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Author Topic: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH  (Read 227363 times)

Offline augergas

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #60 on: Jan 31, 2011, 03:27 PM »
Randy Merrit's 30 pound Laker was 40 years old he was told by the Game and fish

seriously? I had no idea that fish could live that long.

Offline WYIfish

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #61 on: Jan 31, 2011, 04:59 PM »

Any news on the big sandy res. getting any fish?????????????????????
Thread killer

Offline LT

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #62 on: Feb 01, 2011, 11:22 AM »
Per Lander Warden Hovinga this am, "Yes, you may continue fishing provided you catch-and-release on any fish you catch thereafter, however, an ethics question arises, if you gill a fish, you are faced with the dilemma of going over the limit or releasing a fish you know will die." Best method might be practicing catch and release on your last fish in a creel limit. There, maybe we can get back to actual G&F questions again  :tipup:
         

Offline WGFDFishBioLander

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #63 on: Feb 02, 2011, 09:01 AM »
Randy Merrit's 30 pound Laker was 40 years old he was told by the Game and fish

As with most fish species, growth rates can be highly variable.  Factors such as availability of food, water temperatures, length of growing season, and genetics all play a factor.  Lake trout are one of the longer lived species.  We aged a 32.2 inch lake trout from a high mountain lake this past summer. It was 51 years old.

Offline WGFDFishBioLander

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #64 on: Feb 02, 2011, 09:41 AM »
I know as biologists you guys spend quite a lot of time on the water collecting data. Netting, shocking,water sampling, creel surveys, and more I am sure I missed.

My question concerns creel surveys.  I spend quite a bit of time fishing year round, and can only remember being surveyed once in the last 3 years. I realize that the people doing creel work can not be all places at all times.

I wondered what % of the data collected is supplied by creel surveys , or what weight is given to creel survey data ?
Has there ever been any thought given to anglers being given a survey form(similar to a big game survey) at the time they purchase their license to kind of keep a log of fishing activity, or an online survey ?
Would this kind of information be usefull ?
Or would it be unreliable ? cost prohibitive ? lacking in enough participation to make it usefull



The science of surveying anglers and their catch is one of the major tools utilized by fisheries managers throughout North America.  The type, complexity, and extent of surveys vary widely.  Intensive creel surveys can provide estimates of total harvest and total pressure. We call these "programmed creel surveys" and they follow accepted statistical sampling theory in an attempt to achieve estimators of interest that are unbiased and precise.  These require a lot of manpower, and for large waters, usually entail the use of aircraft to make instantaneous counts of numbers of anglers.  Subsequently, they are very expensive and seldom used.  The last programmed creel survey at Boysen was done in 1992, and we have no plans to do another anytime soon.  Currently we utilize spot creel surveys at Boysen Reservoir and a few other waters within the Lander Region.  For Boysen, this involves about 4 survey days/month from April through July.  While it does not provide harvest estimates or estimates of number of anglers, it does allow us to estimate catch rates for the various sport fish in the reservoir.  These catch rates are but one way we can gage how our various populatiions are doing.  Remember though, catch rates are often not a direct indicator of population size.  Walleye is an example.  Angler catch rates seem to be more associated with how hungry the walleye are (how much forage is available) rather than how many walleye are in the reservoir. 
The other part of your question dealt with having anglers collect their own data.  This is an option and it has been utilized in the past.  The Department produced some Angler Diary booklets - we still have some at the Lander office, but I'm not sure what the availability is elsewhere.  The problem with this type of data collection deals with the bias that is involved.  The people that choose to participate in such a program are not a random subsample of the angling public.  They are usually those with a higher interest, those who fish more often than the average angler, and those that have a higher catch rate.  Also, there is a tendancy (usually not intentional) for anglers not to make an entry in their log/diary for days that they were unsuccessful.
Hope I answered your questions.

