Diamond Fork Cuts

[trollboy8]

I thought some of you would be interested in this article that I found on Wayne's Words about treatment of the Diamond Fork river. Pretty interesting and could be really cool: [indent][#333333]
Fish Removed to Start New
Bonneville Cutthroat Trout Population
Utah County -- Bonneville cutthroat trout, a fish that once thrived in Utah, will soon be swimming in another river in the state.
On Aug. 16, biologists with the Division of Wildlife Resources, in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service, treated approximately 21 miles of stream in the upper stretches of the Diamond Fork river drainage with rotenone.
Most of the fish in the 21-mile stretch are brown trout, and the rotenone should remove all of them.
Initial results show the Aug. 16 treatment was a success. Biologists will treat the area again on Sept. 20. The treatment area begins about 10 miles from the mouth of Diamond Fork Canyon, at the Three Forks area, and continues upstream to its headwaters.
Biologists are removing fish so native Bonneville cutthroat trout can be placed in the river. Restoring Bonneville cutthroat trout to their historic range in Utah is an important step towards keeping this sensitive species off the Endangered Species List and ensuring the future health of the species. The project will also provide great fishing for anglers.
DWR biologists have taken eggs from spawning Bonneville cutthroat trout in Mountain Dell and Little Dell reservoirs east of Salt Lake City over the past year. This egg-taking effort provided them with enough fish for the Diamond Fork project.
The U.S. Forest Service has also contributed to the project’s success by installing a fish barrier at Three Forks. The barrier will keep the brown trout in the 10-mile stretch below the project area separate from the Bonneville cutthroat trout population the biologists are establishing.
A Big Effort
Rotenone was administered to the water via drip barrels that were placed in 20 locations. Biologists also used backpack sprayers to apply rotenone to areas that were difficult to reach. After the treatment, biologists applied an oxidizing agent, potassium permanganate, to the end of the project area (near Three Forks) to neutralize the effects of the rotenone.
Once all of the fish have been removed, the DWR will stock the project area with 10,000 three-inch Bonneville cutthroat trout. The area from Three Forks and upstream will be closed to fishing in 2007 to allow these small cutthroats to grow.
“Several streams are tied to the main stem of the Diamond Fork River. These streams aren’t separated from the river by any barriers, so placing fish in the river will allow us to restore Bonneville cutthroat trout to several drainages at the same time,” says Don Wiley, the DWR regional aquatics manager who coordinated the project.
“Also, the cutthroat trout in the main stem of Diamond Fork can access those tributaries during the spawn, or any time of the year, which will help maintain a gene flow throughout the cutthroat trout population in the area.”
The DWR is conducting the project with support from the U.S. Forest Service, the Central Region Advisory Council, the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget Resource Development Coordinating Committee (RDCC), Trout Unlimited, the Blue Ribbon Fisheries Council and other organizations.
For more information, call the DWR’s Springville office at (801) 491-5678.
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[trollboy8]

DOH! I just realized that this has already been posted and commented on, etc. I'm a little slow. Sorry...[crazy]
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[UTBASS]

That Sucks... There were some monster browns in that river!
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[PBH]

that's fantastic news!! We should see some monster cutts in a couple years!
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[Fishcrazy]

Well,it the PC thing to do,thanks to lawsuits and the USF&W service.Been going on for a while,its why I don't fish rivers anymore.They will kill all the non-native trout.They tried this on the lower Provo,the cutts I caught there a few year back were small,and no fight,with a decrease in big BROWNS.Just my opnion[]
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[Theekillerbee]

I hope the project works out. I think if they can effectively keep the browns and the cutts separated, it should be OK.
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[PBH]

The (P)olitically ©orrect thing to do?




Or, the RIGHT thing to do?
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[doggonefishin]

I am excited to see what happens with this project. Back when I first started fishing DF as a teenager, we used to catch nice cutts there as large as the browns. While I still pick up a cutt there now and then, they have sharply declined. The lower 10 miles still have the browns as before, and should continue to provide the same action it always has.

PBH, is DF one of the larger streams (flow wise) in Utah that has had the Bonnevilles reintroduced in this fashion?
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[fuzzyfisher]

well at lest they are putting Bonneville Cutt's in, and not yellowstone cutt's..

from what i have seen of the two.. Bonneville's do a lot better in the waters here in Utah!

and i'll still fish Dimond Fork and all it's tributaries from time to time..
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[UintaIce]

I wrote an article for the "Outdoors" section of the Ogden paper this month on this very stretch of water. It was really trashed by the run-off this spring. The stream bed of old is high and dry in many places, and many of the stream's resident fish are now gone. The sections we fished were almost abandoned, and the good holes of years past unrecognizable.
The fish we did catch were browns, too. One stretch as you move downstream toward 3 Forks is fed by some hot pots and sulphur springs. And believe it or not, those areas were always good for both browns and cutts. Below those riffled run areas though, mostly browns and some planted rainbows.
I hate to see this happen in many ways. But at least there's going to be an effort to revitalize this stretch of water. It sure was a fun place to fish.
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[PBH]

[reply]
...It was really trashed by the run-off this spring. The stream bed of old is high and dry in many places... and the good holes of years past unrecognizable.[/reply]

That's the beauty of fishing streams and rivers. Moving water is a powerful force. Things are in constant change. It's a whole new ballgame every time out. Fishermen must be adaptable to a changing environment if we hope to be successfull.
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