jackson reservoir fish survey and management datacpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/fishery survey...

General Information: Jackson Reservoir is a 2,967 acre water (at full capacity). Anglers can expect quality

fishing for walleye, saugeye, wiper, channel catfish, crappie, and trout. Please visit the state park website at:

http://cpw.state.co.us/placestogo/parks/jacksonlake for updated water and fishing conditions.

Location: Morgan County. From the I-76/Hwy 34 interchange take Hwy 39 7.2 miles north, through the

town of Goodrich, to CR Y5. Take CR Y5 2.5 miles west to the reservoir.

Recreational Management: Colorado Parks and Wildlife

Fishery Management: Warmwater angling

Purchase a Fishing License: http://cpw.state.co.us/buyapply/Pages/Fishing.aspx

Previous Stocking

2015

Walleye and Saugeye

Wiper

Cuttbow

2014

Walleye and Saugeye

Wiper

Channel catfish

Black crappie

Rainbow trout

2013

Walleye and Saugeye

Channel catfish

Rainbow trout and Cuttbow

2012

Walleye and Saugeye

Cuttbow

2011

Walleye and Saugeye

Channel catfish

Black crappie

Bluegill


Sportfishing Notes

Wiper

Fish are often found chasing

shad, so let the seagulls

guide you.

Fish the inlet when the

reservoir is filling and fish

open water at other times.

Shad imitations or green

mussels work well.

Walleye and Saugeye

These species are very

abundant and anglers are

having great success.

Try jigging, casting shad-

raps, or trolling shad raps

and wally divers.

Channel catfish

Fishing the bottom off of

the dam is recommended.

Cut shad, cut carp, or

shrimp as bait work well.


Shore and ice anglers do

well using night crawlers

and powerbait.

Boat anglers do well using

small shad raps.

Amenities Informational kiosks

Marina

Boat ramp

Picnic areas

Modern restrooms

Showers

RV hook-ups

Designated tent camping

Hiking trails

Fishing (open water and

ice)

Hunting

Wildlife viewing

Regulations

Min. size for walleye and

saugeye is 15” (only 1 can

exceed 21”).

Min. size for wiper is 15”.

Statewide bag and

possession limits also apply.

Fishing in the outlet ditch

around the rotary screen is

prohibited as posted.

Entry requires a Colorado

State Parks Pass, which is

available on site.

Jackson Reservoir LAST UPDATED: JANUARY 2016

FISH SURVEY AND MANAGEMENT DATA Mandi Brandt - Aquatic Biologist (Brush)

[email protected]

http://cpw.state.co.us/placestogo/parks/jacksonlake

The South Platte Land,

Reservoir, and Irrigation

Company finished building

Jackson Reservoir in 1902, making

the reservoir approximately

113 years old. Water used to fill

the reservoir is taken from the

South Platte River near Riverside

Reservoir, and flows down an

11-mile long earthen canal

before reaching Jackson Reservoir. Similar

to other eastern plains reservoirs, Jackson

Reservoir was built to store irrigation water

for agricultural use. Though some people

began fishing the reservoir shortly after it

was constructed, it wasn’t until the early 1960s that

people really began to understand the recreational

potential the reservoir had to offer. In 1965, Jackson

Lake State Park was established and the former Colorado

Game, Fish, and Parks Department began managing the fishery.

From 1965 to 1970 the three fish species most often caught by anglers were bullhead, yellow perch, and

crappie. In the 1970s the catch shifted to yellow perch, bullhead, and walleye. Catch shifted again in the

1980s to crappie, walleye, and yellow perch. In 1988, the former Colorado Division of Wildlife began stock-

ing wiper (♂ white bass x ♀ striped bass hybrid) and rainbow trout to increase angler catch rates. Wiper

was the most often caught species through the 1990s. Presently, walleye is the most often caught species.

Jackson Reservoir is primarily managed as a warmwater fishery. For nearly 16 years, a heavy emphasis was

placed on wiper management due to the large success of this species in the reservoir. Though wiper did well

for many years, wiper stocked in the reservoir since 2005 have had poor recruitment or have completely

failed to recruit to the population. Additionally, shortages in the availability of wiper have made managing

for this species very challenging. More often than not, wiper from other states are needed to augment the

number of wiper produced in Colorado to meet stocking schedule quotas. Wiper from other states have had

limited success in northeastern plains reservoirs due to cold water temperatures at the time of stocking.

