04-29-2021, 06:47 PM
Hi guys,
I have literally been out in the field this entire week. I have also been on my cell phone and email accounts more than I care to admit. I appreciate Chris stepping in during my absence and sharing everything he has. Lake trout anglers are a very passionate and serious group of anglers. With that said, please understand that this study would not have been proposed or supported if either agency or any of the biologists would have thought there was any chance of it harming the lake trout fishery at Bear Lake. The information we will gain from the study (allowing us to determine whether any natural recruitment of lake trout is occurring in Bear Lake, how well the triploid fish are growing and surviving, and also allowing UDWR to assist IDFG with endangered fish recovery efforts.
PLEASE, if you are unconvinced, by what I or Chris have said, go back and re-read the points that Chris made in the earlier posts. Those points were meant to describe the methods and reasons why we are doing this study. In summary, these are very short term net sets (2 hrs), ALL cutthroat will be released, along with other species. Lake trout will be tagged and there should be fast turn-around to determine whether they are triploid or diploid and then ALL diploid fish will be release. The fish that will be transferred to Stanley Lake will all be triploid fish. UDWR will continue to stock triploid lake trout in Bear Lake. We do know that lake trout anglers are passionate, especially at Bear Lake, but we should not see any short OR long-term impacts from this study. This is not something that is planned to continue in the future. Back in the early and mid-1990's, when I was a young biologist, the UDWR and IDFG also caught a lot of flack from anglers when we did a mark-recapture study on lake trout (and cutthroat trout) where gill nets were used. However, the information gained from that study was used to determine future stocking numbers of lake trout (and cutthroat trout) and has been used to provide the fishery that we are now enjoying 20 years later. Some of the results from this proposed study will be used to ensure that 20 years from now we can still enjoy that fishery that we have today. Without doing these types of studies every decade or two, there is no guarantee that we will make the correct decisions to provide the best fishery we can in the future. Finally, as Chris said, fisheries management is a balancing (juggling) act sometimes, and in order to do that to the best of our ability, we have to sometimes conduct studies that everyone may not agree with. I can assure you that us biologists (speaking for myself and many others) are passionate about fishing too and we want the best fisheries for everyone.
Thanks!
Scott (BearLakeFishGuy)
I have literally been out in the field this entire week. I have also been on my cell phone and email accounts more than I care to admit. I appreciate Chris stepping in during my absence and sharing everything he has. Lake trout anglers are a very passionate and serious group of anglers. With that said, please understand that this study would not have been proposed or supported if either agency or any of the biologists would have thought there was any chance of it harming the lake trout fishery at Bear Lake. The information we will gain from the study (allowing us to determine whether any natural recruitment of lake trout is occurring in Bear Lake, how well the triploid fish are growing and surviving, and also allowing UDWR to assist IDFG with endangered fish recovery efforts.
PLEASE, if you are unconvinced, by what I or Chris have said, go back and re-read the points that Chris made in the earlier posts. Those points were meant to describe the methods and reasons why we are doing this study. In summary, these are very short term net sets (2 hrs), ALL cutthroat will be released, along with other species. Lake trout will be tagged and there should be fast turn-around to determine whether they are triploid or diploid and then ALL diploid fish will be release. The fish that will be transferred to Stanley Lake will all be triploid fish. UDWR will continue to stock triploid lake trout in Bear Lake. We do know that lake trout anglers are passionate, especially at Bear Lake, but we should not see any short OR long-term impacts from this study. This is not something that is planned to continue in the future. Back in the early and mid-1990's, when I was a young biologist, the UDWR and IDFG also caught a lot of flack from anglers when we did a mark-recapture study on lake trout (and cutthroat trout) where gill nets were used. However, the information gained from that study was used to determine future stocking numbers of lake trout (and cutthroat trout) and has been used to provide the fishery that we are now enjoying 20 years later. Some of the results from this proposed study will be used to ensure that 20 years from now we can still enjoy that fishery that we have today. Without doing these types of studies every decade or two, there is no guarantee that we will make the correct decisions to provide the best fishery we can in the future. Finally, as Chris said, fisheries management is a balancing (juggling) act sometimes, and in order to do that to the best of our ability, we have to sometimes conduct studies that everyone may not agree with. I can assure you that us biologists (speaking for myself and many others) are passionate about fishing too and we want the best fisheries for everyone.
Thanks!
Scott (BearLakeFishGuy)
![[Image: Scott-cisco-with-TDs-lure.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/Sc0QLy5/Scott-cisco-with-TDs-lure.jpg)