Offline WYeyes

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #65 on: Feb 02, 2011, 09:49 AM »
The science of surveying anglers and their catch is one of the major tools utilized by fisheries managers throughout North America.  The type, complexity, and extent of surveys vary widely.  Intensive creel surveys can provide estimates of total harvest and total pressure. We call these "programmed creel surveys" and they follow accepted statistical sampling theory in an attempt to achieve estimators of interest that are unbiased and precise.  These require a lot of manpower, and for large waters, usually entail the use of aircraft to make instantaneous counts of numbers of anglers.  Subsequently, they are very expensive and seldom used.  The last programmed creel survey at Boysen was done in 1992, and we have no plans to do another anytime soon.  Currently we utilize spot creel surveys at Boysen Reservoir and a few other waters within the Lander Region.  For Boysen, this involves about 4 survey days/month from April through July.  While it does not provide harvest estimates or estimates of number of anglers, it does allow us to estimate catch rates for the various sport fish in the reservoir.  These catch rates are but one way we can gage how our various populatiions are doing.  Remember though, catch rates are often not a direct indicator of population size.  Walleye is an example.  Angler catch rates seem to be more associated with how hungry the walleye are (how much forage is available) rather than how many walleye are in the reservoir. 
The other part of your question dealt with having anglers collect their own data.  This is an option and it has been utilized in the past.  The Department produced some Angler Diary booklets - we still have some at the Lander office, but I'm not sure what the availability is elsewhere.  The problem with this type of data collection deals with the bias that is involved.  The people that choose to participate in such a program are not a random subsample of the angling public.  They are usually those with a higher interest, those who fish more often than the average angler, and those that have a higher catch rate.  Also, there is a tendancy (usually not intentional) for anglers not to make an entry in their log/diary for days that they were unsuccessful.
Hope I answered your questions.


Thank you for your answer. That answered my questions.

Offline GilletteRandy

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #66 on: Feb 02, 2011, 10:44 AM »
Game and Fish folk, in your opinion, will the below 0 temps we've experienced recently effect the fishing any? Would you think the fish may travel to deeper portions of the lake, or maybe not be as active?

Offline WGFDFishBioLander

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #67 on: Feb 03, 2011, 09:01 AM »
Game and Fish folk, in your opinion, will the below 0 temps we've experienced recently effect the fishing any? Would you think the fish may travel to deeper portions of the lake, or maybe not be as active?

Generally, I don't believe you should expect the cold temperatures to effect the fishing, at least from the fish's perspective.  The anglers on the other hand may be faced with thicker ice and the need to bring an extra thermos of coffee - or whatever else you might utilize to keep warm.  The water temperatures will not be altered by the cold air temperatures.  Water is the most dense or heaviest at 4 degrees C or 39 degrees F.  Therefore the water at the bottom of the lake is at 4 and it drops to 0 degrees just below the ice.  Very cold air temperatures will result in heat loss from the ice on the surface which causes additional freezing at the ice/water interface.  So, generally speaking, the only change from the sub-zero weather will be just below the surface of the ice.  An exception might be where a river flows into a lake or reservoir.  Cold air temperatures can effect the temperature of the river water and you might therefore expect a change in how the water reacts with the receiving lake water.  This would be different for each lake and is very difficult to predict how it might change fish behavior.

Offline WYeyes

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #68 on: Feb 03, 2011, 09:23 AM »
That was pretty interesting about the 51 year old lake trout.

Do you have any records that show ages of walleye in Boysen for fish 30" and up ? And ages of oldest fish sampled there, any species ? And what would they be ?  Thanks

Offline jopes

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #69 on: Feb 03, 2011, 04:19 PM »
On a side note, I see the warden in this area again I will ask him as well to join.
Don

Offline LT

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #70 on: Feb 03, 2011, 04:21 PM »
That'sll be a total of three Wardens, cool  ;D
         

Offline 7lazy77

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #71 on: Feb 04, 2011, 09:56 AM »
I plan on an out of state fishing trip where I will purchase minnows & suckers.  If I have any left over, can I just freeze them & use in Wyoming as dead bait??  (I am already aware that I can't bring live bait into WY from another state).  Thanks

Offline MountainMan

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #72 on: Feb 04, 2011, 10:58 AM »
FYI to all. We will be "cleaning up" the thread in an effort to maintain it's original "Q&A" nature. The original intent of the thread was to make it easier for our G&F members to locate our questions, as well as give a centralized location where we could find answers to those questions. Please respect the answers given, and please don't hesitate to start a new, separate thread for any discussion you would like to start.

