10-09-2021, 06:04 PM
Good question. I sent your question, in an email, to Alan Ward.
In July I caught several cutthroat that were either spewing sperm or eggs and I asked Alan about that. This was his reply.
"Unfortunately, some of those cutthroat will not spawn. We see most of the spawning activity cease by early July. They either simply do not know where to spawn, or more likely this year, they do not have a place to spawn. For instance, Indian Creek is dry, and we typically get more cutthroat spawning there than anywhere. And the Strawberry River was so low that spawning habitat, and access to habitat, was limited. Therefore, we always see some fish that never do release their eggs (and probably more this year), and they end up absorbing them (which is not always healthy for those females)."
In July I caught several cutthroat that were either spewing sperm or eggs and I asked Alan about that. This was his reply.
"Unfortunately, some of those cutthroat will not spawn. We see most of the spawning activity cease by early July. They either simply do not know where to spawn, or more likely this year, they do not have a place to spawn. For instance, Indian Creek is dry, and we typically get more cutthroat spawning there than anywhere. And the Strawberry River was so low that spawning habitat, and access to habitat, was limited. Therefore, we always see some fish that never do release their eggs (and probably more this year), and they end up absorbing them (which is not always healthy for those females)."