Kokanee salmon ready to put on a show
Best places to see bright-red salmon this fall
Trees aren’t the only parts of Utah that turn a brilliant shade of red in the fall: so do kokanee salmon.
In September, kokanee—which are a shade of silver most of the year—change to a fluorescent red prior to traveling up rivers and streams to spawn. Their bright-red color makes the salmon easy to spot in the waters where they spawn.
To celebrate the annual spawn, the Division of Wildlife Resources is holding free viewing events at four locations in Utah. If you’d like to see kokanee on your own, two additional sites are great places to visit.
Free viewing events
Sept. 15
North-central Utah
Jordanelle Reservoir
This will be the first year a kokanee salmon viewing event has been held at the Rock Cliff Recreation Area at Jordanelle Reservoir. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. If you attend, you’ll see bright-red salmon make their way up the Provo River.
The Rock Cliff Recreation Area is on the eastern tip of Jordanelle Reservoir, two miles west of Francis.
Strawberry Reservoir
The event will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) visitor center at Strawberry Reservoir. The visitor center is along U.S. Highway 40, about 20 miles southeast of Heber City.
If you attend the event, you’ll see some salmon in the Strawberry River next to the visitor center. But, if you walk to the fish trap and egg-taking facility behind the visitor center, you’ll see hundreds of the bright-red fish.
DWR biologists will be available at the facility to show you the salmon and talk with you about the peculiar life cycle of the fish.
“Kokanee are easily visible in the river at the visitor center,” says Scott Root, regional conservation outreach manager for the DWR. “Once you arrive at the fish trap, you can ask questions about the salmon. If you want, you can even touch one.”
If you can’t attend the Sept. 15 event, Root says salmon should be visible in the Strawberry River, and other tributaries to Strawberry, from now until the first part of October.
For more information about either event, call the DWR’s Central Region office at 801-491-5678.
Northeastern Utah
Sheep Creek
Sheep Creek, a tributary to Flaming Gorge Reservoir, is about six miles south of Manila. Depending on where the salmon are located, the event will be held either at the Scenic Byway turnout where Sheep Creek crosses under state Route 44, or near the campgrounds located along Sheep Creek. “Just watch for signs that we’ll post along SR 44,” says Tonya Kieffer-Selby, regional conservation outreach manager for the DWR. “You’ll be able to see the signs, no matter which direction on SR 44 you’re traveling.”
Kieffer-Selby says you should be able to see really good numbers of kokanee in their bright-red spawning colors. “Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, wild turkeys, sandhill cranes, red-tailed hawks, song birds, squirrels and a variety of other wildlife have greeted those who have attended the event in the past,” she says. “If you have a pair of binoculars, a camera or a spotting scope, make sure to bring it with you.”
DWR outreach staff and biologists will be at the site between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Display materials will be on hand that will help you see the kokanee and interpret their behavior. The biologists will also have a spotting scope available in case bighorn sheep visit the area, which they usually do during Kokanee Salmon Day.
For more information, call the DWRs Northeastern Region office at 435-781-9453.
Oct. 9
East-central Utah
Electric Lake
Upper Huntington Creek and Boulger Creek are two major tributaries to Electric Lake where kokanee salmon may spawn each year. These creeks are typically shallow, making the bright-red salmon easy to see.
DWR biologists and outreach staff are hosting a viewing event at Electric Lake on Oct. 9 from 4 to 6 p.m. Please meet them at the boat ramp on the north end of the reservoir, where they’ll answer your questions and direct you to the best areas to see the salmon.
“The annual kokanee salmon spawn is a special wildlife viewing opportunity that many residents of east-central Utah aren’t aware of,” says Morgan Jacobsen, regional conservation outreach manager for the DWR. “We hope wildlife enthusiasts will come enjoy the fall colors at Electric Lake, including the red salmon.”
Electric Lake is 54 miles west of Price and 22 miles east of Fairview, along Highway 264 in the Manti-La Sal National Forest. If you have questions about the event, call the DWR’s Southeastern Region office at 435-613-3707.
See salmon on your own
Two places in northern and southern Utah are great places to see salmon on your own.
Northern Utah
Causey Reservoir
The best place to see kokanee at Causey Reservoir is the Right Hand Fork of the Ogden River. You can paddle to the spot after launching a kayak or canoe on the reservoir, or you can hike to the spot from the Skull Crack trailhead on the south side of the reservoir. After leaving the trailhead, hike about two miles to the viewing site. Be aware that rattlesnake sightings are common along the trail.
“If you paddle to the viewing site,” says DWR Regional Conservation Outreach Manager Phil Douglass, “make sure you wear shoes that you don’t mind getting a little muddy. You’ll have to leave your kayak or canoe, and do a small bit of walking, to reach the site.”
Douglass says the kokanee spawn starts in early September and reaches its peak by the middle of the month. “About 10 days after reaching its peak,” he says, “the spawn ends.”
