Events - Event View

Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Trout Management Biologist Joe Kaiser will discuss an upcoming study of Rainbow Trout genetics in the Bull Shoals Tailwater. Rainbow Trout have been stocked in the White River below Bull Shoals since 1952, but their genetics have varied considerably over the years. From 2018 through 2025 alone, approximately 60 different strains were stocked. The proposed study will examine how those genetics affect the quality of the fishery and seek to answer a basic question: Which strains are having the greatest impact on the Bull Shoals Rainbow Trout fishery today? Kaiser will also discuss how the study will be conducted and the need for partners to help fund genetic sample processing.

Joe joined the AGFC Trout Management Program in 2019. Originally from Minnesota, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Aquatic Biology from Bemidji State University and worked in fisheries positions in Montana, Idaho, and Illinois before earning his master’s degree in Fisheries Science from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. He also comes to the subject as a fly fisherman: he learned to fly fish while working in Idaho, where his first fish on a fly was a Westslope Cutthroat Trout from the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River.