Nebraskaland Magazine
As you know the Lake Ogallala fishery was renovated last fall, Lake Ogallala Renovation. Rainbow and tiger trout as well as yellow perch have been re-stocked. The trout are large enough to catch, but I have not made it out there to see if I could dry any off yet.
If you are going to be doing some fishing on Lake Ogallala, the canal or North Platte River below the reservoir, you should know that there are a few tagged trout in there. Now, of the thousands of trout that have been stocked, only a handful are tagged. But, you never know, you might catch one, and fisheries researchers would like some of those tags back.
Let me explain:
Nineteen rainbow trout swimming in Lake Ogallala right now have acoustic tags. Those tags are being used to track their movements. Those nineteen trout are also marked with external tags; what we call “Floy” tags. Those Floy tags look like this:
The Floy tags will be located just behind the dorsal fin. They are yellow and should be easy to see, but with time Floy tags can become algae-coated and then less visible. So, look close.
Now, the Floy tags do not really mean anything. They simply are an external marker on fish that are also carrying an acoustic tag. The acoustic tags are surgically implanted in the body cavity of those fish. Here is what the acoustic tags look like:
If you are catching and immediately releasing rainbow trout on Lake Ogallala or associated waters, do not even think twice about the tags. Just get the fish back in the water. However, if you harvest any rainbow trout from those waters and notice the external Floy tag, please look for the internal acoustic tag when cleaning those fish. We would like to have the acoustic tags returned. If possible, drop them by the Lake McConaughy Visitor’s Center.
The tagged trout were just recently stocked in the lake itself. I have no data or information to tell you about this research right now. You can be sure I will keep my ears open and will share any information I can get in the future!
