Plans to bolster Utah's population of one of the state's most popular sport fish have encountered another setback. Division of Wildlife Resources fisheries officials recently learned that one of the last certified disease-free populations of musky tested positive for a virus.

The musky would have been mixed with a population of northern pike caught at Recapture Reservoir this fall to create tiger musky - a sterile hybrid that frequently grows longer than 50 inches and is widely sought after by Utah anglers.

State wildlife officials have been trying to acquire a disease-free population of true musky since 2006, but an outbreak of viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) shrunk the number of available fish considerably.

"Many other Western states have given up on their musky or tiger musky programs. It has been frustrating, to say the least," said Drew Cushing, warmwater sport fisheries coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. "We aren't ready to give up."

Part of the reason fisheries officials are not ready to give up is a new warmwater hatchery on the grounds of the Lee Kay Hunter Education Center in West Valley City. Cushing, other state fisheries biologists and volunteers brought back 44 northern pike from Recapture last month.

Without the musky, Cushing said efforts will turn now toward finding a way to sterilize pike for possible introduction into Utah waters. The fish could be used to help control the population of pike at waters like Redmond Reservoir, for example.

The other possibility is planting the sterile pike in places where anglers have become accustomed to fishing for tiger musky, most notably Pineview Reservoir.

"We need to get the recipe right," Cushing said. "The last thing we want is to put pike in a place like Pineview and find out they aren't sterile where they could potentially overpopulate. Part of what makes the tiger musky program work is that they are sterile."

Tiger musky have not been planted in Utah since 2006. Cushing said there are at least two remaining sources for musky: Iowa and New Jersey. If Utah does manage to acquire fingerling musky, which won't happen until the spring of 2009 at the earliest, tiger musky won't be available for state waters for three or four more years.

"We may now be the only ones in line [for the musky], which is good, but we just need to hope they stay disease free," Cushing said.