No more trout for Quartz Mountain
Anglers in the Altus area are losing their trout stream
Oklahoma’s winter trout areas open next Thursday (Nov. 1) but Quartz Mountain will not be one of them.
The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation will no longer be putting trout in the designated trout stream below Lake Altus-Lugert because of golden algae.
The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation manages five winter-only trout fisheries: Blue River, Lake Watonga, Robbers Cave, Lake Pawhuska and Lake Carl Etling.
Quartz Mountain had been the sixth but rainbow trout died there last spring as blooms of golden algae produced toxins that killed the fish.
There have been several outbreaks of golden algae in waters in southwest Oklahoma.
The trout are too expensive to risk putting them in waters where it’s likely they will die, said Gene Gilliland, assistant chief of fisheries for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.
“There is no way to predict where or when we will have those blooms that produce toxic events that kill fish,” Gilliland said. “Unfortunately, this may be a permanent situation.”
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