Helping with a Bear Lake Gill Net Study

[BearLakeMack]

[left][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to go out with the DWR Bear Lake Biologists and help for a day by participating in one of their bi-yearly gill net studies. I had talked to Scott Tolentino (alias BearLakeFishGuy) during the ice fishing season and had asked him about helping as a volunteer on a gill net study. He said sure and that there would be one in April.

Well, sure enough, April rolls around and I sent Scott an e-mail and he hooked me up. He told me they were going to be gill netting from the 26th to the 29th and I could pick the day that worked best for me. I decided on the 29th because it made a nice 4 day weekend for me.

I woke up Thursday morning to snow! I knew if there was anything less then mega wind, those DWR guys were going out to do their job. So I dressed for ice fishing conditions and took the drive up the snowy roads of Logan Canyon to be at the Bear Lake State Park Marina by 8:00am.

Once there, I met up with Scott and Bryce Nielsen and down to the docks we went. Here's a Picture of Scott and Bryce standing on the docks with the jet boat we're going out on, in the background. Check out the snow and still coming down! [/left] [center][/center] [left]

We started out of the marina with the snow clouds right down on the water. Visibility was none existent and we had to depend on the GPS to get us to each of seven net sets. To make matters worse, the snow was packing on the windshield, making it tough to see thru. Good thing these boys knew what they were doing! Bryce talked about the days they used to do this before the common use of GPS and they only had compasses to aid them finding their nets.

The GPS unit took us right to the first set of nets at 50 meters. These babies were deep! Now what kind of fish live down over 150 ft deep? We pulled the nets and the main content was Bear Lake Whitefish and Cisco. There was one cutthroat in the mix also. Apparently listening to all the cool information from Scott and Bryce, the BL whitefish spends almost it's entire life in deep, dark waters. In contrast, the other specie, the Bonneville whitefish, is larger and is typically shallower.

Here's a little bit about the nets. The nets are made up of 3 different size meshes. They are approximately 150 ft long and 6 ft high. The different mesh sizes are to catch different size fish. DUH, right? The bottom of the net have a lead core braided cord to sink it to the bottom. The top of the net floats. This virtually puts a 150 ft long X 6' high mesh fence across the bottom of the lake. At each end of the net, there was a concrete weight to keep the ends in place and a long nylon parachute cord with a float made from a Clorox bottles. Hey, Olene! These boys could use a little more funding! Actually the Clorox bottles work great.

We pulled 7 net sets starting at 50 meters and going as shallow as 5 meters. At every net set, the nets were hand pulled up, the fish removed, measured and either kept for later lab studies or released. On this trip, all cutthroat were kept to evaluate the general health of the BL cutthroat population in the lake. Also Cisco and whitefish were kept. Lake trout and suckers were release.

Here are some pictures of the gill net operations and what goes on:
[/size][/font][/left] [center] [/center] [center][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]You can see here the smaller mesh size. This size typically caught the cisco and small whitefish[/size][/font] [/center] [center]
[/center] [center] [/center] [center][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Here's Scott Tolentino hand pulling the nets from depth. Believe me, pulling those nets is not easy work. The fish were removed when they reached the boat and were put into big tubs to be measured and possibly tagged.[/size][/font][/center] [center][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3][/size][/font][/center] [center][/center] [center] [/center] [center][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Here's a mack in the net. I took pictures of the "glamour fish" but the typical catch consisted of suckers and whitefish. It was surprising how few trout, cutts and macks, we actually caught.[/size][/font][/center] [center][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2][/size][/center][/font][/size][/font] [center][/center] [center] [/center] [center][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Here's the typical catch. Man, I was wishing I could of taken a few of these home for mack bait but they too were measured and released.[/size][/font] [/center] [center]

[/center] [center][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]The standard way of measuring fish. This happens to be a mack but every fish was measured and recorded. [/size][/font][/center] [center][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3][/size][/font]
[/center] [center][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Nice Mack! Back to the lake you go, little boy![/size][/font] [/center] [center]

[/center] [center][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Here's the Toad of the day. A 33" mack. This one is being tagged. The age of this fish was estimated at around 25 year or older. What I really found surprising was that whitefish can live for 25 years also![/size][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Once all the nets were pulled, we headed back to the office and did some field “lab work”. Actually, I opened test tubes for tissue samples and recorded data. Scott dissected the cutthroat we had caught and took tissue samples to evaluate the overall fish population health. The tissue sample allow the biologist determine if there is a viral, bacterial, or parasite problem within their waters.[/size][/font]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Also the basic health of the fish was determined. Body fat, stomach contents, etc, were recorded.[/size][/font]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]To say this was an experience of a lifetime is understating. I have a very high regard as to what our DWR folks are trying to do and maintain. They also have to make do and improvise to get their jobs done. If you ever get a chance to volunteer for a DWR project, DO IT! [/size][/font]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Thanks, Scott and Bryce. You made my day![/size][/font]
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[Kent]

Rich, it looks like you had a great time on a less than splendid day (weather wise). Thanks for sharing with us and writing the story, intertwined with pictures, like only you can.
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[BrianID]

BLM,

Thanks for sharing the information. Once you do some volunteer work for your states DWR, F&G, G&F or whatever you gain a new respect for the work they do.
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[AFDan52]

[font "Arial Black"][red][size 2] Wow that sure makes me look at the DWR a little differently. That net study looks very interesting, maybe next year I will try that . Would help me understand fish a lot better. Thanks for a Fantastic Post BLM, and Thanks to bearlakefishguy, and his co-workers for all that they do for us.[/size][/red][/font]

[font "Arial Black"][#ff0000][size 2] AFDan52[/size][/#ff0000][/font]
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[Out4Trout]

[cool]Wow! Cool post, BLM! That was very educational, and informative. I'll have to go up and do that someday. Looks like you guys froze your bagonias off up there, but what a day.
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[loanfish]

Just another motivation for me to get my degree and start working for them. Thankyou for sharing this information.
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[mtnman]

Is there any way to determine the age of a fish other than the size?
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[BearLakeMack]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Size really isn't the factor in judging age but there is a way to age fish but unfortunately you have to kill them to count the "ridges" in the ear bones located in their head. It's kind of like tree rings and you have to do it under a microscope. BLFG told me about it. We saved the ear bones from the cutthroat we caught and dissected for the lab work and he was going to do the aging.[/size][/font]
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[mtnman]

Thanks for the info
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[Kayote]

There is a nonlethal method to age fish. You can read scale growth rings just like reading tree rings. It's not as acurate as otoliths (ear bones) but has been used for years.

Good Fishing, Kayote
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[BearLakeMack]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]I'm sure you are correct, Kayote. I do know that the cutthroat heads were being saved to check for whirling diease so it was easy to collect the ear bones when they were being used for lab sample to begin with. Thanks for the info![/size][/font]
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