Did I read right that Utah is stocking 100,000 bear lake cuts in the Gorge?? After all the predator /prey disscussion last week, here we go again!! I fished Lake Ontario for years, and it is the world's biggest stock pond, millions if salmon and trout stocked each year...but they also stock (or used to) alewifes and other prey species. It was and still is an amazing fishery. If you want to put something else in the gorge, put some trout food!!
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And just where did you read this? What's the source, and is there more than one source? Doesn't sound right to me, but what do I know? Utah DWR is, after all, at war against the "vicious predator" and is pissed because they eat all their poor little hatchery rainbows.
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If they want to bitch and moan about predators, they should make "open season" on cormorants. They are devestating alot of fishing waters. They were out in force at willard this afternoon.
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Jim, I read it on the Utah division of resources fishing report page. It can be found on the game and fish web site and is updated weekly.
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here is the link to the report-
[url "http://www.wildlife.utah.gov/fishing/reports_ne.php"]http://www.wildlife.utah.gov/fishing/reports_ne.php[/url]
it says 100,000 bear lake cutthroat were planted this year. pretty surprising!
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Yep, that's what it says! I tried calling the Wyoming office for an explanation, but Wengert and the others are all "out in the field" for a couple weeks. Who knows? Maybe there's some logic behind it. Hopefully they were little ones, and the Macks can fatten up some more. (We got another fat 40 pounder today!)
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Saw the picture of that 40 lber on your website. What a pig!
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THATS A REAL HOG JIM. LOOKS LIKE HE HAD ANOTHER GREAT TRIP WITH YA. RECOGNIZED HIM FROM LAST YRS PICS. FATTIES SHOWING UP ALOT LATELEY. KEEP PUTTING THEM UP. YR BOARDS PROBLEY GETTING HIT A TON BY US GUYS. SOME OF US ARE CHECKING IT BEFORE BIG FISH NOW DAYS. SEE YA SOON.
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didnt ray johnson catch a 17lber or something yr's back .I thought we have allway's had cut's in the gorge I caught one about 4.5lb's at the pipe line just after ice off I'am seaching for the pic so no one can throw the bs flag I have been nailing a lot of cut bow's and I know the henry's has ton's of cut's in it all thay will be is mac and bass food so kill the bass which we have been doing are fare share got a 20''4lber a week ago and he is going on the wall the rest have went in the frying pan dang are thay good..even the big spawning female's werent bad later all Fish
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Yes there has always been cutts. They are native to that area. They were always Colorado's though. Of course many are not pure anymore. But why dilute it even further with all of the Bear Lake strain. The Bear Lake strain is much different in the fact they are very well known to switch to eating other fish at an earlier age than all the other cutts. That have habits not too much different than the Lakers. They just don't live as long.
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I agree with ya on this . Why not put colorado's in there if any . Down below the dam you could get a few Snakeriver finespot cutts in the mix . Surprised they didn't put tiger trout or splake instead .
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I would like to reply to the cutthroat discussion. Cutthrouts have been stocked in Flaming Gorge on several occasions over the years, sometimes in great numbers. For example:
1967 - 529,778
1968 - 1614
1971 - 118,800
1972 - 143,137
1978 - 553,573
1979 - 539,924
1980 - 903,380
1984 - 128,100
1993 - 33,516
2001 - 4564
During all these years very few were ever seen by the WGFD during the creel surveys. The interesting thing is that when we did see one, it was in excellent condition. I caught a handful of these during those early years while fishing for browns but never did get one over 4 pounds and most were considerably smaller than that. The fish that were caught very early on and were trophy size, such as the ones Ray Johnson refers to, were probably native fish from tribs to Flaming Gorge like Carter Creek. The primary reason they were stocked in the early years was in hopes that they would prey on the millions of chubs that were present in the reservoir at that time. This never seemed to happen and for some reason the cutts just disappeared. Some of the smaller numbers of plants in 1993 or 2001 may have been brood stock or maybe some extra fish that the hatchery needed to get rid of and were accepted by the local crew. Predation by cutthroats has never been, and in my opinion, will never be a problem in the Gorge. This will probably draw some comments from those that think they are catching cutbows or cutthroats at the present time, but I would bet that most of these fish are Eagle lake strain of rainbows. Eagle Lakes exhibit a lot of cutthroat characteristics and have a really varied spotting pattern which would lead you to think they may be cutthroats. In the fish world we never say never, but I would be very surprised if there were hardly any cutthroats at all caught in The Gorge at this time. I am retired now but know that Bill Wengert is working full time in the Little Snake River Drainage for the rest of the summer. You could talk to Robb Keith (Supv.) in the Green River Office if you need further info about Flaming Gorge cutthroat plants or want to substatiate my comments. Good fishing to you all!! Ron C.
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well, i'll be the first to disagree with you! there are quite a few colorado cutts in the gorge... ive caught them. ive also caught a few cuttbows which are the same as the cuttbows ive caught at other lakes in the past. (like strawberry, scofield, and joes valley)
according to the dwr of utah, and the reason for this post, the dwr planted Bear Lake Cutts in there this year. (100,000 of them) Bear Lake Cutts are much more aggresive predators than the always present colorado cutts. this is the reason for concern in my book. if they were just more colorado's being planted i wouldnt even blink an eye... but, bear lake cutts? seems crazy to me! (especially since they have been proving themselves as very apt predators at strawberry the last few years) seems wierd for the dwr to be begging us to remove 20" macs while planting cutts that can easily get that big... and be just as predatory.
but, hopefully fishley is right and they'll just eat bass!
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