WGFD update Trout Unlimited on river, fisheries

Members of the Platte Valley Trout Unlimited Chapter and Wyoming Game and Fish (WGFD) met Thursday to discuss both river work and fish sampling within the southeast Wyoming region.

The evening's program at Saratoga Resort and Spa featured an update on river work along the Encampment River, and an assessment of the fisheries in the Upper Platte River Valley. Results from last year's electrofishing on the North Platte downstream from Pick Bridge were also shown and discussed in detail.

Wyoming Game and Fish reports most recent project

Christina Barrineau, Fish Habitat Biologist with the WGFD, spoke about river restoration along the Encampment River. The most recently completed project done last fall was intended to restore a degraded portion of the river, on Brush Creek-owned land, by building more bank land along the river with the use of rocks, wood and dirt.

The project from last year was to make the portion of the river narrower and straighter, and, therefore, bring the water table up, stabilize the banks, create deeper pools and replace vegetation to provide overhead cover for fish.

"We were putting those in because we were narrowing up the channel, deepening the channel and creating that woody debris habitat for fish," Barrineau said. "We finished all that, and now what we've got to go for is riparian habitat and getting things to green up around that. That's going to be a challenge because we're left with cobble, which isn't a great medium for grass to grown on or trees. It was probably the end of September we finished it, and we weren't really out there in October, except to do some vegetation work."

Upcoming project for

Wyoming Game and Fish

"Now we're starting river work on the next property downstream, and we're starting right below the fence line," Barrineau said. "We're not skipping any segment there, and it's really project after project on that river right now. We're going to be doing some riparian habitat work this summer and fall for some river work we've already done last year, and we're doing some more river restoration as well this year. It's keeping me busy and on my toes, and constantly learning about what's going to work for that system."

Barrineau said more channel, riparian and greening work will take place along the river as part of the new project, with the same goal in mind as what was held last fall.

"That will be more channel work that we'll be doing on that property, and it will be channel as well as riparian," she said. "It's about 1,200 feet of channel that we'll do this fall. It's a different landowner, and we'll be working with a different family. It will be the same concepts of narrowing the river, creating deeper pools, creating pools with woody debris and creating good hangouts for fish."

Barrineau said she expects higher water during the upcoming river project, which she said could begin this September.

"We'll be moving downstream and that will start this fall, probably September," she said. "I'm expecting higher water this year, which will last longer, so that impacts our construction timing."

Electrofishing results

WGFD Fisheries Biologist Steve Gale talked about the different areas where he and other WGFD officials did electrofishing, as part of their fish population estimate conduction. During last year's outdoor conducting, Gale and other WGFD representatives used large nets and specialized electrical equipment to catch the fish for sampling.

The purpose of the process was to study fish habitat changes, and how many or which kind of fish thrived in each area.

"What's great about coming to these Trout Unlimited meetings annually and giving them updates is that they have some background about our historical sampling, compared to what we're finding now," Gale said. "They're always interested to see the population trends and how they've changed from the last time we sampled it, whether it was last year or five years ago. A lot of the folks here and a lot of the chapter members know these fisheries as well or better than we do. It's a give and take, so we give them information that we get, and we get a lot of great information in return."

Gale said he was pleased to receive much audience feedback, for the chance to hear possible unheard information.

"That's why I gave an update about everywhere that we sampled within the Upper North Platte River drainage, because it lets them know where we've been and maybe where we haven't," he said. "For example, they might be able to tell me something about Hog Park Reservoir that we didn't see in our sampling. It's just a great opportunity to exchange information between people that are out upon fishing these waters, and us when we do our biological sampling."

Fish sampling areas

Areas where the fish sampling estimates were conducted included the North Platte River near Pick Bridge, Rob Roy Reservoir, Hog Park Reservoir, Saratoga Lake, Good Reservoir, Hayden Silver Lake, Lower Missouri Lake, Upper Missouri Lake, Phantom Lake, Dipper Lake, Big Creek, Douglas Creek, above Lake Creek, below Pelton Creek, below Rob Roy, and the Baggott Rocks area of the Encampment River.

Pick Bridge

For the Pick Bridge area sampled in July, there were 646 trout captured over three days of sampling, and a population estimate of 868 trout per mile and 546-pounds of trout per mile. Out of the 646 trout caught, 81-percent caught were brown trout, and the remaining 29-percent were rainbow trout.

From the brown trout caught at Pick Bridge, the mean length was 9.9 inches and the length range went from 4.2 to 23.2 inches. The rainbow trout mean length was 8.4 inches, with a range from 3.4 to 21.4 inches.

Reservoir Trout

For other findings elsewhere, Gale said the mean rainbow trout caught at Rob Roy was 12.9 inches long, while the mean rainbow trout caught at Hog Park was 9.8 inches long. He also said Good Reservoir's mean length for brook trout 14.5 inches.

Big Creek

For Big Creek, Gale said 2013's sampling statistics showed 764 trout per mile and 248 pounds per mile, which was both up and down from 2010's stats of 538 trout per mile and 273 pounds per mile. He said Big Creek was mostly dominated by brown trout at the time of last year's sampling.

"We had lots of places that we went and sampled," Gale said. "We're quite busy throughout the year, and we try to really get to all the communities within the Laramie region and give updates like this about different sampling we did. We like to exchange information with those folks as well, whether it's people from Wheatland, Torrington, Cheyenne or elsewhere."

No drastic changes

Gale said it was positive thing to not see any drastic changes during last year's sampling.

"The fisheries within this Platte Valley are special and unique, and it's great when things don't change very much over time," he said. "It means we have a relatively healthy landscape right now, so it's actually an OK thing that we're not seeing huge population level changes from year to year. We already started sampling throughout outside of Laramie on lakes that have just been frozen, so we're already out in the field. We usually move over here in the Valley after high water."

Gale said he and other WGFD officials plan to sample Saratoga Lake and the North Platte River, which he called important areas. He said they plan to also sample new areas for 2014 and end the process in October, the time when he said ice starts coming in.

"The Laramie region is 13,000 square miles, with almost 6,000 miles of streams and rivers, and 300 lakes and reservoirs," Gale said. "It's a lot, so we don't often visit the same places year to year. There are some that we do, if they're more important waters, and the ones that we stock with fish are ones that are important to sample. We want to make sure we're using that resource wisely."