Spawning Salmon at Starvation Signal Potential for Self-Sustaining Population

Towards the end of the kokanee salmon fishing season in Utah, a report got to me that a local angler had seen hundreds of kokanee near an inlet channel, turning color and going to spawn. This gentleman had limited out fairly quickly, by his report. Starvation isn’t known for having a good kokanee population. In fact, this report was the first I had heard of anyone limiting out on just kokanee. People usually catch a lot of rainbows (really big and healthy rainbows) when targeting kokanee at the reservoir, so I was excited to hear of both the success and the potential for a spawn.

State biologists were concerned that the population might not have been surviving, or that they just wouldn’t return to spawn in any numbers to make a difference for the reservoir. I was able to speak with Natalie Boren, the Regional Sportfish Biologist managing the stocking efforts for Starvation to learn more about the stocking efforts at the reservoir, and what this spawn might mean for the population. Natalie told me that she was concerned about kokanee spawning at the reservoir due to the unfortunate event of the Dollar Ridge fire and floods that happened, which wiped out hope of much natural reproduction by kokanee in the Strawberry river, the main spawning location for Starvation Reservoir. Natalie had heard the reports of a good spawn as well, and was looking to confirm this for a month and a half before she was able to get back to me with the report that there were indeed a good number of kokanee spawning at Starvation, along with the picture above.

“We gave it a look in the evening on September 9th.  I observed one fish in the inlet channel,” reported Natalie. “The water was super murky and I could not see much at all. At this point I had not been able to verify the report, though I do think these fish are moving back and forth between the lake and the inlet.  I will try to get over there again and look for them and I have asked the rangers to keep an eye out as well.”  

I continued to follow up with Natalie, and on October 17th she told me that she went over a few times and was not able to count Kokanee, but did see some on the shorelines being consumed by the birds, so there was obviously some spawning activity. That water coming in at the time was so murky it was nearly impossible to see anything in the channel though, and was still unable to confirm real spawning activity. She told me that she planned to continue looking into the fall for the late run fish as well, and had the local rangers looking to keep an eye out as well.

Finally, on October 26th, about a month and a half since the initial report, we got the confirmation.

“We sampled a location in the Strawberry river on Monday.  The site was above the pinnacles.  I was happy to see 5 Kokanee in that reach.  They are on the move and have gone about 15 river miles up from Starvation.  We have also sampled 12 of them between Knight Diversion and Saluratus Wash during our fall walleye index netting.  So it would appear we do have a spawn going on this year, in multiple areas.  The fish look healthy and are really nice sized.”

What Does This Mean for the Future of Kokanee at Starvation?

Biologists have learned that stocking any 3″ or smaller fish into Starvation, they do not survive that well. The walleye population has increased over the past 3 years to numbers that are suppressing all forage species in the reservoir. Some make it, but a lot do not and end up as forage for both walleye and rainbows. For kokanee, I think it’s a numbers game and a consistency thing, and a good, successful spawn only helps with those numbers and consistency. The additional kokanee in the water mean good things for not just the kokanee population, but for the rainbows and walleye as well. There is certainly a need for ongoing stocking efforts at the reservoir, but the future for kokanee at Starvation has never been brighter.

The biggest challenge for kokanee in Starvation historically has been low and inconsistent stocking. Starvation really only gets stocked if the state has enough fish to meet its stocking numbers at Flaming Gorge. Because of that, kokanee have not been stocked every single year in Starvation since they were introduced in 2016. Kokanee have only been stocked in the reservoir 3 of the last 5 years.

“We would like to have stocked kokanee for 5 consecutive years at Starvation, but this location falls second in priority in our region to Flaming Gorge, if the quota is not met for the gorge then our 80,000 fish go to the gorge.  This is just the way it ends up some years when we have wild kokanee spawns. We just can’t get consistent stocking of them right now in the region and the Gorge is a world class kokanee fishery that heavily relies on every fish they can stock,” reported Natalie. Starvation Reservoir, even though closer to Strawberry Reservoir, is actually in a different district, so it only competes with Flaming Gorge. Moon Lake is another kokanee lake in the region, but the salmon population there is completely self sustaining.

About the Author

I’ve been fishing for kokanee in Utah for several years, and I’ve been writing about them since 2021. Since that time I’ve been working hand in hand with anglers, pros, biologists, state officials, and fishing companies to raise awareness of kokanee fishing and to try to improve conditions both for the fish and the fishermen. I’ve targeted a lot of different species of fish, and there is no fish in the State of Utah I’d rather chase than kokanee salmon. They’re delicious, hard fighting, and a really fun challenge.