Feds Net 73,000 Lake Trout From Yellowstone Lake: Yellowstone Cutthroats Bounce Back… Barely
By Tom Chandler on Oct 22, 2007 in Environment
The lake trout population in Yellowstone Lake continues to grow — even as biologists gill-net more than 73,000 of the Yellowstone Cutthroat-eating things this season. From the Billings Gazette (found via Ralph Maughan’s Wildlife News):
At Yellowstone National Park, the uphill struggle continues to catch and kill as many non-native lake trout as possible to preserve dwindling numbers of native Yellowstone cutthroat trout. Lake trout eat the cutts in great numbers.
Park Service crews pulled in their last nets of the year Tuesday, ending yet another record catch on the lake. The six-month gill-netting effort killed 73,279 lake trout, said Patricia Bigelow, a Yellowstone fisheries biologist who oversees the program. That’s 13,000 more than were caught last year and twice the number netted two years ago.
It’s not all bad news for the Cutthroat, and the netting program may be having some effect:
Checks at 11 sites around Yellowstone Lake showed more Yellowstone cutthroats than had been seen since 1998, Bigelow said.
And fewer large lake trout were caught this year - the biggest was 22.4 pounds - indicating there might be fewer big appetites hunting for Yellowstone cutthroats.
The Park Service spends $400K per year on the netting program. What do they do with the Lake Trout? They’re killed and dropped back in the lake.
Maybe an Undergrounder with some experience in the matter can tell us what Lake Trout taste like.
Technorati Tags: fishing, fly fishing, yellowstone cutthroat trout, lake trout, yellowstone lake
Alex | Oct 22, 2007 | Reply
I’ve never eaten good lake trout.
Tom Chandler | Oct 22, 2007 | Reply
That might explain why they’re dumping them back in the lake.
Alex | Oct 22, 2007 | Reply
It might. I wonder if it’s good smoked?
my wife's cook | Oct 22, 2007 | Reply
butter and garlic. preheat a cast iron skillet
(not one of those teflon thingies), 2 tbl spns
butter, chopped garlic, ground black pepper.
take lake trout chops, not fillets, and press them in a bowl of flour. the chops will have
been marinating in beer for several hours,
a golden amber works well. drop the chops in the skillet turning over when browned on each side. Turn no more than 5 or 6 times. A one
inch chop should cook within 12-15 minutes,
you can also cover for the first 8-10 minutes
when you turn them. serve with lemon wedge and
your favorite golden amber ale.
Tom Chandler | Oct 22, 2007 | Reply
I read the comments to the story; they aren’t even trying to salvage the lake trout in the net because most have already been dead for a while.
To salvage those that aren’t dead they’d have to ice them, transport them to shore, ice ‘em again… you get the picture.
Thanks for the recipe.
Sully | Oct 23, 2007 | Reply
The prefered use of any lake trout is as biofuel.
Tom Chandler | Oct 23, 2007 | Reply
You can run a diesel truck on lake trout? If so, I’m expanding the pond at the new Trout Underground World Headquarters and buying a truck…
Sully | Oct 23, 2007 | Reply
The main reason New England engaged in whaling is solely because whales are larger than lake trout- not because they are oilier.
Apparently some people are also capable of making allegory out of the whaling enterprise. Snap out of it English Majors: we’re facing an energy crunch!
Lake trout must yield twice-as-many BTUs per unit mass than blubber.
Their relative palatability remains a toss-up.
DaveM | Oct 23, 2007 | Reply
They smoke up nicely.
dave
Clay | Oct 24, 2007 | Reply
Lake Trout are very “oily” . If prepared properly they are ok. We have done them on the grill before with garlic and butter but I would not go out of my way to get some. Pretty much not worth the effort. Hey Dave, how do you keep them lit, do you roll them or use a pipe?
Philip | Oct 24, 2007 | Reply
It probably does some good to drop their corpses in the lake: more protein for the system. Anyway, just like Dolly Varden (which they are, basically), they make a very nice chowder, or are good cooked any way trout are cooked. If they live in certain waters (just as trout) they will acquire a “dirt-y” flavor, and three’s nothing I have ever found to deal with that. Some people soak them in salad dressing, etc. to mask the flavor, the way one might with kiddie “fish-pond” fish.
Tom Chandler | Oct 24, 2007 | Reply
I think the long-term effects of simply removing all that biomass from the lake would be a problem — hence the return.
I vote for Alert Underground Reader/Official Food Taster Sully to create a strong Lake Trout Cioppino and let us know how it tastes. It’s a natural given his obvious love for the fish.
Hey — everyone’s gotta take a bullet for the cause now and again…
Sully | Oct 25, 2007 | Reply
Ed Zern, “How to Dispose of Dead Fish”, 1945-
A recent survey showed that roughly two-thirds of all fishermen never eat fish. This should surprise nobody. Fish is brain food. People who eat fish have large, well-developed brains. People with large, well-developed brains don’t fish. It’s that simple.
Tom Chandler | Oct 25, 2007 | Reply
But Sully, I’m handing you the opportunity to single-handedly reverse that ugly trend.
You could be the man that brought elevated levels of mercury back into every household (and brain).