Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is in the third and final week of an effort to catch tui chub on East Lake, near Bend. Biologists and volunteers are catching the fish in long nets along the shorelines of the lake.

The silvery bronze fish is a member of the minnow family and likes to feed on zooplankton, the same diet that young trout feed on.

Brett Hodgeson is the Deschutes district fish biologist with the ODFW. He says the fish is considered an invasive species in Central Oregon.

But the ODFW hasn't made any attempts to curb the population since 1981.

Brett Hodgeson: "So we've been almost 30 years since there's been any kind of control on the chub population and it has exploded to the point to where they are having a significant impact on recreational angling in the lake."

The trapping is timed to coincide with the tui chub's spawning season. It's part of a five-year plan by the ODFW to retool the department's rainbow trout stocking program.