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By Bob Spateholts, DWR Strawberry Project Biologist
"Why can't the Fish and Game make up its mind? It seems
like every year the rules are different! I wish it was like the good ol' days
when you just fished until you had yer limit and went home. Maybe I just won't
fish Strawberry any more!"
It is interesting to get comments like these from anglers
I interview at Strawberry. Particularly when they follow up with a grin and
say, "Yeah, we've turned back a bunch of cutts, and even a few rainbows.
We really did great last week, and the week before that my daughter caught a
20-incher. You guys are doing a great job!"
This year the limit was changed from eight fish, with no
more than one cutthroat, to four fish of any species, with no more than one
trout over 18-inches allowed. How was the new regulation chosen, and why? What
changes will we see in fishing pressure and harvest?
Maintaining the quality of the fishery and providing opportunity
for ever-increasing numbers of users is a complex task. Strawberry is a dynamic
and constantly changing fishery. Many factors fluctuate from year to year: reservoir
levels, habitat quality, fish available for stocking, natural reproduction,
fishing pressure, and harvest. If regulations remained constant, catch and fishing
pressure would go up and down from year to year. Over harvest would result with
few fish surviving to maturity. On the other hand, if harvest was seriously
restricted, Strawberry's remarkable productive potential would be underutilized.
We are entering an era of excellent fishing at Strawberry
- what people will remember as the "good ol' years - which we hope will
last for decades. The rules may not be as simple as they used to be, but the
number and size of fish caught continues to increase. Most Strawberry anglers
enjoy keeping fish to eat, but are willing to release fish of certain size or
species. Even though the overall limit has been reduced, the total harvest is
expected to increase. This year we will be shifting the harvest to abundant
stocks of younger cutthroat, while protecting larger cutthroat and rainbow trout.
For the past three years, we have been stocking 2.3 to 3.6
million Bear Lake cutthroats of different sizes into Strawberry. Additionally,
wild cutthroat have been coming into the reservoir from the tributaries. Our
estimates of survival indicate one and two year old cutthroat (10-16 inch fish)
were not being well utilized under the one-cutthroat limit, and three year old
and older cutts (17+ inch fish) were being over exploited. With high stocking
and natural spawning, the population should be able to withstand increased harvest
if the take of adult fish remains relatively low.
We encourage voluntary catch-and-release of all species at
Strawberry, particularly Bear Lake cutthroat, which are so easily caught. We
assume that fishing pressure and proportion of anglers voluntarily keeping less
that their limits will be similar to previous years. It is almost certain that
pressure will be way up this year. The fishing is great and the word is out.
If compliance remains high (we had over 95% compliance with the one cutthroat
limit), the fishery should remain great. What could devastate Strawberry is
the sack-em-up harvest frenzy that occurs in opening day situations.
When fish are plentiful, people, whose main goal is to fill
the freezer, seem to appear out of nowhere. Unfortunately, sportsmanlike anglers,
who generally abide by regulations, see the slaughter, and take more than they
normally would in order to get their "rightful share" before they
are all gone. We must avoid this scenario! Bring your friends, take home some
fish to eat, but don't over do it. Keep those too small cutts that are injured
and will not survive if you release them. That's the intent of the new regulation.
Don't high-grade your catch and take a limit of 17-inchers. Report all violations
you see to DWR or Forest Service personnel or officers. Use peer pressure -
many of the greatest proponents of catch-and-release fishing formerly kept everything
they caught.
We will not be stocking rainbow trout into Strawberry this
year because the food and Drug Administration suspended the use of the hormone
we fed to rainbows to make them sterile. Stocking fertile rainbows would lead
to hybridization with Bear Lake cutthroat in the tributary streams. Since the
cuttbow hybrids can backcross with either parent species, the genetic purity
of the Bear Lake cutthroat could be diluted, and the beneficial management traits
might be lost. Our research biologists are testing a variety of different techniques
to produce sterile rainbows, and stocking will resume as soon as steriles are
available. In the interim, we will be stocking more pounds of cutthroat and
kokanee to offset the lack of rainbows.
Since over a million sterile rainbow fingerlings were stocked
in 1995, rainbow fishing should stay good for the next few years. The new limit
should help spread the catch out to more anglers and protect larger fish. We
might see a new state record in a few years! Strawberry's rainbows remain in
weed bed areas year-round. To target rainbows, fish the shallow bays and shoreline
areas. Open water trollers will catch mostly cutthroat, with an occasional kokanee.
The kokanee population has been steadily growing. Only about five percent of
the catch is kokanee now, but the proportion will be greater as stocking and
spawning continue to increase.
Strawberry is a phenomenal fishery, near and dear to the
hearts of thousands of Utah anglers. Gone are the days of simple, liberal harvest
regulations. There are just too many anglers with the time to fish more often.
The average angler now has top quality tackle and knows how to use it. Keeping
the fishery high quality will require continual adjustments to accommodate changes
in fish populations. Continued support and compliance for the regulations make
our jobs of management easier. Thanks!