To overcome wiper shortages in 2005 to 2015, higher numbers of walleye and saugeye (♂ sauger x ♀ walleye

hybrid) were stocked into Jackson Reservoir as surrogate predators. These two species have had great re-

cruitment success in the reservoir. Moreover, walleye and saugeye are easy to spawn and rear, making them

readily available. The coupling of the success of these two species and the recruitment and availability issues

with wiper could result in another management shift at Jackson Reservoir. Managing for a predator balance

of 40% wiper to 60% walleye and saugeye is being considered.

About the Reservoir...



[email protected]

About the Fish...

Wiper Five wiper were caught during the 2015 annual survey, with the largest fish measuring 29.2” and weighing

14.4lb (Figure 1; Table 1). The number of wiper caught during annual surveys has drastically declined from

2005 through 2015 (Figure 1). This decline is largely due to the absence of smaller size-classes, which is a

result of the low availability of wiper to stock (Figure 1). In the 1988, biologists from the former Colorado

Division of Wildlife stocked striped bass fry into Pawnee Power Plant Lake to begin building a broodstock

so Colorado could produce its own wiper. Wiper production can be extremely difficult, so biologists spent a

lot of time learning techniques from other states and refining the spawning process while Colorado’s brood-

stock grew. In 1994, biologists successfully collected 13 mature females and were able to spawn 11 of the fish

with white bass males at the Pueblo Hatchery to produce wiper eggs (3.2 million) for the first time. Unfortu-



[email protected]

29.2 in; 14.4 lb

About the Fish... Wiper nately the fry died at the hatchery a

few days later. In 1997, the spawning

operation was again successful and

wiper fry from 200,000 eggs were

stocked into Colorado’s reservoirs.

Beginning in 2004, a series of winter-

kills occurred in Pawnee Power Plant

Lake. Though enough mature fe-

males survived to successfully pro-

duce 4.3 million eggs in 2007, the

striper population crashed prior to

the 2008 spawning operation. Thus,

the former Colorado Division of

Wildlife began rebuilding the striped

bass broodstock. Colorado had to

rely on other states such as Texas,

Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska to

produce wiper while Colorado’s

striped bass broodstock aged to ma-

turity. Colorado was fortunate

enough to receive wiper from Okla-

homa in 2010 and 2011, Texas in 2013, Kansas

and Nebraska in 2014, and Texas, Oklahoma,

and Kansas in 2015. Historically, wiper fry

from Texas and Oklahoma (versus Kansas

and Nebraska) have not survived in Colo-

rado’s northeastern plains reservoirs because

the water temperatures are still too cold when

the fish are stocked. Thus, wiper fry received

from Texas and Oklahoma are usually stocked

into Colorado’s southeastern reservoirs. How-

ever, since wiper fry were unavailable for such

a long period of time and wiper populations

were on the decline, biologists for northeast-

ern plains reservoirs did try to stock fry from

Oklahoma in 2010. As suspected, these plants

did not recruit to the population. Thus, wiper

fry from Texas and Oklahoma have not been

stocked into northeastern plains reservoirs



[email protected]

0

5

10

15

20

25

Wip

er C

PU

E

(#/n

et)

Year

≥ 25.0"

20.0 - 24.9"

15.0 - 19.9"

10.0 - 14.9"

< 10.0"

Figure 1. Wiper catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) during the 2005 to

2015 annual surveys at Jackson Reservoir. No annual surveys were

conducted in 2008, 2012, or 2013 due to extremely low water levels

that prevented boats from being launched. For comparative pur-

poses, the number of fish collected was standardized per gillnet.

About the Fish... Wiper ever since. In 2013, Colorado’s striped bass broodstock was just old enough to begin spawning. Though the

spawn was a success and wiper eggs were produced for the first time in many years, a temperature spike at

the Wray Hatchery killed the eggs. In 2014, biologists electrofished Pawnee Power Plant Lake for six weeks

straight trying to find mature striped bass to spawn, but to no avail. Colorado had to once again rely upon

other states for wiper. Fortunately, Kansas and Nebraska, both of which produce wiper later than Texas

and Oklahoma, were able to produce fish for Colorado. Since these states produce wiper later than Texas

and Oklahoma, water temperatures had time to rise, and biologists were able to stock wiper fry into Colo-

rado’s northeastern plains reservoirs. Jackson Reservoir received 700,000 fry. Though none of these fish

were caught during the 2014 annual survey (Figure 1; Table 1), anglers reported catching small wiper in the

fall of 2014, indicating that some of the fry survived. In 2015, Colorado was able to produce another 794,000

wiper eggs. Though over one-half of the Colorado-produced eggs died at the Wray Hatchery, Jackson Res-

ervoir still received 650,000 wiper fry between fry from Colorado and Kansas. The absence of these fish dur-

ing the 2015 annual survey (Figure 1; Table 1) could be due to gear selectivity, meaning that the fish may

have been too small for the nets’ mesh to catch, instead of low survival.



