spectr17
09-30-2002, 02:39 AM
KOKANEE SALMON STATE RECORD FALLS FOUR TIMES IN FOUR WEEKS THIS SUMMER
Contact: Jeff Obrecht
For Immediate Release
WGFD
9/20/02
GREEN RIVER – Hardly before the three anglers had time to brag to their cronies and have the ink dry on their certificates this July, their kokanee salmon state record had passed into other hands.
Starting with a 5.75-pounder July 3 and culminating with the reigning state record, a 6.04-pounder landed July 30, the record for Wyoming’s only salmon was broken four times this July at Flaming Gorge Reservoir.
That has anglers asking: “Why did the former record stand six years and then get shattered so many times it practically wore out the scale at the Buckboard Marina?”
“That’s a good question,” says Ron Carey, Game and Fish Department fisheries biologist in Green River. “As far as sheer numbers of kokanee, the overall population is down. Rainbows are down, too. So there’s more plankton available for the fish, and that’s probably helping them grow bigger. That’s the best theory we have on the situation.”
All the record fish this summer appear to be “early run” or early spawning kokanee, Carey said. The early run population in the upper end of Flaming Gorge was started from G&F hatchery stocks. Kokanee are fall spawners.
“Normally these fish are accessible to anglers up to September, but very few have been caught since the first of August,” he said.
He adds there also are more 4-year-old fish in the population this year, because a larger than typical number of 3-year-olds lived an extra year. Kokanee spawn and die at either 3 or 4 years old. More fish living to four, increased the number of lunkers in the population, he said.
The population may be down, but the current state record holder is sky high about the results of only his third fishing trip ever. Seventeen-year-old Gary Anderson of Kingsburg, Calif. came to Wyoming to perform for audiences wanting to hear spiritual music, and he returned as not just as a more experienced trombone player, but as a state record angler.
“It was amazing, a one in a million chance to catch that fish,” the high school senior said of the kokanee tricked by a pink needlefish about 50 feet deep at 10:30 a.m.
A singer with his gospel group caught the only other fish that morning, a rainbow. But the young Californians give the credit for the whole experience to Bob Foley. The Green River man served as their host father and took the teenagers fishing. This 24-inch long fish, with a 15-inch girth will end up on Foley’s wall.
It was also a Californian who started this summer’s record breaking with the 5.75-pound fish July 3. The Lodi, Calif. man held the mark until July 25 when Wanda Holmes of Rock Springs broke it by three hundredths of a pound.
She caught her short-lived state record around 11 a.m. on a light green squid, also about 50 feet down. It jumped twice and Wanda and husband, Mike, knew they had something special. Coincidently, shortly after boating the 25.5-incher they saw Biologist Carey on the reservoir who weighed the fish and urged them to get immediately to an official scale.
Easier said than done as their trailer blew a tire on the way from Squaw Hollow to the Buckboard Marina. Wanting to save time to minimize the fish dehydrating, they went to just unhook the trailer, but the key broke in the trailer lock. Forced to change the tire, the jack froze in the up position. Forced to drive off it, they finally got to the scale after a 45-minute delay, which probably caused the fish to lose an ounce or two.
“It was quite an ordeal, but that special fish was worth the effort,” Wanda said of the kokanee that’s already hanging on their wall.
Forty-eight hours later a West Jordan, Utah boy boated a 5.93-pounder. He was the record holder for the three days until Foley guided young Anderson to the current record.
The world record kokanee weighed 9 pounds 6 ounces and came out of Okanagan Lake, British Columbia in June 1988.
Contact: Jeff Obrecht
For Immediate Release
WGFD
9/20/02
GREEN RIVER – Hardly before the three anglers had time to brag to their cronies and have the ink dry on their certificates this July, their kokanee salmon state record had passed into other hands.
Starting with a 5.75-pounder July 3 and culminating with the reigning state record, a 6.04-pounder landed July 30, the record for Wyoming’s only salmon was broken four times this July at Flaming Gorge Reservoir.
That has anglers asking: “Why did the former record stand six years and then get shattered so many times it practically wore out the scale at the Buckboard Marina?”
“That’s a good question,” says Ron Carey, Game and Fish Department fisheries biologist in Green River. “As far as sheer numbers of kokanee, the overall population is down. Rainbows are down, too. So there’s more plankton available for the fish, and that’s probably helping them grow bigger. That’s the best theory we have on the situation.”
All the record fish this summer appear to be “early run” or early spawning kokanee, Carey said. The early run population in the upper end of Flaming Gorge was started from G&F hatchery stocks. Kokanee are fall spawners.
“Normally these fish are accessible to anglers up to September, but very few have been caught since the first of August,” he said.
He adds there also are more 4-year-old fish in the population this year, because a larger than typical number of 3-year-olds lived an extra year. Kokanee spawn and die at either 3 or 4 years old. More fish living to four, increased the number of lunkers in the population, he said.
The population may be down, but the current state record holder is sky high about the results of only his third fishing trip ever. Seventeen-year-old Gary Anderson of Kingsburg, Calif. came to Wyoming to perform for audiences wanting to hear spiritual music, and he returned as not just as a more experienced trombone player, but as a state record angler.
“It was amazing, a one in a million chance to catch that fish,” the high school senior said of the kokanee tricked by a pink needlefish about 50 feet deep at 10:30 a.m.
A singer with his gospel group caught the only other fish that morning, a rainbow. But the young Californians give the credit for the whole experience to Bob Foley. The Green River man served as their host father and took the teenagers fishing. This 24-inch long fish, with a 15-inch girth will end up on Foley’s wall.
It was also a Californian who started this summer’s record breaking with the 5.75-pound fish July 3. The Lodi, Calif. man held the mark until July 25 when Wanda Holmes of Rock Springs broke it by three hundredths of a pound.
She caught her short-lived state record around 11 a.m. on a light green squid, also about 50 feet down. It jumped twice and Wanda and husband, Mike, knew they had something special. Coincidently, shortly after boating the 25.5-incher they saw Biologist Carey on the reservoir who weighed the fish and urged them to get immediately to an official scale.
Easier said than done as their trailer blew a tire on the way from Squaw Hollow to the Buckboard Marina. Wanting to save time to minimize the fish dehydrating, they went to just unhook the trailer, but the key broke in the trailer lock. Forced to change the tire, the jack froze in the up position. Forced to drive off it, they finally got to the scale after a 45-minute delay, which probably caused the fish to lose an ounce or two.
“It was quite an ordeal, but that special fish was worth the effort,” Wanda said of the kokanee that’s already hanging on their wall.
Forty-eight hours later a West Jordan, Utah boy boated a 5.93-pounder. He was the record holder for the three days until Foley guided young Anderson to the current record.
The world record kokanee weighed 9 pounds 6 ounces and came out of Okanagan Lake, British Columbia in June 1988.