When you think of big water you often think of big fish. Along Wyoming’s North Platte and Bighorn rivers, images of large trout, and even walleye or sauger, often come to mind.
But what about the little fish, many of which are native species? Not a lot is known on a broad scale about which small-bodied fish live in these two rivers or where they’re located. However, recent work by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department on the North Platte River shed some answers, which will lead to a similar project on the Bighorn River this spring.
“We’re responsible not only for managing sport fisheries and providing angling opportunities, but also to manage and maintain all the native species we have in our rivers and streams,” said Stephen Siddons, Game and Fish fisheries biologist in Laramie who worked on the North Platte River project.
“It’s hard to do any management work or understand what’s happening with those species without spending time looking for them and getting an idea of where they live and how many there are. The information we gather can give us ideas to expand some of these native species’ distributions by restoring them to areas where they were lost to before. The idea is to give them more habitat to live in and persist longer.
Continue reading at wgfd.wyo.gov.
