Saratoga Lake is ready for fun

In the fall of 2022 Wyoming Game and Fish applied 14,000 pounds of rotenone to the Saratoga lake. When they took samples from the lake in October, there were no fish according to the biologists, and they called the project complete.

Along with killing illegally introduced yellow perch, the pesticide also eliminated thousands of white suckers and invasive brook sticklebacks. Rotenone is non-selective so it killed off all the trout in the lake which accounted for about 20 percent of the dead fish, yellow perch made up about 10 percent.

They are trying to address the problem with white suckers and brook stickleback by using fish screens, that were installed this past winter.

According to Chief of Fisheries, Alan Osterland, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the lake was restocked May 3rd. Osterland said the rainbow trout they put in were 6 1/2 inches long and the Tiger trout (cross between a brown and a brook trout) were 8 inches long He said the fish will be small but will grow quickly this time of year. Later in the year they will stock more brown trout as they become available.