WHEN AND WHY .....

[BADFISH]

WHEN AND WHY WAS STRAWBERRY POISONED? I REMEMBER HEARING IT...BUT I WAS LIKE 10 OR 12 I THINK...AND DONT KNOW WHY. PLEASE ENLIGHTEN ME.

LATERS,
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[glassyeyedPaul]

Poisoned in the 1990's because of chubs.[crazy] That time, it was all trout purists' idea.
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[Shrimpboy]

Also poisioned in the 1960's because of perch and chubs.
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[BADFISH]

Arent there a TON of chubs in there now.....that they are all hoping the cutts will eat???
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[glassyeyedPaul]

Chubs at strawberry? Yep Deja vu once more... actually for the 3rd time haha. Let this be a lesson to DWR that rotenoning the lake doesn't do any good except for a short time.
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[Shrimpboy]

The problem before the poisioning is that the res was that the trout in the lake were mostly rainbow or rainbow mixed with other trout. Rainbows don't usually start to eat chubs until they are rather big. I started fishing with minnows last year and I caught hundreds of cutts (some as small as 12 inches) on the minnows, but only 5 or 6 rainbows on the minnow (all of those were over 20").
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[baetisman]

Prior to the rotenone treatment the fishing at Strawberry was awful. The fishing had crashed in just a few short years. The number of people fishing the reservoir also dropped significantly. The chubs outnumbered trout by at least 20 to 1. The DWR knew that they wouldn't be able to kill all of the chubs, but they hoped to kill most of them and then get Bear Lake cutthroat into the lake so they would keep the chub in check, because the cutthroat are minnow eaters, unlike the rainbows. This worked reasonably well, but then people kept too many of the bigger cutthroat (the main minnow eaters) and so the DWR first tried reducing the limit and then created the slot limit.

I'm not sure what lesson people think the DWR needs to learn. Its we fishermen that need to learn the lesson. The chub are in Strawberry because a bunch of people thought it would be great to fish with live minnows. The DWR spends a lot of time having to manage around people who think they know better by fishing with illegal baits and planting fish illegally. Under the circumstances, the DWR has done a pretty good job of managing Strawberry. One of the reasons Strawberry is so popular is that there is something for everyone: boaters, tubers, ice and bank fishermen; fly, jig, lure and bait fishermen. Anyone can go up there and have a chance for fish. The treatment of the lake was a necessary step.
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[Shrimpboy]

Actually...I'm willing to bet that the chubs in the Berry are a result of them being a native fish to the water. That's why they're in most waters in the state.
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[Bigfishrule]

I fished Strawberry before it was poisoned and it didnt crash until the DWR reduced planting it for a couple of years prior to the poison. I never caught a chup unless I happened to have a worm or powerbait on my hook. The largest trout (15# rainbow) I have caught out of Strawberry was before the improved it by taking out all those chubs. My biggest fish since have been a 27 in cutt and a 25 in bow. The average size fish is coming up with the slot limit but also a return of chubs for the big fish to eat.

Secondly the DWR knew chubs would return because the water Duschene River drainage) that comes in from the ladders was not treated and their are chubs in it. So even if a few chubs were introduced from fishermen using live bait, most came thru the ladders. That is why the DWR used bear lake cutts (eat fish sooner in their growth cycle) and Kokanee (compete with chubbs for food).

Now if we could just get people not to take home trout from strawbwrry all the time. Lets treat it as a world class fishery NOT A WORLD CLASS EATERY. If you want some trout for dinner go to rockport or one of the other put and take lakes. Or better yet the local supermarket. I personally would like to see a 1 fish over 25 in limit at strawberry. I know, I know we must keep it a family fishery so the kiddies will be able to fish. Well even as a kid I enjoyed catching one big fish alot more than a hundred little fish. My definition of family fishery is I need to be able to take 8 trout home everyday. What a waste. I know that some people eat all those fish and i have no problem with that. But I also know alot of those fish are used around the roses or put in the trash can with freezer burn. With so many "put and take" fisherys why cant we have one TRUE WORLD CLASS FISHERY close to the wasatch front.

Thats enough of my rant for now.

John
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[baetisman]

According to the information that I have read, the chubs were not native to that area - i.e. the upper Strawberry River and its tributaries. The chubs are native to the Bonneville Basin, but not the Colorado River drainage, of which Strawberry is a part. Perhaps it was not fishermen who introduced the chub into the area, but I am curious as to why we have a difficult time believing that fishermen introduced chubs to the lake when we have dozens of examples of fishermen illegally moving fish from one water to another, and we have hundreds of examples of fishermen using illegal bait to catch fish.

Also, I believe the implication that the reservoir crashed because the DWR cut down on stocking is weak. I used to fish the reservoir a lot and there was a clear and steady decline in both the numbers and qualities of fish that were being caught prior to treatment. Fishing slowed considerably and the fish that were caught were much skinnier than in previous years. I also started to catch lots of chubs on flies. I still maintain that the DWR had little choice but to treat the reservoir.
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[Bigfishrule]

I didnt mean that Fisherman don't illegally itroduce species. Just in Strawberry's case the chubs were going to come back thru the ladders tunnell whether they were illegally planted or not. As for no choice but to poison.....maybe they could of introduced the current slot limit then. And used all that money spent on rotone for habitat improvements. Maybe they could of closed the fishery for a year or two to allow some trout to grow up a little so they would start eating some of them chubs. I just dont think poisoning a fishery everytime it gets out of whack is the answer. Maybe some hard management decisions and a little education of why those changes were made would be better.

John
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[baetisman]

I agree that poisoing isn't always the best option. When Strawberry and Soldier Creek were joined together, the DWR knew that it was going to have to manage the reservoir much different than it had in the past. The lake was going to be too big to repeatedly poison, so they had to come up with a new management plan. That plan consisted of poisoning the lake one last time, and introducing new species to compete with the chub (as both you and I stated, they knew they wouldn't eliminate all of the chub). As you stated, they put in cuts to eat the chubs and kokanee to eat the same food as the chub. They also put in sterile rainbows so the cuts and rainbows would not cross- breed. Rainbows and cutbows apparently don't compete well with the chub. So again, I think the DWR did a good thing by treating the reservoir. This wasn't just a case of the DWR killing off the fish, this was a case of the DWR coming up with a completely new management strategy.
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[Bigfishrule]

I agree that the DWR is finally managing Strawbery real good. Lets all do our part to help them out.

John
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[fishmagnet]

I agree with you there. I would love to be able to go to The Berry and catch 25" fish every time. It has the potential to grow lots of big fish if we let it. I like the slot because 2 small fish per person is plenty for a meal without leading to excessive waste. I have a self imposed limit of 1 trout per trip and that seems reasonable to me.

FM
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[glassyeyedPaul]

It's not a matter of when, how and why... but let us put a slot limit on those suckers and chubs... LMAO
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