Trophy lake trout study at Flaming Gorge Trophy lake trout fishing at Flaming Flam-ing Gorge; it's famous throughout the country. Keeping it this way is the objective ob-jective of current research efforts by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and Wyoming Game and Fish Department. The major objective of the present study is to determine the effect of fishing pressure on the trophy fishing there. Trophy fishing adds an excitement dimension to the varied opportunities op-portunities available at the Gorge. October 1981 marked the beginning of the study. Nearly 300 lake trout (mackinaw) were netted from all areas of the reservoir, weighed, measured, tagged for later identification identifica-tion and released. Fish size ranged from two to 28 pounds. Sixteen were "trophy" size (over 20 pounds). Anglers who are skilled enough or lucky enough and land a lake trout bearing a small orange plastic tag at the base of the dorsal fin are asked to send the tag and information about the fish to Utah wildlife authorities. Preliminary results indicate that at least 10 percent of the Gorge's "macks" are caught each yar. Jim Johnson, fisheries research specialist with the Division of Wildlife Resources, is concerned that "if anglers aren't returning the tags, we're underestimating the harvest. This could lead to inadvertently allowing allow-ing harvest to exceed levels that the lake can support on a long term basis. Fishermen take nearly 9,000 lake trout from the Gorge annually," reports Johnson. "They average about 6 pounds and look very good." Fishing pressure at the Gorge has increased in recent years. According to Bruce Schmidt, Flaming Gorge Project Pro-ject Leader for much of the study, "more people are fishing for lake trout every year. Since the total harvest has remained about the same, lower catch rates (fewer fish caught per angler per day) are the results. Right now Flaming Flam-ing Gorge is one of the most productive produc-tive lake trout fisheries, probably in the world. We'd like to keep it that way." Johnson and Schmidt stress the importance im-portance of research and the current tagging study for ensuring the future of mackinaw fishing at Flaming Gorge. "We've been able to learn a lot about seasonal migration; they move up-lake in winter and back to the central cen-tral open areas (Antelope FlatLucerne) in the summer. Valuable information about age and growth has been gathered. Flaming Gorge lake trout grow year round. The only way to get agegrowth data is by tagging a fish and recording information informa-tion on size when it's caught. We look at the difference in length and weight over the time span since it was tagged. "One interesting incident adds promise. pro-mise. Ron Carrey, a Wyoming fisherman, fisher-man, caught a 34 pound mack in May 1982. Knowing of the study, he turned the live fish over to wildlife officials. They gathered data, tagged the fish, and returned it to the water where it was originally caught. Last month (June 1982) he caught the same fish again. It weighed nearly 8 pounds. Doubling weight in one year is tremendous tremen-dous growth." With the aid of anglers, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources biologists can better understand and manage trophy lake trout fishing at Flaming Gorge. Fishermen who catch a tagged fish are encouraged by a five dollar reward to return the tag with the following information infor-mation to Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, 1596 West North Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah 84116. Include: where it was caught, when, length, weight and if the fish was released. Utah wildlife officials will return the tag to you as a souvenir. The data is the important part. With your help Flaming Gorge will continue to produce pro-duce the fine trophy fishing we enjoy today.