03-19-2009, 03:11 PM
[quote Fish-or-die] Why does the DWR stock so many rainbows?
Do bass and other species reproduce just fine so one stocking and they can grow their own population?
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First: Rainbows are the most popular species to target in the state. Further, there aren't many places where rainbow trout reproduce successfully on their own. Without stocking, most rainbow trout would disappear from Utah.
Second: Bass do reproduce on their own. Consider Sand Hollow. The lake is chuck full of large mouth bass. In fact, there are enough that the DWR recently certified Sand Hollow in order to transplant some fish from Sand Hollow to Gunlock Reservoir. Sand Hollow is essentially a large mouth bass hatchery. Amazingly enough, the DWR initially stocked Sand Hollow with 80 (+- a couple) large mouth bass. That's it! Those 80 have turned into thousands!! Bass (and blue gill) are typically collected pre-spawn, then moved. This way, they spawn in the lake that needs the fish. 1 fish turns into 100's of fish very quickly. 100's of fish turn into 1000's of fish. It is very effective.
This happens at many bass lakes. New Castle Reservoir has been used for many years by the DWR for small mouth bass. The smallies in Minersville, Otter Creek, and Piute all came from New Castle. The origianl stock of bass in New Castle came from Flaming Gorge. Removing a 100 or so bass from these places is no big deal. What better hatchery could Utah ask for than these reservoirs?
Concerning the tiger trout: sometimes the hatcheries end up with excess fish. The hatcheries just grow the fish -- as many as they think will be needed. When regional managers place their orders for stocking, sometimes there is a surpluss of certain species. When there is a surpluss managers can then obtain these fish for additional stocking. They need to go somewhere - the hatcheries typically can't keep the excess fish. This is why you'll see places like Yuba getting a load of brook trout, or Piute getting mixed bags of cutts, tigers, rainbows, browns, etc.
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Do bass and other species reproduce just fine so one stocking and they can grow their own population?
[/quote]
First: Rainbows are the most popular species to target in the state. Further, there aren't many places where rainbow trout reproduce successfully on their own. Without stocking, most rainbow trout would disappear from Utah.
Second: Bass do reproduce on their own. Consider Sand Hollow. The lake is chuck full of large mouth bass. In fact, there are enough that the DWR recently certified Sand Hollow in order to transplant some fish from Sand Hollow to Gunlock Reservoir. Sand Hollow is essentially a large mouth bass hatchery. Amazingly enough, the DWR initially stocked Sand Hollow with 80 (+- a couple) large mouth bass. That's it! Those 80 have turned into thousands!! Bass (and blue gill) are typically collected pre-spawn, then moved. This way, they spawn in the lake that needs the fish. 1 fish turns into 100's of fish very quickly. 100's of fish turn into 1000's of fish. It is very effective.
This happens at many bass lakes. New Castle Reservoir has been used for many years by the DWR for small mouth bass. The smallies in Minersville, Otter Creek, and Piute all came from New Castle. The origianl stock of bass in New Castle came from Flaming Gorge. Removing a 100 or so bass from these places is no big deal. What better hatchery could Utah ask for than these reservoirs?
Concerning the tiger trout: sometimes the hatcheries end up with excess fish. The hatcheries just grow the fish -- as many as they think will be needed. When regional managers place their orders for stocking, sometimes there is a surpluss of certain species. When there is a surpluss managers can then obtain these fish for additional stocking. They need to go somewhere - the hatcheries typically can't keep the excess fish. This is why you'll see places like Yuba getting a load of brook trout, or Piute getting mixed bags of cutts, tigers, rainbows, browns, etc.
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