Dept. of Game, Fish and Parks
For Immediate Release: Wednesday, July 2, 2003
For more information:  Jack Erickson, 394-2391

NOT JUST ANOTHER TROUT

PIERRE – Trout are a common catch from Pactola Reservoir in Pennington County, but state Game, Fish and Parks (GFP) officials say a recent lake trout landed by Cory Snyder of Rapid City was anything but common.

While performing routine boating safety and license checks at Pactola Reservoir on June 21, Wildlife Conservation Officers Chad Sayles and Jim McCormick were "flagged down" by a fisherman who informed them he had just assisted another angler in landing a big trout near the island by Jenny Gulch.

"Officers Sayles and McCormick rushed over to the island to find the angler and see his catch," said GFP Fisheries Biologist Jack Erickson. "What they found was that Snyder had in fact caught a very large lake trout. A lake trout that would possibly challenge the existing state record of 20 pounds, 10 ounces, caught by Keith VanBuren of Rapid City at Pactola Reservoir in 1998."

Once Snyder’s trout was weighed at a local grocery store on a state-certified scale, it was determined that the fish officially weighed 20.65 pounds, which is equivalent to 20 pounds, 10.4 ounces.

According to state Fisheries Program Administrator Dennis Unkenholz, "Game and Fish rules are quite clear-record fish weights are rounded down to the nearest whole ounce. In the case of ties, co-state records will be acknowledged."

In this case, Mr. Snyder and Mr. VanBuren now share the South Dakota state record for the largest lake trout.

"It is an amazing fish" said Regional Fisheries Program Manager Gene Galinat from Rapid City, who verified that the fish was in fact a lake trout. "We seldom see a trout of any species this large in South Dakota."

Between 1977 and 1978, 2,274 lake trout were stocked into Pactola Reservoir. "Annual fish surveys failed to document these fish successfully reproducing in Pactola Reservoir," Galinat said. "It is highly likely that the fish Mr. Snyder caught was stocked in 1977 or 1978, which means it probably was hatched in the fall of 1976 or 1977. This means Snyder’s fish is about 27 years old. We hope to see more large lake trout being caught at Pactola Reservoir in the future."

This spring, GFP stocked Pactola Reservoir with 9,995 lake trout that were 9-15 inches long. It will take many years for these fish to reach the size of the fish caught by Mr. Snyder and Mr. VanBuren, but department officials hope these fish will weigh about 5 pounds in 2007.

Anglers fishing the Pactola Reservoir are allowed to keep only one lake trout or splake per day. The minimum size for lake trout and splake is 24 inches. Splake are a hybrid between brook trout and lake trout that were stocked into Pactola Reservoir several times in the 1990s and are occasionally caught by anglers. Splake are very difficult to distinguish from lake trout. The purpose of this regulation is to protect these fish until they weigh 5 pounds and provide anglers a trophy lake trout fishing in the Black Hills.

Dennis Unkenholz reminds anglers who think they may have caught a new State record fish that it is important to:

• Keep the fish cool, preferably on ice.
• Have the fish weighed on a state-certified scale (with a witness present)
• Take the fish to a GFP office for positive identification.

"Mr. Snyder did everything correct to insure the fish he caught would qualify for the record," Unkenholz noted. "He kept the fish cool, had it weighed immediately on a certified scale, and brought it to a GFP biologist to have it verified. Who knows how much weight the fish could have lost had he waited a day to have it weighed?"

South Dakota’s state record fish can be viewed on the GFP website, along with photographs of the co-record lake trout and some other record fish, at:

www.state.sd.us/gfp/DivisionWildlife/Fishing/Info/StateRecords.htm.

-30-