Park Lakes+ fish?

That’s a really good question and I wish I had a good answer. There should be fish, they have been stocked. We are trying to get surveys from the Park Lakes this year to evaluate survival. The lower lake is an especially tough one. It looks great, but avalanches have deposited a ton of logs in the lake and there are a lot of bubbles from the organic materials decaying. Theoretically, that could cause a dissolved oxygen shortage and prevent fish from surviving the winter. We really need surveys from those lakes to find out how well the fish have made it.

I saw a presentation about the Alpine Lakes Wilderness today at the fly show in bellevue, park lakes was in it and according to them, it does hold fish.

Who put on the show?

3 peaks outfitter. They talked about a bunch of lakes and creeks in the waptus and cooper lakes area. I had a feeling they were stretching the truth a little with the size fo fish though.

I was looking around Three Peaks Outfitters website when I came across this photo. They say this is a brook trout from the Alpine Lakes. Is it just me, or does that look more like a bull trout then a brook trout?

Dolly?

ya, they said it was a dolly around 23″. Caught out of Waptus Lake.

They claimed Dolly in their show? That’s some relief. It is a Waptus Lake bull trout (no Dollys there but they look the same). The website said brook trout and it was quite disturbing to me to have a guide not be able to identify the fish in his area correctly.

Haha, ya, that wouldn’t be a good sign if they couldn’t indentify their fish. Over all though they seemed like a decent guiding service.

Odds are that photo was taken before the rule went into effect, but this is probably a good spot to remind everyone that it is illegal to remove Dolly/bull trout from the water when they are going to be released and they are not legal to keep in Waptus Lake.

Bull Trout!

McPil

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I’ve caught tons of Dollies for over 45 years and the Bull Trout chacteristics are different in appearence than Dollies as far as I am concerned. Liken to characteristics between a Deer Creek native summer-run steelhead and a natural-spawned (in-river) hatchery summer-run on the Nfk Stilly…entirely different appearence but to the untrained eye similar. The Deer Creek native summer-run does not resemble in form those native summer-runs of the Stilly whatsoever. Neither do Dollies and Bull trout IMO and I’d argue it with any Bio.
McPil

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Hmmm. Their website says brook trout.

http://www.3peaksoutfitters.com/ghunting.htm

Being a bull trout fan, I’m sending a friendly reminder. It’s one thing for someone to mis-ID on a trip report but these guys are using it as promotional material to make $$$. Not cool.

Had a nice (email) conversation with Scott, the owner of the service. He seemed like a good guy who understood the implications of BKT vs BT. Caption has been changed to a more ambiguous ‘quality trout’ instead of incorrect Brook Trout.

Re: Park lakes – These lakes have been stocked for decades with many different species , and I have never seen a bona-fide report of fish caught – I was there 2 summers ago and saw no fish food organisms whatsoever in the lower lake in early august.

Fishing in Waptus Lake is excellent at times for both Brooks and Bull trout, and there have been several pics that depict fish that look like Hybrids between the two. WDFW states that those species WILL hybridize, thus a fish that looks externally like a bull trout could well be a hybrid, and thus legal to keep. I thought it was interesting to see the large rafts in the picture – is it possible they were taken in by helicopter (Wilderness).

Has anyone caught a purebred Bull in Wappie lately? It’s my understanding that there have not been any documented catches of them there since 1991.