Spooner Lake to Get Cutthroats in June

Friday, April 24, 1998 | 1:43 a.m.

"It's going to continue to be catch-and-release," said Mark Warren, a fisheries biologist for the Nevada Division of Wildlife. "If the trout population of the lake becomes balanced, we might allow people to keep fish over 20 inches in length."

The restocking effort is scheduled to begin in June.

Last winter, wildlife officials drained the lake to get rid of tui chubs, a native species of the minnow family that competes with trout for food. Also eliminated in the project were competing fish that had formerly been stocked in the lake such as brown trout, rainbows, bo-cuts, a hybrid species, and tiger trout, a hybrid cross between a brown and a brook trout.

The goal is to make Spooner cutthroat sanctuary.

"The cutthroat is a native species of Nevada, and it's our state fish," Warren said. "It's an endangered species. If this project is successful, we'll have a lake full of cutthroats and a few browns."

Warren said the lake was allowed to drain last year to the lowest level possible, by punching a hole in a coffer dam, to eliminate unwanted species. No poison was used.

"That kept our cost to a minimum, a couple hundred dollars in explosives for blasting the coffer dam," he said. "We got as low as we could, and last winter drilled a hole through the ice. We measured three feet of ice and three feet of water."

"As soon as we can drive in after the snow melts, the first of June, we'll plant 12,000 cutthroats and 1,000 browns. The fish will be an average 10 inches long."

Plans also could include the planting of freshwater shrimp, called "scuds," a major food source for trout.