The $25,000 Rainbow Trout is Out There for the Catchin’ in Utah
OutdoorHub Reporters 08.06.12
How do you make $25,000 in just a few minutes or hours of your time? Why, it’s simple. Catch the rainbow trout that’s tagged for a $25,000 cash prize from Strawberry Reservoir in Utah, of course.
A contest that will award $51,000 and other prizes to a few lucky anglers for catching the appropriately tagged fish is up and running. Three hundred rainbow trout have been tagged and released into the reservoir, six of which hold large cash prizes: three with a $2,000 prize, two with a $10,000 prize and one with a grand prize of $25,000. The first 100 anglers to bring in a tagged fish also receive a prize from Camp Chef. The contest runs from May 26 to October 15.
The DWR is not an official sponsor of the contest, dubbed the “Strawberry Rainbow Rush,” but the department worked with event sponsors to tag the 300 trout. Earlier this year, the department stocked the reservoir with 500,000 cutthroat trout in different locations.
According to updates on the reservoir’s Facebook page, 64 of the 300 tagged fish have been reeled in, meaning there are 236 tagged rainbow trout still swimming in the Strawberry Reservoir with prizes ready to claim.
Scott Root, a DWR conservation outreach manager, said the contest has done wonders for fishing the Strawberry Reservoir. “It’s been fun to see how excited anglers have gotten about the contests,” Root says. “It’s also fun to know that the average angler can win prizes while doing something he or she enjoys.”
The department has also seen an increase of applications to hold tagged fish contests.
Anglers do not need to register to participate in the contest. If you simply catch a tagged fish while fishing with a valid license, bring it to one of four marinas around the reservoir to claim your prize.
Strawberry Reservoir is just off U.S. Highway 40, about 22 miles southeast of Heber City.
The latest fishing report for Strawberry is available at wildlife.utah.gov/hotspots.
More information about fishing at Strawberry is available on the Web at go.usa.gov/flk or by calling the DWR’s Central Region office at (801) 491-5678.
