Is Hattie just a running joke now?

[scrappy5555]

so the tourney is over and there was a whopping 21 fish brought in from what I hear.  So of around 200 people only that amount of fish were brought up.  The question is, is there too much feed in the lake, too few fish, or both.  Something needs to be figured out and done by the game and fish in my opinion because that is ridiculous.  For all of you who decided not to fish the Hattie Derby, wise choice.  Don't know that I will be doing it next year, I would rather go catch stockers on top the summit than sit for 2 days and not even a nibble.

[fishaholictaz]

I left midmorning and hit leazenby for a while

[Big Al 1]

That is the reason that I didn't fish it this year. Last year was bad enough for me.

[fish4weeks]

you're welcome for the donation to the lions club...don't see myself fishing that derby again.

[fish4weeks]

sorry for complaining so much, just a lil frustrated...but it's sad that obviously lake hattie is struggling right now and there is no way to catch and release during the derby. so there were few fish in the lake before the weekend, but now there are 22 less fish (or however many were weighed in). hope the lake rebounds with some management.

[BottomDweller]

tournaments these days should be conducted like Ice Shanty's, definitely

[fishwhisperer307]

fish it every year for tradition and didnt see a fish this year!!!!!but im sure ill be out there next year tryin to catch one of those lunkers hahaha

[327trout]

I think you are right scrappy, too much food, not enough fish to compensate for the added volume of water brought in this summer.

[POk3s]

I tried to say earlier....G&F should stock a couple hundred - 500 16-18" trout. At least the lake would be fun to go to! Not all of them will be caught and they will grow HUGE. Then do it all over again the next year.

[wforbes]

I agree something definitely needs to be done out there! I fished straight through from Friday midafternoon til 3 on sunday and not one fish I am glad (not in a good way) to see that I was not the only person too dumb to catch one :p. i am happy to make the donation to the lions club its going to a good cause and i still had a good time but would definitely like to see that lake get better. Its sad when there are several pearch and an 8 inch trout in the money at a huge derby like that! 

[BuzzH]

Hattie is a joke, its a big lake close to Laramie, close to Colorado, close to Cheyenne...and has as much potential as any lake in SE Wyoming to provide excellent recreation.

The trouble is, you arent going to draw many to that lake the way it is now.

Someone mentioned planting a couple hundred fish...not even close. Several thousand a couple times a year is whats needed.

Its ridiculous to have that body of water with that few fish. The thing about running a tournanment is that even if people dont WIN the tournament they're pretty happy if they at least catch fish. Its not much fun to sit out there all day and never even have a fish swim by.

I'd strongly recommend giving the WYG&F commission a call and tell them how you feel about the lack of fishing opportunities at hattie and some of the other plains lakes. Also, just dont call and complain, offer viable solutions to the problem and explain the economic impact strong fisheries have to the department, as well as the local economies. Fishing is a multi-billion dollar a year industry, and we shouldnt have to sit back and allow opportunities to be squandered because we havent been vocal enough.

Just sayin'...

[wforbes]

Hey Buzz this is very true! I talked to the G&F biologist about it when he checked me out there this weekend and he said they stocked I believe 1500 18" bows in "Octoberish" between Hattie and Twin Buttes and clearly that had not made any affect on the fishery. I feel that we all need to get together and make this more known and try and fix what could be an incredible fishery!

[TN]

As far as food supply, I think the lake is practically barren of food - and predatory fish.  That's why the fishing is so bad.  The reason I think it's barren is the perch can't even recover.  It took 20+ years of not receiving any water to drop to the level it was at in 2009, and then one surplus water year to fill it back up.  Fishing was great for most of those years.  Even when the fishing was good I didn't get a bite the first couple Hattie Derbies that were held.  I figured it was the thousands of power auger holes being drilled had the fish totally spooked.  It was the same way when they moved the Derby to the Buttes one year.  A couple of dinky perch was all I caught.

G&F needs to stock the heck out of Hattie now that the bathtup is full - trout and forage (perch?).  Even if Hattie doesn't see another drop of water for 10 or more years, that will be 10 or more years of good fishing.

[wforbes]

I believe the big fish was 24 inches long with about a 15 inch girth 7.9 lbs then went down drastically from there

[7lazy77]

It would be interesting to see what the number of entries have been the past 5 years & how they have declined.!  (Same with the fish counts along with the derby winning sizes)

[jopes]

That is interesting.  I would have guessed the winner would be over 10lbs.  Certainly over 8. 

What an odd year.  Don't think I'm gonna wet a line out there at all this year.  Save my trips for Glendo.

speaking of glendo, when you coming here?

[jopes]

sent you a pm moosey

[wyoming_man]

Moose- I get out of class at 1.  We could car pool over there sometime.

As for Hattie, No Thanks!!!! I like catching big fish, but its obvious by the winners that size was not all that good!  I heard several perch won some of the slots.  Thats sad!!  I live right here in Laramie, but I would rather spend my money on gas and derby tickets for derbies on the other side of the state.

[Baiter]

Yes, Hattie has become a running joke IMO.  I have fished the derby for about ten years now and the last few years are the worst ever.  I haven't caught a fish during the derby since 2008.  There used to be hundreds of fish turned in at the weigh-in station.  This years there was like 20 something is all.  I think it takes roughly 200 angler hours per fish, which is ridiculous.  I think next year my party is just planning on going to the Pathfinder Hawg Derby.  That derby has more prizes, costs the same, and everyone catches fish.  Until Hattie proves otherwise, I will stay away from that place.

