Volunteers Needed

[Phil Lilley]

Hello All,

We are going to start evaluating the growth and survival of rainbow trout fingerlings (3-4”) in the Beaver and Norfork Tailwaters. During our previous growth and mortality study (conducted on Beaver Tailwater from July 2009 through December 2010), we observed low annual survival rates (1-4% annually) of catchable size (11-inches) rainbow trout. As a follow up to that study, we would like to evaluate the success (in terms of growth and survival rates) of McConaughy fingerlings (which are a more “wild” strain) and domestic strain fingerlings.

In order to do this evaluation, we’ll be marking about 24,000 fingerlings (12,000 of each strain) for Beaver Tailwater and 20,000 fingerlings (10,000 of each strain) for Norfork Tailwater. Each strain will be given a freeze brand in a different location, which will help us distinguish the strains from one another when we collect them during electrofishing samples in the rivers.

As soon as we finish marking the fingerling rainbow trout, we will be marking about 67,000 cutthroat trout fingerlings that will be stocked in the Norfork Tailwater and Spring River.

We are scheduled to start marking these fish at the Norfork National Fish Hatchery on Tuesday July 26th. We will mark every weekday after that until we finish, which will likely take us through August 5th. We usually start around 8:00 am and mark until 2:30 or 3:00 pm.

We will need several volunteers each day to help us get through all the fish. Please let me know whether you will be able to help and what day(s) you will be available. If you can only help part of a day, that would be great as well. For those of you who have helped us before, we will not be fin clipping any of these fish. The majority of work will be running the freeze branders and helping get fish from the raceways.

I look forward to hearing from you all. Thanks!

Christy

Christy Kitterman

Trout Management Biologist

E-mail: clkitterman@agfc.state.ar.us | P: (870) 424-5924 | M: (870) 404-0477

Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

201 East 5th St. | Mountain Home, AR | 72653

O: (877) 425-7577 | F: (870) 425-6596

www.agfc.com

Gassville AR, 72635

870-404-8845