Quote Originally Posted by ScottP View Post
Just read Craig Mathews blog on the Blue Ribbon site http://blue-ribbon-flies.com/blog (post dated 16 Jan, 2011) and he mentioned the whitefish pop had crashed on the Madison. Can't remember the last time I caught one below Quake, although I stick with dries most of the time. Since whities are a pretty good indicator for water quality, this could be of some concern.

Regards,
Scott
... other than the whitefish being a "good indicator of water quality."

Whitefish are one of the few native salmonids we have out here, they have been around "forever", and they are a great sportfish in their own right. I often wonder why so many people seem to view them with disdain ( and that comment is not directed to you, for sure ). The little guys can provide some fun dry fly fishing during the winter when it can be difficult to find trouts, and the bigger fish can provide nonstop nymphing action in the river systems with good whitefish populations when the trout are sleeping off the cold in some deep hole or another.

I don't know this for a fact, but I do believe that whitefish also constitute an important food source for the trouts in the system - in the way of eggs, fry, and smaller whitefish, particularly for the big meat eating brown trout. The crash of a whitefish population might not have implications for the trout in the system so much for what it says about water quality, as it does for the part of the food chain that they constitute.

John