I live on the Metolius River in Oregon part of the summer. A July 2 story reported “Underwater competition: Bull trout make a return.” Before the bull trout was introduced a couple of years ago, we had thousands of kokanee surfacing for bugs all day long. We had fishermen, bald eagles and osprey from 6 in the morning until dark working the food chain. The Forest Service or the Confederate Tribes of Warm Springs had to reintroduce the bull trout and many of the former activities have disappeared.
Our federal government has spent millions of your money on two fish ladders to reintroduce salmon and steelhead to Lake Billy Chinook and the program is just getting started. I guess we’ll see how many of the eggs and small ones get eaten by the bull trout before going to sea. The bull trout is a sucker fish that the anglers don’t even come to fish. Do you ever see it in the stores for sale?
Gary Benke
Vancouver
