Weber River Dies, Winter water draw down kills insects, brown trout, white fish & rainbow trout

Open letter to the Utah DWR, why did the Weber River have to Die ???

Giant Rainbow & Browns used to live in the Weber River...No Longer.

Several weeks ago I made a fishing pilgrimage to the Weber river where I fished as a boy, young adult, and father with my 5 children. I am used to seeing a reasonable water "draw down" of the Weber for the winter months, but I did not expect to see huge portions of the river dry with only a "trickle" moving along the very deepest part of the once blue ribbon river. Miles of rocks are exposed and dead are the very insects that take 3 years to develop from egg to adult that provide food for the trout. Our mayflies, dragon flies, damsel flies & non biting gnats (to name a few) spend the majority of their life as a larva under water attached to the weeds, now there are none, some nymphs are even attached to the rocks (caddis, rock rollers) they too must still be underwater to survive to adulthood. When the weeds die and the rocks are exposed to air....they die and generations will not be born to replace them. Large fish die, only a limited number of small stunted fish can survive in the shallow holes within the trickle of water that barely still flows.   This is sad to report.



Giant Brown Trout Once Were The Daily Fare On The Now Depleted Weber River

Not only are the insects which our trout depend on for food, but the trout are unable to survive...They live underwater too. Forgive my sarcasm but a drastic change needs to be made immediately. I hope this is just an oversight problem and not the intentional destruction of a once magnificent blue water trout stream.

I quite simply want to know how this problem can be corrected immediately and if there is anything that I myself can do to assist in getting the necessary action to correct this terrible tragedy. I look forward to your written response regarding this matter.  Utah anglers and families deserve our blue ribbon river to be returned to it's once great status

Thank you for your time.

Clyde Wilbur

Readers please email this letter to everyone you know in Utah and to your local legislators to get this problem resolved now before it's too late.