Stocking to fix Antero fish trouble!
By The Denver Post
Article Last Updated:
Not so good, not all bad. That's the long-awaited overview on fish survival at Antero Reservoir, where severe winter conditions caused the death of large numbers of trout.
A Colorado Division of Wildlife netting survey revealed just 53 percent of the number of trout counted in April 2007. Fish captured this week generally were smaller than a year ago, mostly 8 to 10 inches with a scattering of large specimens. Splake, cutthroat-rainbow hybrids and Snake River cutthroat survived far better than the large rainbows that caused so much angler excitement last summer.
"We lost most of the larger 18- to 24-inch rainbows," biologist Jeff Spohn lamented.
Spohn emphasized that the numerical reduction reflects a variety of factors beyond winter kill: natural mortality, both summer and winter angler harvest and hooking mortality.
The biologist already has planted 36,000 subcatchable rainbow trout and 100,000 fingerling brown trout.
Spohn plans to stock additional catchable rainbows when supplies are available and predicts a return to good fishing by autumn.
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