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80skeys
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PostMon Jul 27, 2020 2:14 pm 
Wondering what the fishing is like in and around the 7 Lakes Basin area? I'm thinking it's probably all trout, smaller streams and alpine lakes? Are the streams too small up in that area? What about farther downstream on the Hoh and Sol Duc rivers towards the west? Larger rivers at that point? Steelhead?

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Ski
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PostMon Jul 27, 2020 9:13 pm 
ONP streams and rivers: All waters in Olympic National PARK which are OPEN* for angling are: catch and release ONLY lures and flies ONLY single barbless hooks ONLY Check current regulations at the Park's website. (* some rivers have been closed during the last few seasons to ALL sportfishing due to low return numbers of anadromous salmonids. *) (* edited 07/28/20 @ 12:23 PDT *)

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Bedivere
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PostMon Jul 27, 2020 11:16 pm 
Ski wrote:
All waters in Olympic National PARK which are OPEN* for angling are: catch and release ONLY lures and flies ONLY single barbless hooks ONLY Check current regulations at the Park's website. (* some rivers have been closed during the last few seasons to ALL sportfishing due to low return numbers of anadromous salmonids. *)
A couple points of clarification - Lakes are different than rivers. Alpine lakes are pretty unrestricted compared to rivers (barbed hooks, bait allowed, combined daily limit of 5 rainbow and/or cutthroat trout, no limit on brook trout, no minimum size limits). Link to regs: https://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/fishing.htm

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80skeys
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PostTue Jul 28, 2020 8:48 am 
Thanks for the links. Will likely be mostly be lake fishing due to that's where we'll be camping out most nights. Question for people familiar with the area: are those lakes stocked, or is it native fish? Besides Hoh and Deer Lakes, any others contain fish?

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Sculpin
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PostTue Jul 28, 2020 10:33 am 
Everything you need to know about Olympic High Lakes fisheries: https://wdfw.wa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/00939/wdfw00939.pdf ...which contains the following nugget: Strictly speaking, virtually all fish stocked into Washington’s high lakes are exotic to the lakes themselves since the vast majority of the lakes were fishless since the last glaciation.

Between every two pines is a doorway to the new world. - John Muir
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Brian Curtis
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PostTue Jul 28, 2020 10:52 am 
To be sure we are all on the same page, there are basically three terms that can apply to fish in high lakes: Stocked: As the term implies, these are fish that were stocked in a lake. Wild: These are fish that naturally reproduce in a lake, but derived from fish that were stocked. Native: These are fish that naturally reproduce in a lake that got there naturally. As mentioned in Sculpin's quote above, there are only a handful of high lakes in the state with native fish. There are no native fish in ONP high lakes. There are no stocked fish in ONP high lakes (fish can no longer be stocked in ONP). Many high lakes on ONP have wild fish.

that elitist from silverdale wanted to tell me that all carnes are bad--Studebaker Hoch
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Bedivere
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PostTue Jul 28, 2020 11:20 am 
Brian Curtis wrote:
There are no native fish in ONP high lakes. There are no stocked fish in ONP high lakes (fish can no longer be stocked in ONP). Many high lakes on ONP have wild fish.
Something I forgot to mention in my previous post - hasn't the park service been working on eliminating fish in many lakes? If so, doesn't bode well for fishing opportunities there.

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PostTue Jul 28, 2020 12:15 pm 
Thank you for weighing in on this, Mr. Curtis. Hopefully your comments will eliminate any confusion. I've gotten different comments and reports over the years from different ONP staffers (both fisheries biologists and law enforcement officers) which would not be appropriate to post here on a public forum, hence my very broad-based response above (which applies primarily to streams - I'm not a lake fisherman.) In response to Sir Bedivere's question above, it's probably best if I send it via P/M.

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."
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Brian Curtis
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PostTue Jul 28, 2020 1:45 pm 
Bedivere wrote:
Something I forgot to mention in my previous post - hasn't the park service been working on eliminating fish in many lakes?
Indeed they are. I am not sure if ONP has eliminated reproducing fish from any lakes, yet. They have in MRNP and NCNP.

that elitist from silverdale wanted to tell me that all carnes are bad--Studebaker Hoch
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80skeys
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PostTue Jul 28, 2020 6:59 pm 
That doesn't make any sense. What would be the reason for "eliminating" the fish in high mountain lakes??

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Brian Curtis
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PostTue Jul 28, 2020 8:26 pm 
Because the National Park Service's mission is to preserve native species that are in conflict with introduced fish. But beyond that general ideal, we now know that when fish overpopulate lakes, as they are likely to do when they can naturally reproduce, they can harm native amphibians and alter zooplankton populations. If they are not native to this area (i.e. eastern brook) they may be able to drop down stream and compete with native fish populations. Fish stocked periodically in low densities can co-exist with native species. So the ONP's priorities will be to remove excessively over-reproducing populations that are doing the most damage. National park lakes were stocked until the early seventies. It was the release of the Leopold Report that kicked off the changes in management that lead to a cessation of fish stocking.

that elitist from silverdale wanted to tell me that all carnes are bad--Studebaker Hoch
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PostTue Jul 28, 2020 9:46 pm 
80skeys wrote:
What would be the reason for "eliminating" the fish in high mountain lakes??
The founding legislation which created Olympic National Park charges the National Park Service with "protecting and preserving the native flora and fauna". To that end, a concerted effort is being made throughout the National Park system to remove and eliminate any and all non-indigenous species of both flora and fauna. This includes, but is not limited to, non-native fish. In the larger picture, getting rid of the fish in the upland lakes is a relatively easy task. The bigger challenge is eliminating the non-native invasive species of introduced plants which have invaded National Parks. As to the "why", it's because what makes those places unique and special enough to be designated as National Parks is that they are different from the homogenized, compromised, and adulterated American landscape outside the Park borders.

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."
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80skeys
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PostTue Jul 28, 2020 10:39 pm 
So really what you're saying is that they screwed up by ever stocking the lakes in the first place. I can buy that, but the thing that still doesn't make sense is: some of the downstream rivers which have native fish (steelhead) come from the high mountain lakes in the Park, which means those lakes had to have had native fish at some point.

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PostTue Jul 28, 2020 11:04 pm 
huh? I can't comment as to whether or not the previous management of the upland lakes was a "screw up", other than to submit that introducing any non-indigenous species of flora or fauna into an ecosystem brings with it unintended, unforeseen, and (more often than not) negative consequences. I would posit that at the time it was being done, those in the position of making those decisions believed it was the correct course of action. On the flip side, there were people who believed that dropping mountain goats onto the Olympic Peninsula was the right thing to do, and there were those who believed moving the mongoose to Hawaii was the right thing to do, and there were those who believed hauling rabbits to Australia was the right thing to do. As to the steelhead trout, they spawn in the upper reaches of cold-water streams, not lakes. With the exception of the "kokanee", all anadromous salmonid species are denizens of rivers and streams, from egg to spawning adult.

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."
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Brian Curtis
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PostWed Jul 29, 2020 6:47 am 
80skeys wrote:
the thing that still doesn't make sense is: some of the downstream rivers which have native fish (steelhead) come from the high mountain lakes in the Park, which means those lakes had to have had native fish at some point.
Just the opposite. Fish colonized Puget Sound basin lakes, streams, and rivers from the ocean up after the glaciers retreated from the last ice age. They could only populate areas not blocked by barrier falls.

that elitist from silverdale wanted to tell me that all carnes are bad--Studebaker Hoch
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