Lake Trout - expansion

[Joe_Dizzy]

Just noticed on the DNR stocking report for 2020 so far... Lake Trout have been added to about a half dozen new lakes including; Causey Reservoir, Electric Lake, and Stateline Reservoir. Interesting.

Causey surprised me a bit... Lakers are serious predators... aren't the Kokanee self-sustaining there, or are they gone?

[Kent]

I have looked at the 2020 fish stocking report and I don't see any lake trout being planted into the reservoirs you have listed:

http://www.utahfishinginfo.com/dwr/fishs...report.php

Please post a link to the report that you are looking at.

[gofish435]

Here is where it shows up.

https://dwrapps.utah.gov/fishstocking/Fish

[Trident 13]

Just noticed on the DNR stocking report for 2020 so far... Lake Trout have been added to about a half dozen new lakes including; Causey Reservoir, Electric Lake, and Stateline Reservoir. Interesting.

Causey surprised me a bit... Lakers are serious predators... aren't the Kokanee self-sustaining there, or are they gone?

Would it be possible to find out if they were Triploid or natural. That seems to be a lot of spawning fish for a small reservoir like Causey.

[Kent]

Here is where it shows up.

https://dwrapps.utah.gov/fishstocking/Fish

Thanks, yep that link works.

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Would it be possible to find out if they were Triploid or natural. That seems to be a lot of spawning fish for a small reservoir like Causey.

I would be surprised if they planted anything other than triploid lake trout.

[Joe_Dizzy]

Here is where it shows up.

https://dwrapps.utah.gov/fishstocking/Fish

Thanks, yep that link works.

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Would it be possible to find out if they were Triploid or natural. That seems to be a lot of spawning fish for a small reservoir like Causey.

I would be surprised if they planted anything other than triploid lake trout.

Is there such a thing as triploid Lake Trout? That's not an easy process if I understand it correctly. Triploid Rainbows have been produced, but not certain it works for all species.

The easier (cheaper) route is to stock hybrid Splake if breeding populations are a concern.

[Trident 13]

Here is where it shows up.

https://dwrapps.utah.gov/fishstocking/Fish

Thanks, yep that link works.

---

Would it be possible to find out if they were Triploid or natural. That seems to be a lot of spawning fish for a small reservoir like Causey.

I would be surprised if they planted anything other than triploid lake trout.

Is there such a thing as triploid Lake Trout? That's not an easy process if I understand it correctly. Triploid Rainbows have been produced, but not certain it works for all species.

The easier (cheaper) route is to stock hybrid Splake if breeding populations are a concern.

I don’t know about the economics of fish breeding but the lakers in Bear Lake are triploid. Personally I would rather eat splake.

[PBH]

I'm pretty sure that those additional stockings are due to excess production of triploid lake trout. If you end up with more than the quotas, you gotta go dump them somewhere...

[Kent]

I'm pretty sure that those additional stockings are due to excess production of triploid lake trout.  If you end up with more than the quotas, you gotta go dump them somewhere...

I wish that they would dump a bunch in Strawberry.

[Anglinarcher]

Here is where it shows up.

https://dwrapps.utah.gov/fishstocking/Fish

Thanks, yep that link works.

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Would it be possible to find out if they were Triploid or natural. That seems to be a lot of spawning fish for a small reservoir like Causey.

I would be surprised if they planted anything other than triploid lake trout.

Is there such a thing as triploid Lake Trout? That's not an easy process if I understand it correctly. Triploid Rainbows have been produced, but not certain it works for all species.

The easier (cheaper) route is to stock hybrid Splake if breeding populations are a concern.

Actually the process of making a Triploid is very easy.  The viability of the survivors depends on a lot of factors but they are getting the process down on lots of species.  The Triploid is made by taking fresh eggs and fresh seaman and then mixing them, then immediately putting them in a pressure pot and raising the pressure to twice atmospheric pressure (time varies for species), then releasing the pressure. 

