Lake trout in the Flathead: The other side of the story

The column on non-native lake trout in Flathead Lake by Trout Unlimited in the Hungry Horse News on March 28 is misleading and inaccurate. I feel the “rest of the story” needs to be shared with you, our readers.

I understand concerns over the predation of native species by lake trout, and I, too, share concerns over the fishery in the Flathead. But let’s give the general public some facts you seem to have omitted.

Your opinion: You stated that 10 million kokanee salmon disappeared in the 1990s, consumed by an exploding lake trout population.

Fact: Yes, lake trout ate their share of malnourished salmon. But for a hundred years prior, lake trout and kokanee lived in the lake together. Ask any angler from the ‘50s to the early ‘80s, and they will tell you how excellent and plentiful their catch (and eating) of kokanee was.

The introduction of mysis shrimp in 1984 by “well-meaning” state fisheries managers caused the numbers of kokanee to plummet because the mysis consumed the greater population of zooplankton, which is the kokanee’s primary food source.

The deep-dwelling mysis became an incredible food opportunity for growing lake trout. Hence, the abundant salmon fishery that took only a few years to collapse was caused chiefly by starvation. The predation by lake trout finished off what the mysis started.

Another fact: Kokanee angling numbers dropping 50 percent, and lost tourism dollars from absent bald eagle viewers were both caused by mismanagement. Charging the lake trout for this outcome is like blaming an athlete who does exactly what his coach tells him and then loses the game.

Yet another fact: Elimination of large numbers of lake trout would substantially increase mysis numbers and cause large algae blooms in the lake, deteriorating water quality for many resident species.

Your opinion: Lake trout can only be caught by fishermen with large boats and expensive, specialized gear.

Fact: In spring as the lake rises, and particularly in fall when lake trout spawn in the shallows, anglers can cast lures, flies or bait from any lake or river shoreline and easily achieve success in bringing home delicious meals for their family, or releasing if they so choose. I’ve witnessed float-tubers catching lake trout any time of year, myself included.

Your opinion: You stated that the tribe’s netting efforts can accomplish an increase in native species populations.

Fact: At what cost? Trap and/or gill-netting (not just netting, as you blandly stated) will indiscriminately capture and kill far too many of the native cutthroat and bull trout, numbers already low, thereby negating the desired result.

This netting idea is a very unscientific gamble that would result in a lake with ridiculously few catchable sport fish, leaving an overabundance of trash fish and algae.

The current netting proposal by the Confederated Salish-Kootenai tribe has the very real possibility of ruining what fishery we currently have, leaving us with virtually no opportunity of catching any edible species. Then 100 percent of anglers could disappear from the lake, as well as the fish. And what a negative economic impact that would be.

Mismanagement (by private individuals, i.e. bucket-biologists, as well as agencies) has a lot to answer for. A hard lesson and one well learned: “It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature.” But what is done is done, and mysis shrimp are here to stay. They have never been eradicated from lakes as deep as Flathead. Consequently, lake trout thriving on the shrimp are here to stay as well. Why not admit that fact?

I sympathize with upper Flathead enthusiasts and their concern for dwindling cutthroat or bull trout numbers, but not at the expense of wiping out the lower Flathead fishery. Your support of netting lake trout for the betterment of your preferred fishery is unfair and destructive to the health of the big lake.

I don’t claim to have definitive answers. I fear there are none. It’s been proven how a poorly conceived (mysis) plan turns into an error of gigantic proportions that we are still reeling from. Let’s not support the tribe’s effort to throw the baby out with the bath water in a vain attempt to improve chances for native fish. There are many who live here who thoroughly enjoy catching and eating lake trout and consider it to be a privilege to do so.

And Trout Unlimited, please get your facts straight and quit misleading the public, whether intentionally or not, with incorrect statements and half-truths in order to sway them into supporting unscientific and unrealistic attempts at controlling the non-native (a popular buzz word) lake trout in Flathead Lake.

Jim Sticka lives on Woods Bay on Flathead Lake.