New Video Shows How Bigger Hatchery Fish Mean Better Angler Success

A video posted on the Idaho Fish and Game website highlights a new approach by Fish and Game fisheries managers that will lead to better success for Idaho anglers. A good share of the hatchery rainbow trout stocked in Idaho's largest still-water fisheries this spring will be twelve inches instead of the standard of ten inches. Here's a link to the video posted on the Fish and Game website Fisheries Page: https://fishandgame.idaho.gov/content/bigger-fish Fish and Game's rainbow trout hatchery program exists for one sole purpose: putting fish in Idaho waters for anglers to catch. But during the last ten years, the cost of raising fish has skyrocketed. While the cost of fish food has increased by more than 150 percent, funding for the hatchery program has remained stagnant. In 2011, managers reduced fish production of put-and-take rainbow trout by 18 percent to keep the program within budget. At the same time they started tracking fish that anglers caught as part of a program called "Tag-You're-It". Fisheries researchers tagged thousands of fish over a four year period, and tracked the tags with the help from anglers. "We tagged a bunch of fish and put those fish out there, and essentially let the anglers do the work in returning that information to us through our hotline and our website," said Senior Fisheries Research Biologist John Cassinelli. "So that has given us this large database." That database showed that twelve inch rainbow trout are more likely to be caught than ten inch trout. This knowledge has allowed researchers to reorganize the hatchery rainbow trout program in a way that puts larger trout in the creels of Idaho anglers without increasing the cost of the hatchery program. The science and math show that for every limit of six rainbow trout anglers catch, Fish and Game must stock roughly 18 ten inch trout. When 12 inch trout are stocked in the same waters, only 11 fish are needed for each six fish limit, on average. Regardless of how many trout managers stock, the true measure of success for the hatchery program is how many trout anglers catch. As the program expands over the next 16 months, managers will be putting more twelve inch rainbows into most of Idaho's large still-water fisheries. For monthly updates on fish stocking region by region, visit: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/fish/stocking/