The trout, which are about 12 inches long, came from a hatchery in Kamas. They arrived on the back of a truck in four specially designed tanks. The tanks had oxygen inputs and ports that attached each tank to a wide tube that ran the length of the truck bed. When biologist Barry Nielsen opened a valve, the fish whooshed down the tube and into their new reservoir home — including a few stragglers.
Chris Crockett, a regional aquatics manager with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said there has been some sort of fish stocking in Utah for at least a century. He said this operation was done with local anglers in mind, and that it was a success. An osprey circling overhead looked like it agreed.
“If we're trying to make a family fishery, we want people to come out and catch fish pretty fast, right? We don't want them to spend three days casting. And so, for example, rainbow trout and the cumulative catch rates at a reservoir like this, we're typically trying to aim for a half a fish per hour,” Crockett said. “So it still may not seem like very much, but that's been shown to kind of be the nice middle ground to keep people interested in coming back.”
Nielsen said biologists take several steps to make sure the fish survive the journey — and he said almost all of them do. Biologists monitor and maintain oxygen levels in the tanks; ensure the water temperature is appropriate; add rock salt to the water, which Nielsen said calms the fish; and manage the effects of the ammonia gas the fish produce.
Crockett said the trout are one of more than a half-dozen species in the Jordanelle, and that more than 200,000 fish likely live in the reservoir.
“Right now is a great time to encourage people to come fishing,” Crockett said. “If you're familiar with Jordanelle, you know it gets really busy in the summer and there can be a lot of other users. So that's one reason why we're stocking these fish early. We encourage anglers to come out and take advantage of them.”
Each truckload includes about 7,000 fish. Crockett said there would be three truckloads over the course of the day.
