July 2023 - 42

It also costs more to feed and house fish that
have to grow bigger before being stocked.
And, Game and Fish can stock more small
fish in a body of water at a given time. But
if the walleye eat the small trout, then it's an
exercise in futility.
The solution is to stock larger trout where
there are walleye, larger meaning catchable-size
fish that average about 8-9 inches
long.
Dalton Bonds, fisheries technician for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, holds a walleye caught during gill
netting at Seminoe Reservoir in June. (Photo by Janet Milek/WGFD)
" The trade off there is there's a finite
amount of fish that size the hatcheries can
produce, " Hahn said. " We continually sample
and evaluate the survival of trout in trying to
adjust our stocking numbers. "
Hahn added as a rule of thumb, a 7-inch
stocked trout is susceptible to being eaten
by a 14-inch walleye, an 8-inch trout by a
16-inch walleye, etc.
" There are typically a lot of 14-inch walleye
in Alcova, Pathfinder and Seminoe and that
can impact trout survival, " Hahn said.
Travis Trimble, Game and Fish assistant
fish culture supervisor, said last year Game
and Fish stocked 147,000 catchable-size
trout in Seminoe, 136,000 in Pathfinder,
132,000 in Boysen and 67,000 in Alcova.
Mavrakis said trout stocking at DeSmet went
from several hundred thousand per year of
fingerling-size fish to about 100,000 each
year with bigger fish.
The juggling act also spills over to Game
and Fish's hatchery system to balance raising
small fish and catchable-size fish for not
only the needs for two-story fisheries but also
around the state.
" Our hatcheries are currently running as
efficiently as possible, " Trimble said. " We
could raise more catchable-size fish, but some
of the smaller fish requested would get cut
out of the mix. "
OTHER FISH HELP
Rainbow trout is the primary trout species in
Whitney Peters, fisheries technician for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, sets up a gill net to survey fish in
Seminoe Reservoir. (Photo by Janet Milek/WGFD)
42 | July 2023
Wyoming's two-story fisheries. However, Lake
DeSmet also has cutthroat and brown trout.
Some reservoirs recently stocked kokanee
salmon, but more data is needed to determine
if that species will successfully coexist with
other trout and walleye.
Kokanee were first stocked in Lake DeSmet
in 2019, and early signs are positive that the
salmon and walleye can coexist. The first
kokanee stocked were 3-4 inches long, and
Mavrakis said he didn't expect to see those
fish again.
" But they're doing great, " he said. " The

July 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2023

July 2023 - 1
July 2023 - 2
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