For fish survey, a current runs through it

OGDEN — For the poor saps who fish the Ogden River without any luck, here's a couple of pounds of humility for you: There are plenty of fish in that river.

You just have to know how to catch them.

Biologists from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources caught 2,500 fish in two days earlier this month in sections of the Ogden River as part of a fish census.

And they did it using an electric current that makes nearby fish momentarily seize up for a quick catch. It's called electrofishing. Later, the fish were returned unharmed to the river.

Using electricity to catch fish is illegal in Utah, unless you're scientists who need to catch a large number of fish quickly.

Within coming days, Ogden will solicit bids for the first phase of a restoration project on the Ogden River.

Currently, the river runs in a narrow channel through downtown Ogden. Its banks are lined with discarded concrete and junk.

After the $5.5 million project is complete — from Washington Boulevard to Gibson Avenue — the river will have a wider channel with natural biofilters for storm water runoff. And the fish should have a better habitat.

"I'm really excited about what it can do for Ogden," said city engineer Justin Anderson. "It's a dying stretch of river. It will look a lot different when we're done."

In June, the project received $1 million in federal stimulus funds.

Before the project happens, officials want to know the river's current conditions so they can measure them against the future.

After crunching the numbers, biologists expect to extrapolate how many fish live there.

So nine biologists, fisherman and volunteers pulled on chest waders and waterproof boots Oct. 19-20 and climbed into the Ogden River.

It would be a fisherman's dream: In the space of an hour, catching more fish than you can handle.

But it wasn't exactly easy.

Two men pushed and pulled a canoe laden with an electrical generator and other equipment upstream while four others used electrified probes to sweep under the water.

A splash upstream let them know their probes were working, and then the quick scooping of nets as the group plodded upstream eventually brought in 2,500 fish: brown trout, sculpin, albino rainbow trout and a few mountain whitefish.