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Show Fishing restrictions on Panguitch lifted prior to treatment taken to provide Interested anglers the chance to recover is many game fish as possible before they are affected by the treatment. The target species Is, once more, the troublesome Utah chub. This fish, not accepted as a game fish by most Utah anglers, competes for food and space with more desirable species. spe-cies. It, therefore, restricts the use of the economically desire-able desire-able fingerllng stocking technique tech-nique of game fish. With fish food prices soaring, the stocking of fingerllngs over the catchable size fish is most desirable. Five-inch fingerling rainbow stocked In July 1972 Panguitch Lake is vying with two smaller bodies of water for Utah's third fishing Improvement Improve-ment project in 1973. Al Col-lotzi, Col-lotzi, fisheries manager for the Division of Wildlife Re-sources Re-sources Southern Regional Office, Of-fice, explained that "chemical treatment will take place as soon as the Panguitch Lake Water Users shut down theli water use operations this fall. "Normally, water use stops around mid-September," said Collotzl. Treatment will Involve the use of rotenone, a toxicant which restricts the extracting of oxygen from the water by gill-bearing organisms. Rotenone, Rote-none, at the concentration used to eradicate fish, is nontoxic to mamals or birds. The treatment will be focused on the 1,000-surface-acre lake with minimal work on tributaries tribu-taries flowing into it. The tributaries trib-utaries are generally small 'and steep, reqiring little work. Collotzl said that two aircraft air-craft will be used to spread the rotenone upon the lake surface. The TBM torpedo bomber and a DC-6, both converted con-verted to spraying and dump, ing the chemical, are the planes to be used. The aerial operation opera-tion will be based at the Bryce Canyon Airport. The Division's Wildlife Board lifted the fish limit for Panguitch Pangu-itch Lake from August 1 until its treatment. This action was produce a barely acceptable fishery this year. After treatment, treat-ment, an excellent fishery will be produced from 2.5-lnch fingerling. fin-gerling. The cost differential between stocking 2.5-inch fingerllng fin-gerllng and 5-lnch fingerllng Is approximately $9,000 annually. Bioligists estimate that Panguitch Pan-guitch Lake presently produces 40 percent of its potential pounds of game fish. After treatment, the full potential can be attained as it has in many other waters throughout the state. |