7751 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Chapter 1 Sporting qualities of the endangered fish it... I pitched that green frog out there and this whitefish (Colorado squawfish) hit it, just about straight across, and he ran down that fast water, riffles, and took out about 200 hundred feet of line before I turned him around. It was a nice ... it was one of the most thrilling fish I ever caught if you want to know the truth ..." Maybell, Colo., resident Gene Bittler When it comes to matching endangered Colorado River fishes' sporting qualities against other fresh-water game fish, the Colorado squawfish ranks with the best of them, as Gene Bittler's account recalls. Big, aggressive and easily caught, Colorado squawfish were known and respected as sport fish by many upper basin anglers, including ranchers, farmers, children, miners, wildlife offi- cers and city dwellers. While the Colorado squawfish's sporting notoriety far outweighed the rep- utation of razorback suckers, humpback chubs and bony tail chubs, all four endangered fish species were caught and enjoyed by the basin's sports anglers. Conventional rods and reels often were used by anglers to catch the fish, however, setlines - baited lines left in the water overnight - were the most common equipment used. Carl Williams (Green River, Wyo.) explains a typical setline: "... you prob- ably know what a setline is, a chalk line ... heavy, it's kind of a yellow line but it's called chalk line. We'd dropped our hooks off of it and usually use a nail (for weight), one of these tie nails, you know the spikes, or anything heavy. Throw it out in the river as far as we could and then we'd check 'em the next day, or in the evenings." Retired Browns Park rancher Bill Allen (Vernal, Utah) used a setline in the Green River during the 1950s that was even less sophisticated. "What we'd do is just take some fly line, tie a rock on it for a sinker and put a worm on the end, put a leader on it, and throw it in and let it sit," he said. Upper basin residents recalled using setlines while fishing for fun and/or food. Tim Merchant (Green River, Wyo.), a deputy sheriff with Sweetwater County, told an incredible story about his grandfather using setlines to catch enormous Colorado squawfish in a stretch of the Green River now covered by Flaming Gorge Reservoir. "They'd called it Linwood; it's under water now, and we'd picnic down there, spend the day," Merchant said. "And my grandfather would get chicken parts, just great big old chunks of chicken parts and stuff like that, put a hook in it and throw it out into the river into those big holes down there with clothes line. He just tied clothes line on it onto the bumper of the truck. And when that went tight they'd just back the truck up and drag those fish out on the bank. I can remember twice, two separate occasions dragging those squawfish out with the truck. "They was as big as a junior high school kid, 90 pounds. That's a big fish,"