A Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist who was ice fishing at the Flaming Gorge Reservoir recently managed to catch a Mackinaw trout which he likely put there in 1983 while stocking the water, after noticing one of its fins was clipped.
Bill Wengert said, "I may have actually clipped the fins on this very fish, and I know I was driving the barge when the fish were stocked, nearly 25 years ago." He has been working for the department for 35 years. He was 26 at the time.
The 26-year-old fish only weighed 2.5 pounds, compared to a 17-pounder from 2004 that was also released in 1983. He said fishery biologists now have "an opportunity to learn more about fish genetics, age and growth of lake trout in the reservoir."
