Bad news for the gorge

[Propnut69]

This is a link to a story in a Utah paper. Talking about the jones hole hatchery closing. This won't be good for the gorge.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57135593-78/fish-utah-hatchery-hatcheries.html.csp

 

[Kokaholic]

Sad news, somebody needs to go, and not our kokes!

 

[jekern1015]

Could be one way to rid the lake of burbots, large lakers and eventually recreationists to give those clowns along the front range to get there water.

 

[Kokaholic]

It's a double whammy all the way around. True, it hurts our fishery more than we will know. However it hurts the local businesses and folks that live and raise families in the surrounding areas. As those of us that live outside the area travel there to play, we help to bring additional funding to these cities. This will hurt both Utah and Wyoming.

Whether were after kokes, lakers, bass whatever, it all comes back to lost revenue. Sad deal.

 

[SuperD]

Does it really hurt the fishery? Do we know that the other hatcheries that feed the Gorge won't increase their delivery amounts? At one time Jared told me something like 1.2 million kokes are planted a year so there seems to be more contributors available to step up to the plate.

 

[Propnut69]

Dave ,the only other hatchery the rears kokeanee for the gorge,(as far as I know) is the plume creek hatchery ,just below fontenell dam,on the Green river. I don't know what thier total output for koke fry is. But I doubt if it's enough to make up the difference ,that the jones hole hatchery contribited. I don't see the Wyo G&F doing things much different then what they are doing now. As they are pleading poverty,just like every other state agency is.

With the jones hole hatchery closing, the fishing at the gorge sure is going to change over the next few years.

 

[Kokaholic]

One contributing factor Dave is that Utah is really looking to place more of what they consider to be there prize fish, the Bear lake cutthroat and the Bonneville cutthroat back into more fisheries as that this is also our state fish. Purely a wild guess, but I see them using any additional space and or funding to help supplement these cutts. Strawberry Usa. Classic example of that. I also see recent cutts that's are coming out of Schofield reservoir as an other example. I'm sure there are others. Just my thoughts,

 

[SuperD]

Speaking of Strawberry, where do those koke plants come from?

 

[Kokaholic]

not sure, maybe someone else can add to the post on this.

 

[Propnut69]

just a thought

I was out to the gorge yesterday ,visiting with some friends that were shore fishing, We got to talking about this hatchery closing. After all the ranting and raving,most of it in jest. We got to talking about if possible ,what kind of fish we would like to see put into the lake . Well lots of opinions were thrown around,and after much back and forth,everyone had stated thier choice, I thought I would throw this out to the board. To see what your choice would be. For the record my choice would be tiger trout.

 

[Bduck]

Tim, I would go with Tiger trout as well. We have some here locally but stocking is not always kept up. The population is low but when and what you do catch are feisty. I was told by the local DNR resident at E Canyon that they don't know what is on the stock trucks as far as trout species plantings go which is why there is a cutthroat population in that reservoir now. Blue ribbon fisheries such as the Gorge should maintain dedicated species.

 

[SuperD]

If we're simply dreaming, I'd vote for what I wouldn't like to see in the lake and eradicate the burbot and the Lakers.

 

[Kokaholic]

Yep, your dreaming

 

[Ryno]

The number of kokanee stocked each year is highly dependent on wild egg-takes in both Wyoming and Utah. Most of the eggs in Utah come from the Strawberry River run along with some additional eggs from both the early and late Sheep Creek runs. Those eggs are raised at both Jones Hole NFH and Whiterocks Hatchery (UDWR) until the fish are about 3-inches and restocked into the Gorge the following year. As Propnut69 mentioned, WGFD also raises/stocks their share of kokanee. Being egg takes are dependent on wild runs, the number of eggs collected and total fish raised/stocked each year is highly variable. For example, 1-million kokes were stocked in 2012, but only 630K were stocked in 2011 (all three agencies combined). The lesser amount in 2011 was a result of poor runs in both UT and WY. Overall, Jones Hole NFH does about a 1/3 of the stocking quota for kokanee on Flaming Gorge.

Where the potential loss of Jones Hole NFH really hurts is rainbow trout stocking. Jones Hole stocks about 400-450K catchables (8-inch) for both UT and WY on Flaming Gorge, which is roughly 70% of the total rainbows stocked by the three agencies. Finding space to raise both kokanee and rainbows within the state hatchery systems will be extremely difficult and likely impact other fisheries.

Hope it helps, Ryno

 

[Kokaholic]

Thanks Ryan, that helps shed some light on the discussion.

 

[Propnut69]

Ryan, thanks for stopping by,and sheding a little light on the subject.thumbsup