Jell-O in Yellowstone Lake

[DShock]

http://www.katu.com/outdoors/fishhunt/36761849.html
Doug

[Grubb]

I say if it works leave it alone, leave the Jello out, let the new trout thrive, there doing well, leave it be and enjoy catching them... just my 02...

[Big Bad Wulff]

SO if they find out that cutthroat eliminated some other fish are they gonna do away with them also?

Sometimes these folks have waaaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands.

With that said, please use Strawberry and hand out straws.

[FishnDave]

If they use jello (how much would it take to smother an entire lake's worth of fish eggs?)...why NOT use flavored?

There's still adult fish in the lake. May as well make them "extra tasty". I'm thinking maybe "wild raspberry" flavored...

[pharper]

I think they should do everything possible to get rid of the Lakers.

They've found that Lakers are killing cutts (Native)... the cutts aren't running up the creeks as much, and it has affected bear and other piscivoris predation in the park that relied on large numbers of cutts.

Plus... the Lakers are wiping out the cutthroat trout that made Yellowstone fishing what it is! NOT ACCEPTABLE

Anybody who illegally introduces something should be brought up on the strictest charges possible.

[pharper]

The cutthroat spawn in the tributary streams and migrate to the Lake. This "Adfluvial" lifecycle allows them to grow bigger then if they were just residents of the streams.

Lake trout eat the cutthroats (all sizes), and also eat food that would feed the cuts.

In other lakes there are always compromises made, but generally there is often a large enough prey base to feed Lakers and other fish, or at least where Lakers have been introduced, nobody noticed a difference (few users, not enough info, met the objectives to start a fishery, etc). Lakers weren't introduced to Yellowstone till the mid 80's, and people already have fishery expectations... cutthroats.
I'm not sure what the natural prey base was like in the Lake, but I'm sure the balance has been destroyed and Lakers are preying more on their own young than anything else (my speculation only).

In 2010 there will be the next big trout conference in West Yellowstone, if anybody is interested, it will be a great conference (science).
http://www.wildtroutsymposium.com/
I'm sure the Cutthroat/Lake trout interactions will be one of the topics.

[DShock]

Here is a link that explains why Lake Trout are a threat to Yellowstone Lake Cutthroat : http://www.yellowstonepark.com/MoreT...spx?newsid=153
Doug

[hap]

This past summer a group of us got into the most unreal lake trout fishing imagineable. At what passes for night on the solstice in central Alaska, the red salmon smolts leave the big lakes they have been living in for a year or so and head downstream. That forces them to a river and schools of lake trout hang there waiting for them.

Schools of smolts would suddenly boil to the surface all around us and literally at our feet as the lakers tore into them. Big areas of river surface would erupt and the terns and gulls would start diving.

Big white flies stripped through the schools were hit every cast. It was unreal!

As it got "darker" the birds stopped flying but the smolt activity increased.

I can see where the lakers could have a profound impact on any other species around. But I cannot see where they stand a chance of getting rid of them with the jello... It may be a part of the picture and a method to control, but never eradicate them.
art

[pharper]

Thanks Doug,

Excellent link!!

[DShock]

Yellowstone Lake info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Lake
(20 miles long/ 15 miles wide.)
Relief Map of Yellowstone Lake: (Note, the Yellowstone River entering at extreme north of Map and Bridge Bay (Marina), in northwest corner.)
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/public...emap_large.jpg
Doug