Thanks! ;D

Offline sportsman234

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #73 on: Feb 04, 2011, 03:20 PM »
To the Laramie crew, what is wrong with Lake Hattie? No one is catching much of anything out there and the contest in January sort of proved that. It would appear stocking needs to be a priority there as catch rates are dismal to the extreme. Thanks

Offline POk3s

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #74 on: Feb 04, 2011, 03:58 PM »
Maybe someone will be able to answer this. I don't know if we have anyone from over here in the Green River/Rock Springs area but here it goes.

Is there any way G&F knows at least an idea of when the ling population will stablize? Will it take until virtually all of the small fish/crayfish are out of the Gorge before the ling population finally starts to decline?? Just looking for any kind of answers the G&F has instead of just the general public guessing.
Trent Williams
When hell freezes over, I’ll ice fish there too!

Offline olefish

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #75 on: Feb 04, 2011, 05:08 PM »
Fish population fluctuations

The fish populations seem to cycle a lot in the Wyoming waters I fish..  An example of my personal experience was during the low water years we caught walleyes and trout as fast as we could get crank baits in the water.  Then we had one good water year and for the next few years we had great perch fishing and we also started catching bull heads every trip.  Then last year the perch and trout numbers dropped off and I have not caught a bull head in two years. We have caught walleyes every year we just have to adjust our methods.   So  does the G&F have any idea why the perch and trout fishing has declined in Boysen so much? Also why did we have the big jump in bullhead numbers and then have them just seem like they vanished?  
olefish

Offline outdoorschris

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #76 on: Feb 07, 2011, 12:30 AM »
I know the limits for most fish but is the per species or in general?

Offline fish/hunt4ever

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #77 on: Feb 07, 2011, 12:57 PM »
Just a quick Question for the biologists in Lander.  In lake Camewait I know why the length limit of the bass has been implemented and trying to reduce the number of perch and to try and get larger perch in the lake, but i was wondering if it would be possible to maybe have blue gill or crappie introduced into the lake for another fish to catch in the lake. Since boysen all ready has these species there is no possible way to introduce another fish into this system.  I think that it would be great to have a good panfish lake to take the kids to and to have another option to catch blue gills since sand mesa #1 and #2 where drained and that we lost a great panfish spot to go and fish.  So how can we go about trying to see if the Game and Fish would introduce another fish to a lake.  Plus it would give the bass another food source.  Thanks again for joining the site and helping answer the questions that we all have.

Offline rodrunner

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #78 on: Feb 07, 2011, 10:47 PM »
Fish population fluctuations

The fish populations seem to cycle a lot in the Wyoming waters I fish..  An example of my personal experience was during the low water years we caught walleyes and trout as fast as we could get crank baits in the water.  Then we had one good water year and for the next few years we had great perch fishing and we also started catching bull heads every trip.  Then last year the perch and trout numbers dropped off and I have not caught a bull head in two years. We have caught walleyes every year we just have to adjust our methods.   So  does the G&F have any idea why the perch and trout fishing has declined in Boysen so much? Also why did we have the big jump in bullhead numbers and then have them just seem like they vanished?  

I've expierenced the same results in different waters. Very good question.

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Offline wforbes

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #79 on: Feb 09, 2011, 09:47 AM »
Is yesness pond in casper a youth only lake or is it open to everyone? We have been wondering about this on another thread and would like to know a true answer for sure.
hammer em bud!!! :tipup:

Offline wyomingchad

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #80 on: Feb 09, 2011, 04:49 PM »
Hawk Springs question:

I remember Hawk Springs being a very good walleye fishery.  With many years of low water hopefully behind us, what are your thoughts on the walleye fishery rebounding?  Is there much structure in this lake that the fish can relate to?  Also, do these fish naturaly reproduce or are they all stocked?

