Date:
May 13, 2007
Notes:
My Bull Trout honey hole from my college days. A very small individual compared to a fish I caught in August 1996 that measured almost 25" and approx. 6 lbs.. I LOVE BULL TROUT!!!!!
BRING EM' BACK TO THE MCCLOUD!!!!!!!
Ned
Pictures:
Location
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Comments
Bull Trout in the McCloud
Hey Ned,
I read somewhere that there have been efforts in the past to return bull trout to the McCloud, but they didn't "take" once they were stocked in the river. True? Not true? I fully agree that there should be bulls in their home waters, but I'm curious to know about this failure in the past.
--Fly Guy Dave
True
Fish were brought in from a Southern Oregon Stream in 1990 and planted in a creek above McCloud Res. near Wyntoon (Hearst Corp. Property). The following year only one fish was retrieved and by year 2 they were gone. Does not help that there are brook and brown trout in that part of the drainage. May have been the wrong type of Bull to plant in there, however I fully understand why DFG picked this particular strain of Bull Trout as it has the closest genetic resemblance to the fish that went extinct in the McCloud in 1976. My feeling is that maybe a larger Adfluvial fish like the ones in Lake Billy Chinook OR that compete with numerous introduced Trout as well as warmwater fish be tried. The niche may not work as the biomass of McCloud Res. is nothing compared to the Metolius/Billy Chinook/Deschutes Drainage. Other possibility would be to plant above the falls of the McCloud with a much smaller fluvial type fish, but one that isn't their native drainage and two that is McCloud Redband native water. These are just several of the many, many, many issues clouding a re-introduction, however just keeping the conversation going keeps the dream alive. Once the Bull Trout is forgotten about and when people no longer know of it's previous existance in the McCloud River, then it really goes extinct forever.