Utah Bombing Their Lakes

[Quillback]

I used to fish the alpine lakes in Washington, they do get fished, and in general need to be stocked every 3 - 5 years depending on fishing pressure. Some great fishing can be had, but there are times when you make that 5 mile hike and find the lake you want to fish has been fished out. In some of the lakes the trout reproduce, and can do well on their own, usually they have a feeder stream to spawn in, others where they can't spawn, get stocked.

Recently, they've stopped stocking the lakes in the national parks in Washington, as in their natural state, they did not contain trout. The trout can prey on native salamanders, and frogs and what not, so no more trout stocked in those lakes.

The state did some airplane stocking, but in recent years they've made back pack portable plastic bags that are filled with water and air, and can hold 500 fingerlings. Volunteers carry them in to the lakes that are still stocked and release them.

[Feathers and Fins]

I use to Hike in to High Sierra lakes and the lake was just the cherry on the top of the cake. That 5 to 10 mile hike through some of the most beautiful country was the cake. If all you want to do is catch fish go to a pay to play facility if you want to be with nature then those lakes certainly offer it and most times not another soul would be present or seen and you had the woods to yourself and bigfoot.

[rainbow]

California stocks the lakes in the high Sierra by air. Some of those lakes are ice covered 9 months a year but will hold some very nice fish. When I lived out there you could hike to isolated lakes and catch some good ones in summer. Many of those lakes have inflow snow melt inlets and outlets so there is some spawning. When I lived out there the daily trout limit was 10 and I used to fish the upper American river way up in the mountains. On opening morning one year I found a high mountain access to the river that had quite a few people waiting to fish and when it was time no one could catch anything. I was using worms I dug in the garden and had a limit in less than an hour. When I left I gave the worms to some kids who immediately began catching fish. I guess this dumb his from Missouri showed those folks how to catch them and I had never trout fished before.

[Haris122]

I have a hard time believing that most of those fish don't die from that stocking.