were then counted, identified, examined and recorded.

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Rainbow trout have been doing well for the past couple of years at Strawberry Reservoir. Ward said this year, officials saw about the same number as in past years with a lot of 2-year-old and 3-year-old rainbow in the 18-inch class.

“As we expected, this was a down year for large cutthroat," Ward said. "We did see 2-year-old and 3-year-old fish, again those in the 18-inch class, but we aren’t seeing those fish over 18 to 20 inches — the real trophy fish. That’s the downside.’’

Ward said the reason for the decrease in trophy fish goes back to those cutthroats planted in 2009 and 2010. For some reason, those fish had very poor survival, which has left a gap in available trophy fish.

DWR has now been planting larger fish in Strawberry. A study showed the survival of 8-inch fish was 4.5 times better than for those fish planted at 7 inches. Utah chub numbers, a nuisance fish and the one fish biologist try to control, were about the same as in past years, which Ward said is good.

“We saw a few young, but not a large increase," Ward said. "Our concern is we haven’t had the large cutthroat out there to control the chubs so we expected a little increase. And we’ve seen a little increase, but not a big jump this year,"

This was not the case for the Utah sucker. The number of suckers caught in the nets was down significantly, between 20 and 30 percent.

“The cutthroat are helping to control the sucker population," Ward said. "We did see some die off. I don’t know the full reason. We had a bunch of suckers dying along the shoreline. We didn’t see any trout or chubs, just suckers. It could have been stress from the spawn. Regardless, sucker number were down and that’s good."

After treatment to remove unwanted fish from Strawberry in the early 1990s, plans were to plant only Bear Lake cutthroat, one of the most aggressive feeders in the cutthroat line.

Due to public pressure, the DWR chose to introduce sterile rainbow, which are a rapid growing, easily caught fish. By planting sterile rainbow, the agency was able to keep the aggressive nature of Bear Lake cutthroat. A cutbow would not feed as aggressively on the troubling Utah chubs.

“We really have two fishing opportunities,’’ Robinson said. “The cutthroat are here to catch and to control the chubs, and give fishermen the possibility of catching a real trophy fish, 22 to 24 inches. The rainbow are here for those who want to feed the family or have a backyard barbecue."

Ward said this past summer was one of the best fishing for kokanee salmon.

“Overall, (the gill net survey) turned out well. There are still plenty of rainbow and the cutts are recovering and chub numbers are staying pretty stable. That’s the good and the bad,’’ said Ward.

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