G&F: Public Meeting to Discuss Future of Lake DeSmet Fishery

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is inviting stakeholders, anglers and the general public to join department biologists for a short presentation on the current Lake DeSmet fishery.

The public meeting will be 6 p.m. – 7 p.m. Thursday Sept. 24 at the Johnson County Library, located at 171 N. Adams Ave. in Buffalo. 

Sheridan Region Fisheries Supervisor Stephen Siddons told listeners of Sheridan Media’s Public Pulse Lake DeSmet is stocked with a diverse selection of sport fish such as rainbow trout, brown trout, yellow perch, kokanee salmon, cutthroat trout and illegally introduced Walleye. But the growing population of Lake Trout has the potential to negatively affect two populations; kokanee salmon and rainbow trout, through increasing competition and predation. 

S. Siddons 

Siddons said as the fisheries supervisor and an angler himself, the increase in lake trout population has been a frustration for the department. To alert the public and hear their thoughts, the Game and Fish recently conducted a survey which was sent to Wyoming Game and Fish Department fishing license holders. 

The Sept. 24 public meeting will include the results of that survey and a discussion on future management of the popular reservoir.

No registration is necessary and one does not need to have taken the survey to join the discussion.