10-16-2021, 03:45 PM
For some reason, my first response was deleted. So here I go again:
Both the UDWR and IDFG decided last spring after hearing from a lot of anglers that the translocation of lake trout would not occur and the gillnetting study as proposed was cancelled. In fact, at this time there are no plans for IDFG to move lake trout to Stanley Lake as originally proposed. However, both agencies would still like to know more about the ploidy of lake trout in Bear Lake. (This simply means how many sterile versus fertile lake trout are in the lake.) Since canceling the original study, a lot of effort was put into analyzsing the current gill-net data. We determined that the state agencies should be able to address the ploidy question with the standardized gill-net surveys that are done each year to monitor the entire fish assemblage of Bear Lake. However, next year we are planning to increase the sampling effort, for one year, in order to obtain enough lake trout for a statistically-sound study. All sampling will be done by the state agencies using our standard sampling nets. As usual, all efforts will be made to simply take a fin clip from lake trout and release them alive using "descenders" to get both lake trout and cutthroat trout back down to proper depth to minimize any barotrauma (fish becoming bloated from bringing them up from deeper depths). This is the same procedure we follow when doing our usual netting and we expect minimal mortality, especially on the large fish which rarely become "gilled" in the nets and are typically just tangled by their teeth/jaws. Anyway, we are planning a couple of public meetings after the first of next year to give an update on the status of the Bear Lake fishery. Those meeting dates have not been set yet.
I hope this helps iron thing out and prevents and mis-information or rumors from developing.
Scott
Both the UDWR and IDFG decided last spring after hearing from a lot of anglers that the translocation of lake trout would not occur and the gillnetting study as proposed was cancelled. In fact, at this time there are no plans for IDFG to move lake trout to Stanley Lake as originally proposed. However, both agencies would still like to know more about the ploidy of lake trout in Bear Lake. (This simply means how many sterile versus fertile lake trout are in the lake.) Since canceling the original study, a lot of effort was put into analyzsing the current gill-net data. We determined that the state agencies should be able to address the ploidy question with the standardized gill-net surveys that are done each year to monitor the entire fish assemblage of Bear Lake. However, next year we are planning to increase the sampling effort, for one year, in order to obtain enough lake trout for a statistically-sound study. All sampling will be done by the state agencies using our standard sampling nets. As usual, all efforts will be made to simply take a fin clip from lake trout and release them alive using "descenders" to get both lake trout and cutthroat trout back down to proper depth to minimize any barotrauma (fish becoming bloated from bringing them up from deeper depths). This is the same procedure we follow when doing our usual netting and we expect minimal mortality, especially on the large fish which rarely become "gilled" in the nets and are typically just tangled by their teeth/jaws. Anyway, we are planning a couple of public meetings after the first of next year to give an update on the status of the Bear Lake fishery. Those meeting dates have not been set yet.
I hope this helps iron thing out and prevents and mis-information or rumors from developing.
Scott
![[Image: Scott-cisco-with-TDs-lure.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/Sc0QLy5/Scott-cisco-with-TDs-lure.jpg)