Thanks for your time and help

Offline prospector

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #81 on: Feb 09, 2011, 05:05 PM »
wondering if a kid born in Wyoming has to wait ten years to get life time licenses? thank you  :)

Offline Wyofarmer

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #82 on: Feb 09, 2011, 05:42 PM »
wondering if a kid born in Wyoming has to wait ten years to get life time licenses? thank you  :)
:roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:
Rest in peace Don "LT" Brewer

Offline prospector

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #83 on: Feb 09, 2011, 07:46 PM »
:roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:
I know, I know.....but c'mon, its uncle sam :'( :'(

Offline fishaholictaz

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #84 on: Feb 10, 2011, 08:36 AM »
If the kid was born in WY by the time he/she would need a fishing lic. they would have been here 14 years :tipup:
        Get the kids fishing!!

Offline archetype_wyo

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #85 on: Feb 10, 2011, 08:42 AM »
If the kid was born in WY by the time he/she would need a fishing lic. they would have been here 14 years :tipup:


My guess is he wants to buy his son/nephew or other relative or maybe a good family friend's son a lifetime license as a gift beings the money is available. I shouldn't see why you couldn't, unless there's some rule or regulations. I mean it would just be a little redundant until he was 15yrs of age(first year for purchasing a license).
Life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. ~Bill Hicks


Offline WGFFishBio

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #86 on: Feb 10, 2011, 03:51 PM »
wondering if a kid born in Wyoming has to wait ten years to get life time licenses? thank you  :)
Yes, anybody, child or adult, has to reside in the State of Wyoming for 10 consecutive years before buying a lifetime license. So the soonest that you could purchase a license for your child is at age 10 (if born in WY). Although technically a child doesn't need a license until the age of 14 (Youth license), it may be wise to purchase the lifetime license when first allowed as license fees may increase between the child's 14th and 18th birthdays.

Hope this helps

Offline WGFFishBio

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #87 on: Feb 10, 2011, 04:00 PM »
Is yesness pond in casper a youth only lake or is it open to everyone? We have been wondering about this on another thread and would like to know a true answer for sure.
There is no restriction on who can fish in Yesness Pond. It is open to everyone, although it tends to be used more as a children's fishing area. To my knowledge there is only one place in WY with an age restriction and that is Huck Finn Pond in Laramie. If you are wondering about other restrictions on waterbodies, take a look at the regulations. All exceptions to the "Statewide" regulations are explained within each area. If that waterbody in question is not listed in the exceptions, it follows the Statewide regulations which are detailed in pages 3-11 of the regulation booklet.

Hope this helps.

Offline WGFFishBio

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #88 on: Feb 10, 2011, 04:11 PM »
I plan on an out of state fishing trip where I will purchase minnows & suckers.  If I have any left over, can I just freeze them & use in Wyoming as dead bait??  (I am already aware that I can't bring live bait into WY from another state).  Thanks
Yes, you are allowed to use them as dead bait, they must be dead prior to transport. If you have any questions on where you can use bait, please refer to the fishing regulations.

Offline WGFFishBio

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Re: ASK THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH
« Reply #89 on: Feb 10, 2011, 04:24 PM »
I know the limits for most fish but is the per species or in general?
Hope I understand your question. The creel limits for waters that follow the Statewide regulations are on page 3 of the regulation booklet. The tricky thing, and sometimes overlooked by anglers, is the exceptions page for each area. Creel limits can be different for different waters, so you have to be careful. The rule of thumb that I tell anglers is; once you know the water that you are going to be fishing, look up that water in the exceptions page, if it is listed as an exception then follow those regulations. If that water is not listed in the exceptions page, then follow the Statewide regulations on page 3.

Hope this helps

 



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