[email protected]

Table 1. Summary data for fish caught during the 2015 annual survey at Jackson Reservoir. Data are

based on 81 hours of gillnetting and 75 hours of trap netting.

About the Fish... Walleye and saugeye Unlike the wiper population, which declined

from 2005 to 2015 (Figure 1), Jackson Res-

ervoir’s walleye and saugeye populations

have grown (Figure 2). Furthermore, higher

numbers of walleye and saugeye than wiper

have been caught during the last six annual

surveys. These trends are due to the high

recruitment of walleye and saugeye (Figure

2), poor recruitment of wiper (Figure 1),

and low availability of wiper. In contrast to

wiper (Figure 1), the size distribution of

walleye and saugeye has also been good,

with all size-classes present each year

(Figure 2). Of the walleye and saugeye sam-

pled during the 2015 annual survey, 40%

exceeded the 15” minimum size limit, 53%

were 10.0 to 14.9” long, and 7% were less than 10.0” long (Figure 2). The largest walleye measured 25.8”

and weighed 7.7lb (Table 1). Several fish that were in the 10.0 to 14.9” size-class should grow to exceed 15”

by the summer of 2016. Due to the large success of these species in recent years, walleye and saugeye fishing

was good during 2015 and should be even better in 2016.



[email protected]

Figure 2. Walleye/saugeye

c a t c h - p e r - u n i t - e f f o r t

(CPUE) during the 2005 to

2015 annual surveys at

Jackson Reservoir. No an-

nual surveys were con-

ducted in 2008, 2012, or

2013 due to extremely low

water levels that prevented

boats from being launched.

For comparative purposes,

the number of fish collected

was standardized per gill-

net.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Wall

eye/

Sau

gey

e C

PU

E

(#/n

et)

Year

≥ 25.0"

20.0 - 24.9"

15.0 - 19.9"

10.0 - 14.9"

< 10.0"

25.8 in; 7.7 lb

About the Fish... Black and white crappie Anglers caught more black crappie at Jackson Reser-

voir than any other species during the 1980s. After

wiper were stocked (1988), fewer black crappie were

caught by anglers and in annual surveys, presumably

due to wiper predation. The decline of the wiper

population over the last several years (Figure 1) has

allowed the black and white crappie populations to

flourish once again. In fact, 35% of the catch during

the 2015 annual survey was comprised of crappie

(Table 1). Crappie can be difficult to locate at Jack-

son Reservoir, but anglers can once again expect to

catch several preferred- (10-12”) to memorable-sized

(12-15”) fish (Figure 3).



[email protected]

y = 0.0004x3.2677

R² = 0.9889

y = 0.0004x3.1375

R² = 0.9585

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

1.4

1.6

0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0 11.0 12.0 13.0 14.0 15.0

Wei

gh

t (l

b)

Length (in)

Black

crappie

White

crappie

M P

Q

Master Angler Award

S

Figure 3. Length-weight regression for black and white crappie caught during the 2015 annual survey at

Jackson Reservoir. Stock (S), quality (Q), preferred (P), and memorable (M) size categories are indicated in

green. Colorado’s Master Angler Award length for crappie is indicated in red. Data are based on 75 hours

trap netting.



[email protected]

Channel catfish Stocking of channel catfish into Jackson Reservoir began in

1959, and approximately 126,000 fish have been stocked

since 2005. Regardless of stocking rates, few channel catfish

are sampled in nets during annual surveys. It is likely that

these low numbers do not accurately reflect the fish popula-

tion, but the sedentary nature of channel catfish instead. This

species tends to lay low as

water temperatures decline

in the fall, which is when

the annual surveys are

conducted. Hook-and-

line usually produces

more fish than gillnets,

so anglers should not

be discouraged to fish

for this species.

Though only one

small channel

catfish was caught

during the 2015

annual survey

(Table 1), larger

fish undoubtedly

lurk in the reservoir

as indicated by the

two Master Angler

award-winning fish

(36” and 33”) that

were caught during

the 2013 fishing season.

About the Fish...

Wiper

Walleye

Rainbow trout

Channel catfish

Common carp

Other



[email protected]

About the Anglers...

