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@smckean wrote:
BTW, the title of this thread is misleading.
I presume the OP’er is referring to the North Cascades Nat’l Park EIS on fish stocking that was just released by the Park Service. Note that there is ANOTHER document written several months ago by the Wa Dept of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) entitled “North Cascades National Park High Lakes Fishery Management” (it can be found on the TB’er website) which is very close to a true management plan that the subject of this thread suggests. The EIS is NOT a management plan altho there are many components in it that could be used in a management plan.
DO NOT CONFUSE THESE 2 DOCUMENTS.
The EIS is also the proposed management plan and it titled “North Cascades National Park Service Complex Draft Mountain Lakes Fishery Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement.” and from the first page “Upon conclusion of the plan/EIS and decision-making process, one of the four alternatives would become the ‘Mountain Lakes Fishery Management Plan’ and guide future actions for a period of 15 years.”
smckean raises a good point and one that is very interesting in the history of fish stocking in the NCNP. During the seventies and eighties when the park was trying hard to eliminate fish stocking their idea was to allow reproducing fish to remain to provide a high lakes fishery. Trail Blazers, Hi-Lakers and the then Dept of Game responded very negatively to this. Now our position has been vindicated by the Liss and Larson research. The park had it exactly backwards and what should continue, for maximum biological integrity, is low density stocking while the high density spawning fish should be removed or reduced.
What drove the Park Service to discontinue stocking in national parks was the Leopold Report in 1973. Trail Blazers were particularly upset because we had specifically asked about fish stocking during the hearings prior to creation of the park and had been assured stocking would continue. That’s one of the primary reasons we are where we are today with the NCNP. Like the national parks in CA fish stocking was ended in Mt Rainier and Olympic National Parks in the early seventies and we have no recourse there. You can read more on the historical case for fish stocking in the NCNP and the Trail Blazers’ initial response during the EIS scoping process here.
Vandalism from 4-footed critters is something I’ve experienced. My Explorer got mauled in Idaho. Here are some photos.
I just got my copy today and I haven’t had a chance to open it yet. We have 90 days to comment on this and it is extremely important everyone get comments in. This process may well have implications that reach well beyond the park and I strongly urge anyone with any interest in high lake fishing to get involved.
I’ll have more to say when I’ve had a chance to read it. So far, they don’t have it available on the web. Here’s the link to the North Cascades National Park page. There is a ton of background information available there.
I haven’t been there in the last year, but in normal years it would probably be too early in June. This is such a low snow year, though, that June might not be bad. The route in can be much more brushy and difficult in the spring when the water in the creek is high.
I climbed it in ’76, but hadn’t fished any of the lakes in the blast zone when the mountain erupted. From what I’ve been able to gather, fishing wasn’t too much different then it is now. For the decade or so after the blast fishing in many of the lakes that had been overpopulated with naturally reproducing fish was improved with the influx of nutrients and reduced populations, but most of those lakes have returned to their pre-blast overpopulated status.
It is a popular a destination as you can find. Normally that means fishing should be lousy, but I’m guessing the vast majority of the people that visit the lake don’t fish. I’ve never fished it, so I don’t know how it is, but it ought to be worth a try.
Hi giantbrookie, it is great to have you posting on the site. There are a lot of issues we have in common with California high lakes, and some that differ (we don’t have any mountain yellow legged frogs) so I hope you’ll stick around and join in the discussions.
I do have to note here that to get these large fish pics represent one heck of a lot of lake visits. What you’ll probably enjoy most about a trip up in these parts is how different the mountains are from the ones down in your area.
The WDFW is still getting eggs from California. I think it is reasonable speculation that we won’t get any eggs this year (nor may CA) because of the record snows, but the state’s current plan is to continue to get goldens from CA.
Because we have not been able to obtain eggs from CA in some years, we are proposing that the WDFW set up a broodstock lake to help ensure more consistant fry availability but no brood program has been put in place at this time.
The new owners of SMC, Moolock, and Nadeau is the state DNR.
Figure on two years to start to get anything resembling something worth catching. At one extreme, where the lake is very productive, the fry planted were reasonably large, and they were planted very early in the season you might get catchable fish by the fall. At the other extreme, if an unproductive lake was stocked late in the season the fry might not get much, if any, growth before the lake becomes ice covered and it might take 3 or more years to start to get catchable fish.
Overall, I’ve been really lucky. We got broken into at the Suiattle trailhead when I was a kid. That was back in the seventies some time. The only time I’ve been broken into since then was by a bear.
I drove up to the Dingford Creek TH one morning and found three vehicles with one tire slashed each and all had been broken into. One had broken glass on their open glove compartment so leaving it open didn’t help.
Every so often the thefts get really bad, then they catch the culprits and things slow down a bit until someone else starts working the trailheads.
Some people do refer to westslope cutthroat as Montana black spots so it gets very confusing. But the fish that were stocked locally as Montana black spots were Yellowstone cutthroat. They stopped stocking them when the supply from Yellowstone lake was cut off. These days varieties of cutthroat native to the drainage in which they are being stocked is the norm. So coastal cutts are being stocked on the west side and westslope cutts on the east side. Around Yellowstone you’ll find Yellowstone cutts in the high lakes, and so on with other varieties and other areas.
None of them are going to be super hot fishing, but they all have fish. I’d probably choose Beaver Plant because if the fish aren’t biting there you can try other lakes near by.
Tough question. It depends on what you’re looking for, really. The most scenic is probably Barclay. Baring towers over head and it is truly impressive. But even though you won’t find solitude at any of these lakes Barclay is the one most likely to be a zoo. Boardman is nice, but I’d be inclined to go there when you can keep going past to the lakes above. I think I’d take Beaver Plant because if there are people around then you can go on to the Ashlands or Twin Falls.
