From the May/june green river wgfd newsletter
Fisheries biologists with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department are working to remove white suckers from the tributaries that run into High Savery Reservoir in an effort to improve trout and kokanee salmon habitat. Since the completion of High Savery Dam in 2005, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has stocked tiger trout, rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, and kokanee salmon. There is also a wild population of Colorado River cutthroat trout and brook trout. In recent years, the white sucker populations have increased and are negatively impacting trout and kokanee salmon populations. Anglers have been expressing their concerns over the white sucker population increase. Game and Fish employees will continue to remove white sucker populations and work to develop effective management measures to improve the habitat and angling opportunities at High Savery Reservoir. White sucker removal efforts continued south of Rawlins in three tributaries, Dirtyman Fork, North Fork, and East Fork creeks, to High Savery Reservoir. Green River Fisheries Biologist John Walrath said the plan was to chemically treat tributaries from the fish barriers downstream, once water temperatures reached the mid50s. “Unfortunately, we were unable to perform treatments with the limited time table this year so we decided to remove spawning suckers mechanically,” Walrath said. “We used a cataraft to electrofish Dirtyman Creek May 28th and removed ~350 white suckers. The East Fork was electrofished a few days later, on June 3rd ,and produced ~4,100 white suckers. A total of ~2,800 white suckers were removed from the North Fork on the following day. That's a grand total of ~7,250 white suckers removed from the High Savery system. When we gill net High Savery Reservoir later this summer we will, hopefully, see a decline in the white sucker populations.”
