Quote:
Originally Posted by HunterDave
Sorry, I don't understand this at all.
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I'm saying that the Lower lake could not support a large population of rainbows and cutthroats without stocking. There are limited tributaries to the lake, and those that exist have very cold water and limited room for trout to spawn. Fish need appropriate habitat to spawn, and there simply isn't enough of it to sustain a large lake such as this. So even if we were to make the lake completely catch and release (completely hypothetical argument) and not stock it, not enough spawning could occur to maintain high numbers of trout. It would be even harder with harvest allowed. This is why we are not concerned so much with the spawning and natural reproduction, and also why SRD has designated this as a lake to stock on a regular basis.
I should note that I realize some spawning occurs and therefore some rainbow trout have still been caught, but overall the fish in the lake resulting from spawning are relatively few and far between.
I also am not sure about the bull trout spawning, as I know they have been much more successful. Perhaps this is because they are fall spawners, or they have found the one quality spawning stream and taken over it, or maybe this stream isn't suitable for other trout in the spring. No matter what it is, I realize that the lake is sustaining a healthy population of bull trout and my above argument does not apply to them.