I also find this interesting. I hit the Yellowstone about a month ago...the fishing was MUCH more difficult than I had remembered from 4 years ago (of course, it can always be operator error). Still...it was a great day - Sarah and I got to take a nice hike away from the rest of the Tourons...saw some nice wildlife (and kept our distance)...and was able to catch a cutthroat...
Chris ________________________________________ 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
