By Amy Riggs
In hopes of protecting Panguitch Lake''s trout population from predatory fish, the Utah Wildlife Board placed new fishing regulations.
Beginning Jan. 1,the trout limit will be modified to four, and all trout 15 to 22 inches must be released immediately after catching.
The board also asked anglers to use artificial lures, which should make releasing a fish in this size range easier.
The new size regulation protects the trout from a fish recently eradicated from Panguitch Lake, the Utah chub, a fish that fiercely competed with the trout for food.
'By protecting that size of trout, it insures plenty of predators if the Utah chubs come back,' said Mike Hadley, a fisheries biologist with the Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR).
The DWR treated the lake in spring of 2006 with rotenone, a biodegradable insecticide that is fatal to fish. After the application of rotenone to the lake was completed, the overpopulated Utah chubs and the remaining trout were removed from the lake, according to a DWR news release.
After waiting for the rotenone to biodegrade, the lake was then restocked with rainbow, cutthroat and tiger trout, Hadley said.
The restocked fish vary in size from 3 to 20 inches. Without the competition from the chubs for food, the trout can grow, providing a bigger catch for anglers.
Though some fishers are aggravated with the regulations requiring them to release their catches, others like Kit Norris, a junior from Oregon with a fishing hobby, agree with the new rules.
'The regulations are a great thing,' Norris said. 'With the restrictions, all the bigger fish don''t get taken out. It will keep the chub population in check.'
Dennis K. Shiozawa, a professor of integrative biology at BYU, had similar thoughts about the regulations.
'It sounds like what they''re doing at Strawberry ', Shiozawa said. 'The regulations seem to be controlling the population.'
The DWR is taking the protection of the trout seriously. Any violators of the regulations will be ticketed, Hadley said.
The new regulations start this year and will lastuntil further notice.