An alternate method, the one normally found in nature and the one originally used by biologist and managers, is to take the freshly mixed eggs and seaman and put them into warm water (depends on species and ....) for a period of time, then cool to normal.  This method often causes a lot of failures due to bacteria, etc., so it is not done so much anymore.  The hardest part is to convince people that "Triploid" is not some radiation accident and is actually normal and natural in some specific conditions in nature (see method 2 above).  The sterile fish are Triploid, which means no energy is sent to spawning, all goes to growth, and the populations are controlled.

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Just noticed on the DNR stocking report for 2020 so far... Lake Trout have been added to about a half dozen new lakes including; Causey Reservoir, Electric Lake, and Stateline Reservoir. Interesting.

Causey surprised me a bit... Lakers are serious predators... aren't the Kokanee self-sustaining there, or are they gone?

The Kokanee in Causey are self-sustaining, and maybe over producing.  Porcupine is an example of this as well, but far worse.  The size of Kokanee depends on the amount of food per fish, and the more fish, the less food there is to go around.  It is called the principle of Biomass.  

To get the fish size up, you need to get the numbers down, and Lake Trout can do that.  There are Browns, Splake, Tiger Trout, and a few Cutties and Bows, but they seem to be on the edge not being able to control the numbers, just like in porcupine.

Another reason for putting them in these lakes would be that people just like to catch the monster fish once in a while, and we all know how big Lakers can get.

[fishalot13]

Misconception about triploid fish is they dont put energy to spawn. They still have the parts and sill have the spawning urges. They are triploid XXX and have an extra set of chromosomes this is mostly female fish. I have read some studies where males still can reproduce they have the ability to make normal sets of one chromosome but lake the ability to release sperm, others do have the ability. Most triploid fish released are female because they are triploid and have the extra set on chromosomes and when the male adds his dna the eggs from female cant be fertilized. I have read lots of studies on this, here is one that has to do with local waters-ish.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1577/M02-026

[TubeDude]

Here is some input from Chris Penne...DWR.  He was replying to my questions on another matter but wanted to provide some additional info on this topic.

I noticed a thread recently with questions about lake trout in Causey and Stateline Reservoirs.  I meant to chime in on that thread, but had difficulties logging into BFT, likely due to the website revamp.  Anyway, if you would be willing to chime in on that post - those lake trout are indeed sterile.  The rationale behind them is  the typical one for any top predator - we're hoping to see them reduce the kokanee population some and then provide a unique trophy fishing experience.  Right now at waters like Causey and Stateline, the kokanee populations essentially controls themselves and the general trend is that kokanee numbers steadily increase for three or four years until they overpopulate and cause their own subsequent population crash and then begin the process again.  The intent is for lake trout to control their numbers some and avoid the continual population crashes and small fish.  Lakers may or may or may not be able to control the kokanee in these two waters, but if nothing else it will give anglers a chance to catch some large unique fish.
 
As always, feel free to post and I'm happy to take any other questions that can't easily be answered. 
 
Chris

[Joe_Dizzy]

Here is some input from Chris Penne...DWR.  He was replying to my questions on another matter but wanted to provide some additional info on this topic.

I noticed a thread recently with questions about lake trout in Causey and Stateline Reservoirs.  I meant to chime in on that thread, but had difficulties logging into BFT, likely due to the website revamp.  Anyway, if you would be willing to chime in on that post - those lake trout are indeed sterile.  The rationale behind them is  the typical one for any top predator - we're hoping to see them reduce the kokanee population some and then provide a unique trophy fishing experience.  Right now at waters like Causey and Stateline, the kokanee populations essentially controls themselves and the general trend is that kokanee numbers steadily increase for three or four years until they overpopulate and cause their own subsequent population crash and then begin the process again.  The intent is for lake trout to control their numbers some and avoid the continual population crashes and small fish.  Lakers may or may or may not be able to control the kokanee in these two waters, but if nothing else it will give anglers a chance to catch some large unique fish.
 
As always, feel free to post and I'm happy to take any other questions that can't easily be answered. 
 
Chris

TubeDude, thank you for posting this and to Mr. Penne for chiming in.

So I guess that answers my question on "concerns" about Lake Trout preying on Kokanee Salmon... it's no concern at all... it's actually the desired outcome.

Very interesting. I'll be watching/waiting