Fishing Forum

[cool][#0000ff]Last week I sent out a couple of inquiries about the rainbow trout stocking program in Starvation. Today I got this email from Trina Hedrick. It should answer many of the questions we have had.[/#0000ff]
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Started: 2006 with about 19,000 6" rainbows from Whiterocks Hatchery.

In 2007, Whiterocks continued to stock this water for us with 58,000 6" fish.

Not stocked in 2008.

Nice rainbows started showing up in the creel in 2009, according to the old regional manager (Roger Schneidervin). He pushed to make this happen and was the first angler to report (to my knowledge) great rainbow fishing over there.

Since 2009, Jones Hole National Fish Hatchery took over stocking this water with a 10" fish in October. They stock about 50,000 of them each year and we have them on the schedule to continue this through at least 2013. Given how popular it has become, I'd like to keep it on the stocking request indefinitely.

As far as future plans, we have a creel scheduled there for 2015 or 2016 (which really isn't that far away), but that will help us evaluate the popularity of this water and how much people are harvesting. In the meantime, we did attempt creel cards at Starvation this summer, but ran into some difficulty with that. We did have a few responses and those responses do not support what we are hearing through the grapevine. The responses showed some harvest per angling group, but not folks taking their limits. On the other hand, we have heard that folks are harvesting a lot (don't get me wrong this is good, we just need to evaluate whether our stocking program is adequate given the popular fishery Roger and his staff at the time created).

Finally, there may be some concern that this additional fishery will impact the fisheries already there in Starvation. Our netting data isn't supporting that. We see no differences in species assemblage, size of target species (especially walleye) than normal environmental variation causes, not to this point at least. It is an interesting fishery and has been very successful for us. Thus, unless our creel suggests otherwise, we will likely continue to manage it similarly into the future.

If this is not enough, let me know. I can try to dig up some more info, but hope this helps a little.

Trina

Trina Hedrick
NE Region Aquatics Manager
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
318 N. Vernal Ave.
Vernal, UT 84078
435-247-1554 (ph)
435-789-8343 (fax)
435-790-2283 (cell)
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Excellent information and thank you for chasing it to the end!
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+1 to the info, but -1 to the end.

I ain't heard no fat-lad sing! I don't think this song is over.

I do appreciate those fisheries that are able to go 'beyond' the planters. Yeah - it can be entertaining landing numerous footlong planter bows - but it's nice to get to that "next generation" - feel some shoulders, get away from the "white flesh" fresh planter, to a "pink" naturally feeding Bow.

I've been impressed with the Starvy Steelhead Reports I've seen, even a puddle like Mantua can transform some simple planters to 16" + in bows with some Hutzspa to 'em! (not to mention the acrobatic flip flipping!)

Seems like some busy lakes have such a high put-take ratio - you don't often see any thing beyond the younglings. But it is nice to hear that the plantings don't seem to interfere with the balance that Starvation holds - between panfish, Walleye, Bass, trout - all co-existing! Maybe they can all keep the chubs in check!

Interesting info. Thanks for the update.
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I remember catching nice bows out of Starvy back in the early 70s. I'm assuming it was managed for trout back then?
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[cool][#0000ff]There was not a major rainbow planting program but there were trout in Starvation...mostly browns with some rainbows and even a stray cutt once in a while.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Mostly what was in the lake were chubs...gazillions of them. They were bad enough during open water months but you couldn't ice fish it much at all. As soon as your bait or lure got down the hole it was swarmed by chubs. Rainbows do not compete well with hordes of chubs but browns and cutts that survive past minnowhood make a good living off the chubs.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Once walleyes and smallies hit the lake the dynamics really changed. The new arrivals grew big and fast...until they essentially cleaned out all the chubs. The predators were literally starving in Starvation until some "misguided" bucket bozo dumped in some perch. That put a new forage species in the lake and walleyes, smallies and perch have been the holy trinity since.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Browns have always been a part of the population and they get big. They are considered a bonus by those who catch them...mostly by accident. But some big trout specialists target them at ice out and score some nice ones.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]With the chubs mostly out of the lake it was ripe for introducing sterile rainbows. There is a good soup of zooplankton and lots of wiggly invertebrates in the weed beds to feed the bows. And even though the other species rely on bitty bites to feed their young there does not seem to be enough competition for food that it affects either trout or non-trout species. All is well.[/#0000ff]
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Thanks for the history, it is an interesting lake.
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