05-11-2007, 11:13 PM
As for the rest of the comments made on this post, and many are very good, I'm not touching the cutthroat thing, as I don't see that as a Gorge issue. It's not a cutthroat lake.
As for the burbot, I'll go on record, (probably the ONLY PERSON), as saying that I'm not at all worried about the burbot. I see them as an additional food source for the lake trout, and the only fish in the Gorge that is decent table fare by my own personal standards. So, I now have a food source, and the lakers have another one also.
I've fished many lakes in the far north with burbot and giant lake trout. Maybe the comparison isn't sound, but until I see a noticable number of skinny lake trout that have reached maturity, I'm not concerned. As I started this post by saying, they have plenty to eat at this time, and have had for the past two decades.
I also don't advocate putting chubs or some other fish in here from some other reservoir. That's how diseases and other harmful organisms are spread.
If I were in charge, we'd stock the hell out of rainbows and kokanee, make it illegal to kill any lake trout over 28 inches, and watch the lakers grow to enormous sizes in the next two decades. That's it. Very simple.
And as to the origin of the Burbot, they came down the Green River drainage from up around Big Sandy. How they originally got in there is still being debated. Some say Wyo. did it, some say bucket biologists. That's the story I've heard repeatedly, including from a WGF biologist who I respect and admire.
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As for the burbot, I'll go on record, (probably the ONLY PERSON), as saying that I'm not at all worried about the burbot. I see them as an additional food source for the lake trout, and the only fish in the Gorge that is decent table fare by my own personal standards. So, I now have a food source, and the lakers have another one also.
I've fished many lakes in the far north with burbot and giant lake trout. Maybe the comparison isn't sound, but until I see a noticable number of skinny lake trout that have reached maturity, I'm not concerned. As I started this post by saying, they have plenty to eat at this time, and have had for the past two decades.
I also don't advocate putting chubs or some other fish in here from some other reservoir. That's how diseases and other harmful organisms are spread.
If I were in charge, we'd stock the hell out of rainbows and kokanee, make it illegal to kill any lake trout over 28 inches, and watch the lakers grow to enormous sizes in the next two decades. That's it. Very simple.
And as to the origin of the Burbot, they came down the Green River drainage from up around Big Sandy. How they originally got in there is still being debated. Some say Wyo. did it, some say bucket biologists. That's the story I've heard repeatedly, including from a WGF biologist who I respect and admire.
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