2012 Jackson Reservoir creel survey According to the 2012 creel survey, almost 6,900

anglers fished Jackson Reservoir for nearly 29,100

hours between May and September of 2012

(Table 2). Ninety-nine percent

of anglers were Colorado

residents, of which 38%

were from nearby towns in the

seven surrounding counties

(Morgan, Weld, Washington,

Logan, Sedgwick, Phillips, and

Yuma). Non-resident anglers were from Nebraska, Wyoming, Arizona, California, Oregon, and Minnesota.

The majority of anglers fished with bait (74%), while 15% of anglers fished with a combination of bait and

lures, and 11% of anglers fished with lures only. The remainder of anglers fished with flies or bow and ar-

row. Nearly one-half of anglers targeted wiper (Figure 4). Walleye were also highly sought after (Figure 4).

Nearly 8,300 fish (all species included) were caught, of which approximately 46% were kept and 54% were

released. In general, most anglers enjoyed their fishing trips at Jackson Reservoir, ranking their trip quality

as either excellent (18%), good (51%), or average (20%). Likewise, most anglers approved of the fish they

caught, ranking fish quality as either excellent (35%), good (56%), or average ( 8%).

Figure 4. Fish species targeted by anglers during

the 2012 Jackson Reservoir creel survey.

48% 30%


Table 2. Jackson Reservoir creel survey summary (May through September of 2012).

2012 Jackson Reservoir creel survey continued...

Thank you to all of the anglers who were willing to participate in the creel survey!



[email protected]

Shore anglers Boat anglers Total (all anglers)

21286 7777 29063

4477 2382 6859

5721 2553 8274

2723 1060 3783

2998 1493 4491

0.27 0.33 0.28

0.13 0.14 0.13

0.14 0.19 0.16

4.76 3.26 4.24

KEPT CATCH (# OF FISH)

RETURNED CATCH (# OF FISH)

TOTAL CATCH/HR (# FISH/HR)

KEPT CATCH/HR (# FISH/HR)

RETURN CATCH/HR (# FISH/HR)

AVERAGE COMPLETED TRIP LENGTH (HRS)

Statistic

Estimates

FISHERMAN-HOURS (# of HRS FISHED)

FISHERMAN (# OF ANGLERS)

TOTAL CATCH (# OF FISH)


A B C D E3)

2012 Jackson Reservoir creel survey continued... Anglers were asked the following three questions and had

the following responses:

1) Using the following scale, please rank your support (or

not) for the future stocking of yellow perch in Jackson

Reservoir?

A) Strongly support stocking

B) Support stocking

C) It does not matter one way or the other

D) Do not support stocking

E) Strongly against stocking

2) Of the following warmwater fish species, which would you

most like to catch at Jackson Reservoir?

A) Walleye/Saugeye

B) Wiper

C) Crappie (black and/or white)

D) Yellow perch

E) Channel catfish

3) What percentage of your angling time today did you

spend actively targetting trout?

A) 0%

B) 1-32%

C) 33-65%

D) 66-99%

E) 100%



[email protected]

A B C D E2)

A B C D E1)

69%

14%

5%

5% 7%

40% 3%

39%

1%

17%

36% 15%

37%

5% 7%

Master Angler Awards



[email protected]

Year Species Length Angler name

2015 Common carp 31" David Coulson

2014 Wiper 29.5" Ben Krosschell

2014 Wiper 26" Brandon Harrigan

2013 Channel catfish 36" Delilah Lewis

2013 Channel catfish 33" David Huynh

2013 Common carp 32" Benjamin Martinez

2013 Common carp 31" Bryan Hostetter

2012 Wiper 29" Todd Wilkie

2012 Yellow perch 12 1/2" Cody Kalous

2012 Common carp 30 1/2" Richard Sweatland

2011 Smallmouth bass 20" Mitchell Ellis

2011 Freshwater drum 20" Makayla DeFebio

2011 Common carp 34" Marlee Davis

2011 Common carp 32" Chris Davis

2011 Common carp 30 1/2" Chris DeFebio

2011 Common carp 30" Forrest Czarnecki

2010 Common carp 35" Thomas Gipple

2009 Wiper 29" Jennifer Lockman

2009 Channel catfish 31 1/2" Adam Barg

2009 Brown trout 22 1/2" Rick Dunn

2009 Common carp 30" Derek Mitchell

2008 Wiper 28 5/8" Ursula Lottman

2008 Channel catfish 32 1/2" David Sanger

2008 Channel catfish 32" Richard Watts

2008 Common carp 32" Derek Mitchell

jackson reservoir fish survey and management datacpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/fishery survey...

Documents