Causey Reservoir is 11 miles east of Huntsville. For more information, call the DWR’s Northern Region office at 801-476-2740.
South-central Utah
Fish Lake
Twin Creeks is the best tributary at the lake to visit. The stream is located near the Fish Lake Lodge on the lake’s west side. “Good parking is available in a paved parking lot just north of Twin Creeks,” says Phil Tuttle, regional conservation outreach manager for the DWR. “The best time to see salmon is from about mid-September through October.”
Fish Lake is about 17 miles northeast of Koosharem. For more information, call the DWR’s Southern Region office at 435-865-6100.
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Learn how to hunt waterfowl at free clinic
Clinic happens Sept. 8
Elmo -- You can sharpen your waterfowl hunting skills at a free clinic on Sept. 8. And—if you’re 14 years of age or younger—you might even win a free 20-gauge shotgun.
The Division of Wildlife Resources, the Desert Ducks chapter of Ducks Unlimited and Sportsman’s Warehouse are hosting the clinic at the Desert Lake Waterfowl Management Area east of Elmo. Both youth and adult hunters are invited to attend. The clinic runs from 8 a.m. – noon.
“The clinic will feature plenty of fun and practical exercises for both new and experienced hunters,” says Walt Maldonado, DWR wildlife recreation specialist in southeastern Utah. “The clinic has something for everyone.”
You can learn several skills at the clinic, including how to shoot, call ducks, train dogs and arrange duck decoys. Youth participants can also shoot clay pigeons from a duck blind. The targets will be thrown at various angles to simulate the different types of shots waterfowl hunters encounter in the field.
A variety of shotguns will be available for adults and youth to use. You’ll learn which firearms and ammunition are best for hunting ducks and geese, proper shooting technique, and other skills necessary for a safe and successful hunt.
The clinic will culminate in a duck calling contest, and prizes will be awarded. Inexperienced duck callers will get a crash course and time to practice before the contest starts. The clinic will also include a drawing for a 20-gauge shotgun for a lucky youth 14 years of age or younger.
The clinic is free, but you must register to attend. To sign up, visit http://bit.ly/waterfowl_clinic.
If you have questions about the clinic, call the DWR’s Southeastern Region office at 435-613-3707.
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Wildlife Board approves more cougar hunting permits
Salt Lake City -- Plenty of cougars mean additional chances to hunt the big cats in Utah.
During an Aug. 30 meeting in Salt Lake City, members of the Utah Wildlife Board—a panel of seven citizens appointed by the governor—approved a slight increase in the number of cougars hunters can take during the state’s upcoming season.
During the 2017 – 2018 season, hunters were allowed to take 581 cougars. During the upcoming season, hunters can take 642.
The number of cougars that are taken will actually be lower than 642, though. For example, 456 cougars were taken this past season, even though hunters were allowed to take 581.
“Cougars are tough to hunt,” says Darren DeBloois, game mammals coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources. “Not every hunter who gets a permit will take one.”
You can apply for a cougar hunting permit starting Sept. 18. The cougar hunting rules the board approved will be available in the 2018 – 2019 Utah Cougar Guidebook. The free guidebook should be available at www.wildlife.utah.gov/guidebooks by Sept. 14.
Cougar population
DeBloois says Utah’s cougar population is doing well, with lots of the big cats found across the state. He appreciates the role cougar hunters play, both in helping protect deer, bighorn sheep and livestock from cougars and providing wildlife biologists with valuable information that helps them manage the population.
DeBloois says those who take a cougar must bring the animal to a DWR biologist or a conservation officer. “The first thing we do is examine the animal to see if it’s a male or a female,” he says. “Next, we determine the animal’s age by removing and analyzing one of its teeth.”
DeBloois says the number of females and the number of adults in a cougar population are the key factors in keeping the population healthy and strong.
“A male cougar will breed with several females,” he says, “so keeping plenty of females in the population is important. The number of adults is also important. A healthy population will have plenty of adults. If the number of adults starts to decline, we know the overall number of cougars in the population is declining too.”
Utah’s Cougar Management Plan provides guidelines that help ensure the state has a healthy and stable cougar population. The two major guidelines are the number of female cougars hunters take—compared to the number of males—and the number of cougars taken that are five years of age or older.
The plan says not more than 40 percent of the cougars hunters take can be females. And at least 15 percent of the cougars taken must be five years of age or older.
During the 2017 – 2018 season, only 32 percent of the cougars taken were females. And 16 percent of the cougars taken were five years of age or older.
“Utah’s cougar population has plenty of females in it,” DeBloois says, “and plenty of adults too. We’re pleased the population is doing so well. These finely tuned predators are an important part of the state’s ecosystem.”
If you have questions about hunting cougars in Utah, call the nearest DWR office or the DWR’s Salt Lake City office at 801-538-4700.
