Trout dying off at Jim Moore Pond

ROBERTS – More than 300 tiger trout died Wednesday at Jim Moore Pond (Roberts Pond), a popular family fishing hole for area residents.

“It appears to heat and lack of oxygen related,” said Tim Klucken, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game conservation officer for that area. “We are in the process of picking up the dead and dying fish and recommend that people visiting the pond do not gather them up as we are not certain at to the cause.”

Klucken said the Fish and Game will be monitoring the pond and the condition of the fish.

Jack Barrus, 9, of Rexburg, was fishing with his family who have been successful catching perch on previous outings, but Wednesday it was very poor fishing as the small perch would slowly come to the bait, but one would bite only occasionally. Usually the small perch are hard to keep off the hook.

“The fish really scared me when it swam up to me, rolled over and died,” said Jack. “It was weird. The perch were not biting, and I was just playing in the water when it happened.”

The tiger trout are a cross between brook and brown trout, with 3,600 planted last year at the pond along with 2,000 channel catfish. The tiger trout were introduced to help control the perch population, which were overpopulating the pond.

Klucken said the trout are usually the first species to succumb to high-water temperatures and low oxygen, which he attributed to the recent heat wave and the rotting vegetation.