The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is encouraging ice anglers to maintain any lake trout which might be below 24 inches from Boulder Lake this winter. This focused elimination of those smaller lake trout will assist enhance the well being of the lake and fishery. It offers the forage species a little bit of a break by decreasing predation ranges on them within the lake. At the identical time, it lets extra lake trout develop bigger into trophy-class fish. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is basing all of this off sampling executed by them in May. The pattern confirmed that there may very well be too lots of the smaller lake trout within the lake. Smaller fish require extra meals to achieve weight and develop versus bigger fish, so with an overabundance of small lake trout all the pieces suffers within the fishery.
So to assist maintain the lake wholesome and in stability, the best and finest answer is to cull these smaller trout. Just by anglers harvesting a every day restrict of the smaller lake trout extra sources are freed up within the lake for different species and bigger lake trout. This means three massive issues, extra trophy lake trout, a greater rainbow trout fishery, and a greater kokanee fishery.
Lake trout begin their lives primarily feeding upon small aquatic invertebrates however as they develop and attain about 15 to 18 inches in size their food plan shifts to primarily composed of different fish. These forage fish contains the rainbow trout and kokanee in Boulder Lake. With an overabundance of smaller lake trout, all these mouths are placing plenty of stress on the rainbow trout and kokanee fisheries. These are simply as precious to the lake so fisheries administration is making an attempt to kill two birds with one stone. More rainbow trout and kokanee and bigger lake trout with extra trophy fish with good physique situation.
Now that winter is right here together with the exhausting water, it’s a nice time to focus on the lake trout by the ice. The smaller fish below 24 inches make an ideal meal; fried, broiled, baked, or smoked. Anglers can harvest as much as six lake trout per day from Boulder Lake. Only one of many six fish can exceed 24 inches in size. Boulder Lake is a part of Wyoming’s particular winter ice fishing provision that lets anglers use as much as six traces at a time when fishing by the ice.