Fishing limit will increase ahead of lake poisonings

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah wildlife officials are more than tripling the number of fish that anglers can harvest from three lakes in the high Uintah Mountains. Those lakes are Fall Creek, Phinney and Anderson Lakes. 

This is the first step toward eradicating non-native fish that were illegally introduced and are overtaking native cutthroat trout.

“The fish species we’re trying to restore here is the Colorado River cutthroat trout, it’s one of our four native sub-species of cutthroat, which is our only native trout species in the state,” said the Utah Division of Wildlife Resource’s Faith Heaton Jolley. 

The Division of Wildlife Resources will treat the three lakes with rotenone in the summer of 2025. That treatment will kill all fish in the lakes and reset the lake for the native fish to thrive. 

Before they poison and reset, the division is increasing the limit of how many fish anglers can catch at these lakes, from four fish to 16 fish.

Heaton Jolley said it’s hard to get out to the lakes, anglers will need to backpack into the area. But she said some will find that the effort is worthwhile.

“It is pretty remote, you do have to hike in, but hopefully people can get out there and have a good time this summer … make it into a backpacking or overnight trip,” she said. 

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