FTR News

Teton Valley Idaho - (09/16/2009) - You didn’t want to fish behind Idaho Fish and Game boats as they careened down the Teton River over the past few weeks, but your angling experience might likely improve after Fish and Game worked with Friends of the Teton River to tag the native Yellowstone Cutthroats in the local fishery. Every other year, Fish and Game shocks two stretches in the Teton River to identify fish populations. From the Nickerson Bridge to the Bates Bridge and downstream of the Packsaddle Bridge, Fish and Game monitors the number of rainbow, cutthroat, and brook trout, along with the hybrid cutbows. Beginning with a marking run, Fish and Game clips a piece of each trout tail with a hole punch in order that those fish can be identified during a second recapture run. In 2007, Fish and Game identified a total of 662 trout from Nickerson to Bates. Only 64 of those fish were the native cutthroat trout. This year, 540 trout were captured on that same stretch, and 127 of those fish were native cutthroat. Brett High and other Fish and Game staff worked with FTR’s Ty Mack to not only identify and count the trout populations, but also to insert Passive Integrated Transponder tags in an effort to conduct a long term biological monitoring program for the native species that have experienced significant competition from introduced species like rainbow and brook trout. The Bonneville Environmental Foundation provided the funding for the PIT tags in order to get a better understanding of the movement, migration, and life cycles of the natives. Fish and Game returned to the water downstream of Packsaddle Bridge on Wednesday to conduct a recapture run, but a marking and recapture run from the Rainer Bridge Sportsman Access to Packsaddle Bridge was completed this week, identifying 456 trout, with 76 of those in the native cutthroat category. The last time the Rainer Bridge to Packsaddle stretch had been electrofished, 180 trout were netted, and 96 of those were native cutthroat. During the electrofishing process, drift boats equipped with generators supply an electrical current that is transferred through cathodes into the water. While mortality rate in whitefish sometimes occurs, High said trout populations are rarely affected by the shock. Once the trout are netted, they are kept in a live well until measurements can be taken streamside. Length, species, and additional bird or hook scars are identified before the trout are released into the river. Though Fish and Game was shooting for 30 to 40 percent on its recapture run, marked fish that were measured again ranged only 10 to 25 percent on the upper stretch of the Teton. Electrofishing helps lift the shroud of mystery with regard to trout populations that groups like FTR and the Teton Regional Land Trust and others are trying to improve through conservation and restoration. Though cutthroat are the real motivation for these monitoring runs, it’s interesting that three brown trout were identified on the lower stretch of the Teton with one brown measured at 27 inches and over 10 lbs. Not a native species, browns would further affect the numbers of the native population of fish in the Teton.