STRAWBERRY RESERVOIR — The number of Utah chubs caught in gillnets last fall was down significantly. It was a sure sign the larger Bear Lake cutthroat were eating well.

Alan Ward, however, newly appointed project leader at Strawberry for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, was cautiously optimistic.

Before he could say with some certainty that things were going well at Utah's most popular fishing spot, he wanted to count fish in the spring gillnet survey.

And?

"We saw some good things," he said without a hint of hesitation.

"My expectations were high after last fall's count. But, I recalled that back in the spring of 2000 our (chub) count was high, where in the fall it was low. Last fall we saw a 65 percent reduction in chub numbers. I'd hoped to see a reduction in the spring, and we did — a 40 percent reduction. What this tells me is the regulations are working."

Those regulations, which went into law in January of 2003, bumped up the size of cutthroat that fishermen could keep from 20 to 22 inches. Those extra two inches dictated the number and size of chubs a cutthroat could eat.

Under the old regulations, chub counts were constantly rising.

Now, said Ward, "Since our survey has shown reductions in the fall and spring, it tells us there are some real reductions in chub numbers."

Fish counts also showed an increase in the number of large cutthroat. An inspection of some of the larger cutthroat showed they had, in fact, been dining on chubs.

He also found, as expected, the cutthroat were also eating other trout — rainbow and cutthroat.

"That's the downside," he explained. "The cutthroat don't just eat chubs. They also eat other fish, which has caused us to modify our stocking program. We're going to try and plant bigger fish . . . 6-inch rainbows. In the past we've stocked 3-to-5 inch fish. We're asking the hatcheries to hold the fish for an extra month in order to get bigger fish," Ward explained.

"What that means, however, is we'll be planting fewer fish. Our plan is to stock 600,000 of the larger fish. In the past we've stock 850,000 or more. There will be a reduction in fish, yes, but the fish we plant will be bigger, and survival will be higher. What we're hoping to see is these fish show up in our fall gillnet study. We believe the reason we're not seeing as many fish as we'd like under the 15 range is the big cutts are eating the fish we're stocking. We'll try this and if we have to modify the program we will."

Ward also said there were plans to take eggs and sperm of the large spawning cutthroat earlier than in the past, which will also give the fish a longer growing period before being released.