A survey soon to be sent to more than 17,000 anglers in the Big Horn Basin is one of the final steps in a four-year research project aimed at possible changes to the annual spring angling closures on the North Fork of the Shoshone River.

The questionnaire was first announced Wednesday night as Cody Region fisheries supervisor Sam Hochhalter and biologists Joe Skorupski and Jason Burckhardt hosted a lecture at Shreve Lodge in Buffalo Bill State Park to detail the project. One possible goal is shortening the spring closures, Hochhalter said.

“We believe that we can offer a longer season, we can shorten the dates of that closure and provide more weeks to fish the lower river,” he said, but with a caveat. “We can only do that if we reduce the baggage. We can not offer more days to fish and run the risk that we're going to harvest more fish.”

The closure statute was first passed 140 years ago in 1884, long before the department was authorized; when a state fish commissioner made all the rules. Of course, scientific methodology has evolved since then and the trio spent four years tagging almost 8,000 fish for the study.

“One thing that I asked is, did the lone fish commissioner sitting in an office in Cheyenne magically predict the future, or is the need for a closure on the North Fork merely a product of; it's been around so long that we all assume that it is necessary for sustainable management,” Hochhalter said. “That was one of the goals of this project. What is that closure doing? And how much latitude do we feel we have based on the biology and what you all are doing as fishermen to maybe revise that a little bit.”

The study team set up the study to track the seasonal movement patterns of those adult trout in the North Fork of the Shoshone River and Buffalo Bill Reservoir. Electro-fishing efforts by the biologists and reports from anglers catching the tagged fish led to the collection of data for the project.

“It’s not rocket science,” Hochhalter said in an interview with the Tribune. “The vast majority of the adult trout in that system spend the winter months in Buffalo Bill Reservoir, and each spring — it varies year to year — they start trickling into the North Fork as early as March.”

After migrating to the North Fork of the Shoshone River and about two dozen tributaries to spawn in the spring and early-spring months, many of the highly migratory rainbow and Yellowstone cutthroat trout return to Buffalo Bill Reservoir.

This Blue-Ribbon wild population of trout, which have survived without stocking efforts from Wyoming Game and Fish Department fisheries biologists since 1989, is the pride of the Cody Region.

“[The closures are] something that we regularly get asked about,” Hochhalter said. “Are harvests too high? Are the bag limits too restrictive? A lot of people that like to harvest fish do not like the one over 18. It's a pain in their butts.”

Creel limits for the North Fork of the Shoshone River drainage upstream of Gibbs Bridge on trout are three per day, or in possession. No more than two shall be cutthroat trout; and, no more than one trout shall exceed 18 inches.

But while the population isn’t being supplemented, it is getting help. The seasonal closures offer relative safety for many trout during their spawning season from April 1 to June 30 on the lower portion of the North Fork and on a small portion of the reservoir from April 1 to July 14.

The study is now near completion; the only remaining aspect is the collection of social data from anglers who fish the upper Shoshone River, from Yellowstone National Park to the reservoir. The study and responses to the survey could lead to changes, including an increased number of days anglers can fish in closed areas.

“As fisheries managers, we want to take a comprehensive approach to managing this unique fishery,” Hochhalter said in an interoffice report. “This means collecting the biological data necessary to understand the dynamics of the fish population and the social data from anglers on their preferences for future fishing opportunities, which will be done in part through an email survey this fall.”

Within the next month anglers should be receiving the email, serviced by the University of Wyoming’s Survey and Analysis Center, running through a series of questions on preferences for fishing opportunities on the North Fork Buffalo Bill and how important harvesting fish is overall experience. Then it will walk anglers through the notion of a trade off.

“First and foremost, we have to make sure it's sustainable. Secondarily, we want opportunities that you all want,” Hochhalter said.