Good news for fly fishing Utah’s Weber River as the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources, with the help of Utah State University, is using sophisticated technology to understand and improve the Weber River population of the native Bonneville Cutthroat Trout. These unique trout grow to be quite large and they travel a long way up tributaries for spawning.
In the Weber River Bonneville Cutthroat Trout Study, biologists use a syringe to implant microchips just below the pectoral fin. After the trout is released, it continues upstream and passes over antennas located along the bottom of the stream. The antennas download the tag information passing valuable information along to the biologist. With this information, biologists are able to determine which tributaries are used for spawning and just how many trout are spawned in each tributary.
This increased understanding of the Bonneville Cutthroat with will help the trout population and therefore be a benefit to all fly fishermen. These tasty native trout are a great sport fish and anglers love to catch them. By the way, the Bonneville Cutthroat has replaced the Rainbow Trout as Utah’s official state fish.
The Weber River has a good population of aquatic insects including mayflies, caddis and stoneflies. The flies that most perfectly imitate these insects are the Perfect Fly line of flies available at Troutprostore.