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Show Flaming Gorge Macks still doing good Lake trout are alive and well at Flaming Flam-ing Gorge. Preliminary results of a cooperative Utah-Wyoming tagging study show that the mackinaw harvest has stabilized at the lake, putting to rest fears of excessive fishing pressure and overharvest. After record takes in the late 1970s, some fisheries biologists theorized the fishery might not be capable of continued yields of trophy lake trout with existing harvest rates. They thought mature fish could be reduced to the point that natural production of young fish would suffer. But Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Fisheries Biologist Jim Johnson says that fishing pressure is no . longer increasing at the lake. "The leveling level-ing off has eased concern quite a bit," says Johnson. "Both harvest and fishing pressure stabilized in. 1981 and '82, while the size of the fish has remained the same. That would seem to indicate the harvest is not excessive," the biologist concluded. Johnson bases his findings on results of a tagging and creel census program conducted for the past several years at the Gorge. The tagging was done by both the Wyoming Game and Fish Department Depart-ment and the Utah Wildlife Resources Division, and included lake trout ranging rang-ing from under two pounds to over 28 pounds. During early 1982, 285 trout were tagged. tagg-ed. To date, 23 tags have been returned to the Division of Wildlife Resources, an agency of the Utah Department of Natural Resources and Energy. The data shows a 7.5 percent annual harvest in 1982 of the tagged fish. Johnson says anything over 10 percent might have indicated in-dicated a problem. "The present catch rate, assuming the sample is valid, will not damage the fishery," he added. According to Johnson, some other interesting in-teresting findings came out of the study. 'Lake trout tagged in the spring near the Green River inlet to the Gorge, showed up in creels three months later at Lucerne, some 40 miles down the lake. Such migration, although suspected, had not been confirmed before the study." The tagging program at Flaming Gorge is not over yet. Fishermen who catch a tagged lake trout are encouraged encourag-ed to return the tag to the Division of Wildlife Resources, 1596 West North Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah 84116 (attn: Jim Johnson). After the tags have been recorded, they'll be returned along with a $5 check and information about where and when the fish was tagged, as well as it's length and weight on the tagging date. . . L . . Johnson summed up the joint project saying, "Our goal is to maintain a quality lake f out fishery at Flaming Gorge Recent catches there of big macks m the mo 20 Pound category seem to md.cate they're doing just that. |
