At first, anglers thought the fish were kind of neat. A flashy, albeit infrequent, anomaly attached to the end of their fishing lines, a small orange snag in their quest for trout.
A few years later, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources’ Chris Crockett says, no one’s laughing.
Swimming in the murky, low water near Payson, the estimated thousand goldfish stick out like, well, an orange fish in brown water. Most grow to about 6 to 8 inches — and they’re reproducing quickly, fighting with trout for food and mucking up the water quality as they forage.
As much as Crockett, an aquatics manger for the division, says he doesn’t like to kill fish, he said he has no choice.