[BuzzH]

As far as food supply, I think the lake is practically barren of food - and predatory fish.  That's why the fishing is so bad.  The reason I think it's barren is the perch can't even recover.

I cant agree with that quote. Hattie is a productive lake, its not barren of food. Look at the fish coming from there, and what has come from there...I've yet to see many skinny fish.

When I moved to Laramie in the winter of 2001, it was no problem catching a limit of trout in a morning fishing. You could catch all the salmon you wanted as well. I've never seen a skinny fish come from that lake. Slowly over the next 5-6 years the trout fishing collapsed as less and less fish were being stocked. The G&F was worried about the salinity of the lake increasing and didnt want to invest in stocking fish that were going to die. I can see that to a point, but until I see evidence of dead fish, I think it would have made more sense to continue to stock it.

Also, the perch just didnt "disappear" because of habitat issues or because of lack of forage, they left by the friggin' bucket fulls in 2005-2008. I cant say how many times I had days like this at Hattie between 2005-2007...nearly every single time I went. The only thing that ever kept me from pounding the perch into submission out there was when it was flat too windy to fish.





I was as guilty as anyone, I took a lot of perch from that lake...so did people from Colorado, Nebraska, all over Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota. I talked to anglers from all of those places that were ripping the perch every weekend...as in limits each day.

The lake is big, but reproduction of even perch isnt unlimited and the perch population is/was not infinite...same as the trout and salmon. Part of the problem is that when Twin Buttes, leazenby, alsop, mebore, etc. arent fishing for crap either...the lake and the species that people can catch, are going to take a pounding. I know a lot of hard-core trout guys that switched to fishing perch when it was good in Hattie...it was about their only close option to catch some fish with any kind of consistancy. People like to catch fish...period.

That being said, the troubles with Hattie are not based on a lack of forage or potential, rather based on a lack of fish. The only viable solution is to stock it...the fish will grow in there and they will grow fast.

[BuzzH]

I disagree...how many thousands of perch do you think left Hattie in a 4 year period?

I keep detailed journals of all my hunting and fishing activities and from what I caught, along with what I saw caught, there were several hundred perch a day leaving that lake in buckets. That went on in the winter and the summer for at least 4 years straight. The fishery cant take that kind of harvest...there were many, many, many thousands of perch harvested there.

They were fished out and I dont care what a biologist told you. First off, there isnt a biologist in Laramie or anywhere else that was out there as much as I was. Secondly, there isnt a biologist in Wyoming that had even the first clue about how many perch were in that lake from 2000-2008...and even more importantly they have no clue how many perch were harvested during that same time-frame. I have never been checked by a biologist on Hattie...and have only been checked maybe twice by a warden. Perch can survive drought and increased water temperatures wayyyy better than any trout can. To my knowledge, Hattie has never not had at least some trout present in it. If the trout didnt all die, I can assure you the perch shouldnt have plummeted like that just based off drought. The drought conditions would have taken the trout out of the lake before the perch. I saw it happen while I was managing fisheries on 2 large ranches in MT owned by TEI...drought and high water temps kill trout fast.

There are big bodies of water that are fished hard for perch and harvest is definately a limiting factor...do some research on Devils Lake in North Dakota.

[sgpitman]

Yea I dunno guys. I dunno much about wyoming or hattie but we have a ton of small lakes in ohio that don't het stocked with anything and get way over fished. The economy is so bad with so many people out of work that more and more people are fishing. Some places you can't even get on shore to fish and being in a boat isn't much fun either and the fishing in those lakes get better every year. I could see hundreds of people fishing out a pond but not a lake.

[gulp]

For the past three years things have been going down hill. Two years ago the perch were gone but there was a few nice trout. Last year you might as well fish in front of the tv as to go to hattie.

[hump]

its not a joke at all. The reason to go to hattie is to test the hurricane rating of your shanty.

[stinkypete]

I know Hattie can be a hard lake at times but if you really want to know what is going on with stocking and water quality call the Fishery Biologist in Laramie they have been stocking it quite a bit these past few years with trout. The biologists can tell you when they stock what they stock and what they will stock for the next 2 years. I think they have been stocking 100,000 + trout per year, so I don't know why we cant find and catch fish. Maybe something odd is going on.  What ever it is it sure is frustrating to spend 8+ hours fishing with nothing to show for the effort.  But a least its better to be out there than at home doing house work for the wife!!!

[sgpitman]

I just looked at some pics from there on MFF. There is some nice trout In that lake

[gsawyer]

Hattie is terrible fishing right now but I believe it will come back in the next couple of years. The perch numbers are up from last year and in a few more years they will be back to good numbers. The trout will come back if it keeps getting stocked. I bet when the lake got so low it really did a number on the popultions. Less people will fish it for a few years if the fishing is bad so if it's overharvesting the fish should get somewhat of a break.

[gulp]

I am sure that with the water levels back up that in the next few years thing will get better but for now it sucks and  there isn't much that can be done about it.

[BuzzH]

I wouldnt get used to the idea of increased water at Hattie. There is going to be some repairs done on the dam at the outflow as its jacked up right now. The plan is to lower the water level as much as possible...

[bucking grasshopper]

Hattie truly is a running joke right now. I'm done fishing that lake until I hear something good about it. All I caught in the derby was a hell of a buzz and a cold.