Growing bigger fish

STRAWBERRY RESERVOIR — Success of a newly introduced slot limit was not measured so much in numbers this go-round but more in inches.

And, based on the readings off the ruler, the decision to go with new fishing regulations on Utah's most popular fishing hole nearly one year ago was a right one.

A few weeks back, gill nets were set at specified locations on Strawberry and then pulled. Biologists are just now finishing adding up the results.

And, what they found, said Alan Ward, project biologists for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, was:

• 20 percent of the cutthroat trout caught in nets were over 20 inches. Last year only 14 percent of the cutts measured up to 20 inches. In 2001, only 1 percent of the fish were over 20, and in 2002, only 5 percent were over 20 inches.

• 3 percent of the cutthroat were over 22 inches. Not a single fish over 22 inches was found in the nets in 2001 or 2002, and only 1.5 percent of the fish netted last year were over 22 inches.

• While the number of chubs checked was about the same as last year, the number of young fish, one year old, was half the total caught last year.

• Only 5 shiner were checked this year, where last year there were more than 100.

• Rainbow trout numbers were about the same as recorded last year.

"What this tells us," said Ward, "is the regulations are working."

The regulations — four trout, with no more than two being cutthroat under 15 inches and no more than one being a cutthroat over 22 inches — were intended to grow bigger cutthroat.

It was seen as a tool to control a steadily increasing number of chubs, a fish that has no value as a sports fish and can, if left unchecked, overrun a water.

The Bear Lake cutthroat feeds on chubs, and the bigger the cutts the more and bigger chubs they will eat.

"One of the biggest fish was a 27-inch cutthroat that weighed nine pounds. We were lucky to net him," said Ward. "The bigger fish can usually avoid being caught.

"The best part, though, was the fish had a 9-inch chub in its stomach."

With respect to the chubs, total counts were about the same as those in 2002 and up slightly from 2003.