Re: [VFB] Farewell Yellowstone Cutthroat...

[Tom Davenport]

I have been doing a little searching on the web to find out more information about the trout in Yellowstone Lake and found an interesting research article where the researches used the chemical composition of the otoliths (a structure in the fishes ear) to pinpoint the time and introduction of the Lake Trout.  Park officials had preserved the otolithes from the earliest Lake Trout caught in 1994.  These fish showed chemical markers consistent with Lewis Lake (which has a population of introduced Lake Trout).  Fish collected in later years show markers consistent with Yellowstone Lake. There conclusion was their were several introductions on a fairly massive scale around 1989.  In all likely hood large numbers of fingerling trout were transplanted from Lewis Lake.  In other words, whoever did this had to work hard to make it happen. Another interesting thing of note:  In 1889 50,000 lake trout were planted by the Park Service in the Yellowstone River above the falls, luckily this planting didn't work.  Why a much smaller illegal planting 100 years later did work is a mystery. Tom Davenport On Jul 30, 2006, at 12:51 AM, Michael Bliss wrote: Interesting report.  I guess I will not bother to fish the Yellowstone this year on my annual pilgrimage.  Fortunately there are other streams and rivers there.  Thanks for sharing this.  I have wondered why they do not take a very aggressive erradication of the lake trout.  Why not net them?  Why not give a reward for each one brought back dead.  Why not as a last resort use rotenone?  Do something.   Just venting a little, Mike   On 7/29/06, Tom Davenport <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I just returned from my annual trip to fish the Calibaetis hatch on Yellowstone Lake.  The hatch was amazing, the water literally covered with bugs... but no one was home to eat the meal.  In three days of hard fishing I saw only one fish rise... the one and only fish I caught.  My fish finder showed nothing until I rowed out to Gull Point to a spot where the water plunges from 18 to 100 feet, and suddenly it sounded like Geiger counter as the fish alarm and fish symbols showed HUNDREDS of lake trout holding between 20 and 100 feet.  As far as I know the only thing those lake trout have to eat is Cutthroat trout, and they have been feeding well.  Add to that Whirling disease in the Yellowstone river and some of the other tributaries and you have the cause. After talking with the rangers I heard some startling facts:  Some of the spawning creeks that used to fill with thousands of spawning cutthroat had NONE return this year... and the Yellowstone river only had 5% of the normal number of spawners. It is sad to think that in 11 years  Man has undone a fishery that has lasted at least 4 million years (156 thousand in its latest incarnation, when the West Thumb Caldera was formed it probably killed everything in the lake). The only good news is that the Lake Trout will start dying out when their primary food source is gone... and probably begin a boom-bust cycle.  The same will be true for all of the wildlife that depend on the trout spawn. Eventually another volcanic event in Yellowstone Lake will purge it of the Lake trout, and I suspect the fish will evolve a resistance to Whirling disease, but none of this will happen in my lifetime.  In fact there is a good chance that men won't even be around to screw things up when that happens. I WILL return next year, and will hope that a school of surviving Cutthroat just happen to be feeding where I am fishing.  I will also bring a spinning rod and some heavy jigs and see if I can get a little revenge on the Lake trout... Tom Davenport