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Fishing changes proposed for 2019 and 2020
Biologists with the Division of Wildlife Resources are recommending changes that will affect anglers in Utah for the next two years. If the changes are approved, you’d be allowed to use corn as bait at all of Utah’s fishing waters, keep more lake trout at Flaming Gorge Reservoir, enjoy a two-day possession limit statewide, and have a better chance at catching big channel catfish at Cutler Reservoir.
And that’s just the start. The biologists are recommending numerous changes for the 2019 and 2020 fishing seasons. You can see all of their recommendations at www.wildlife.utah.gov/public_meetings/rac/2018-09_rac_packet.pdf.
Learn more, share your ideas
After you’ve reviewed the ideas, you can share your thoughts with your Regional Advisory Council members by attending your upcoming RAC meeting or by sending an email to them.
RAC chairmen will share the input they receive with members of the Utah Wildlife Board when the board meets in Salt Lake City on Sept. 27 to approve rules for Utah’s 2019 and 2020 fishing seasons.
Dates, times and locations for the RAC meetings are as follows:
Central Region
Sept. 4
6:30 p.m.
Springville Civic Center
110 S. Main St.
Springville
Northern Region
Sept. 5
6 p.m.
Brigham City Community Center
24 N. 300 W.
Brigham City
Southern Region
Sept. 11
7 p.m.
Hurricane Community Center
63 S. 100 W.
Hurricane
Southeastern Region
Sept. 12
6:30 p.m.
John Wesley Powell Museum
1765 E. Main St.
Green River
Northeastern Region
Sept. 13
6:30 p.m.
DWR Northeastern Region Office
318 N. Vernal Ave.
Vernal
You can also provide your comments to your RAC via email. Email addresses for your RAC members are available at www.wildlife.utah.gov/dwr/rac-members.html.
The group each RAC member represents (sportsman, non-consumptive, etc.) is listed under each person’s email address. You should direct your email to the people on the RAC who represent your interest.
Fishing with corn
Over the past two years, anglers have been allowed to use corn on eight lakes and reservoirs in Utah. During that time, DWR conservation officers have kept a close eye on the amount of litter those fishing with corn have left behind. The officers are happy to report that they haven’t seen an impact.
Randy Oplinger, sport fisheries coordinator for the DWR, says anglers who responded to a survey earlier this year had the same observation. “A total of 1,636 of the 4,718 anglers who responded to the survey had fished at one or more of the eight waters in the past two years,” he says. “Only 3% of them had witnessed any kind of negative impact from allowing anglers to use corn as bait.”
If approved by the Utah Wildlife Board, anglers could use corn—at all of Utah’s fishing waters—starting Jan. 1, 2019.
Keep more lake trout at Flaming Gorge
Changes at Flaming Gorge Reservoir would give you more chances to help reduce a growing population of smaller lake trout. Reducing the number of smaller lake trout should help the reservoir return to its ‘glory days’ when it produced some of the largest lake trout in the country in good numbers.
Biologists are recommending that the daily lake trout limit be increased to 12 lake trout, but only one could be over 28 inches long. Currently, anglers are allowed to keep only eight lake trout.
Oplinger says a growing population of smaller lake trout is causing problems for anglers. “The smaller lake trout are competing with kokanee salmon and rainbow trout for food,” he says.
Oplinger says the competition is affecting both the number and size of kokanee and rainbows in the reservoir. “Kokanee and rainbows are the two fish lake trout prey on,” he says. “If we can reduce the number of smaller lake trout, they’ll be more kokanee and rainbows for anglers to catch and for the remaining lake trout to eat.”
Oplinger says Flaming Gorge used to produce good numbers of huge lake trout. “If the increased limit is approved,” he says, “and anglers keep their limits of smaller lake trout, we should see more trophy lake trout caught at the reservoir in the future.”
Two-day possession limit
Some anglers who take the time to travel to Flaming Gorge and Strawberry reservoirs want to spend more than one day fishing before coming home. To give them a chance to keep more fish, DWR biologists are proposing that two-day possession limits be established at both waters. Currently, you may not have more than one daily limit in your possession while fishing at either water.
“With the exception of Flaming Gorge and Strawberry,” Oplinger says, “two-day possession limits are allowed at all of the fishing waters in Utah. We haven’t seen any biological impact on the waters where a two-day possession limit is allowed. We’d like to give anglers who fish Flaming Gorge and Strawberry the same chance those who fish other waters have.”
Bigger catfish
If changes recommended by the biologists are approved, Cutler Reservoir could become ‘the place’ in Utah to catch big channel catfish.
At Cutler and its tributaries, biologists would like to reduce the daily catfish limit to four fish. Reducing the limit from eight fish to four fish would keep more channel cats in the reservoir and allow them to grow to a bigger size.
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Fishing reports - available at http://wildlife.utah.gov/hotspots .
