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COALVILLE — Utah wildlife officials are seeking a solution, including an immediate catch-and-kill regulation, after they say walleye were illegally stocked in Echo Reservoir sometime over the summer.
About 29 young walleye were discovered during a netting survey in the reservoir after someone recently fishing in the reservoir posted a photo through social media of the fish, according to Chris Penne, the northern region aquatic biologist for the Division of Wildlife Resources.
Penne said the walleye pose a problem to the ecosystem in Echo Reservoir and eat the other fish, including rainbow trout that the reservoir is particularly known for.
Among the problems, according to DWR warm water sport fisheries coordinator Craig Walker, is that reservoir fluctuates annually and the walleye aren’t suitable for the forage space.
“A lot of times the reservoir can’t maintain the nursery habitat cover needed to produce that forage for walleye,” Penne added.
Walker said this can result in overpopulation of the fish, which are capable of laying anywhere from 40,000 to 200,000 eggs, and years of poor fishing. While the effects of the walleye are unknown, Walker said the conditions are good for the walleye population to expand in the future.
“The problem is that walleye may do well in the short term in Echo Reservoir,” he said in a news release. “It may take years for the walleye to thin out their prey base and for the damage to be felt. This may be good in the short term, but it leaves a ticking time bomb that fishery managers will have to deal with.”
Now the DWR is using exploratory ways to combat the problem. One of the solutions is implementing an immediate catch-and-kill regulation, which means any angler that catches a walleye in the reservoir is required to kill what they catch.
Another proposed solution is releasing larger rainbow trout into the reservoir that will be big enough to avoid being eaten by the walleye. Penne said that typically 50,000 8-inch rainbow trout are stocked each year, which is “easily eaten” by a 20-inch walleye. Penne said the next stock of trout will be 12-inch trout.
The final idea is to stock sterile walleye into the water in an attempt to cancel out the breeding of the fish.
“If we stock those sterile fish, our hope is that they attempt to spawn with the fertile fish and basically mitigate that natural reproduction,” Penne said. “The end-goal there is not eradication, but actually trying to control their numbers.”
Penne added the DWR is hoping to have the walleye under control within the next several years. If the fish numbers are under control, the catch-and-kill regulation would likely be lifted, he said.
“We simply don’t know how it’s going to unfold, but what we’re looking to do is re-evaluate in five years and see where we’re at, and then see if we need to modify our management strategy,” Penne said.
