03-18-2008, 03:13 PM
Just a quote from the above article I posted: "We found relatively few lake trout between 21 and 30 inches.." That is the bottleneck I spoke of..."By contrast, 1979 length-frequencies were dominated by lake trout between 25 and 35 inches. Our study found that lake trout can grow from 20 to 30 inches in < 5 years and then spend the remainder of their lives between 30 and 40 inches. In addition, the high exploitation rate (16%) of lake trout at this size could potentially remove 60% of all individuals before they reach 30 inches. Even more important, a lack of adequate forage may prevent some lake trout from exceeding 20 inches in length. Donald and Alger (1986) reported that indadequate forage prevented mature lake trout in a Canadian lake from reaching even one pound."
"Growth of individual lake trout is highly variable. Highest growth rates were observed for lake trout 25 to 30 inches in length. A review of the food habits of lake trout at this size reveals that these fish are entirely piscivorous. At age nine, seven of the recaptured lake trout from the 1991 stocking were less than 20 inches, while three were between 20 and 25 inches, and seven were > 25 inches. It appears that some individuals never convert to a fish diet and consequently never reach lengths >22 inches."
The fish mentioned in the article above is hardly surprising...especially since both Wyoming and Utah fish managers have been saying for years that Flaming Gorge doesn't have adequate forage to support the lake trout population. So, because the forage isn't adequate, a bottlenece develops where only a few fish are able to squeeze through and reach trophy sizes. Age is definitely not the key determining factor for lake trout sizes...but diet.
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"Growth of individual lake trout is highly variable. Highest growth rates were observed for lake trout 25 to 30 inches in length. A review of the food habits of lake trout at this size reveals that these fish are entirely piscivorous. At age nine, seven of the recaptured lake trout from the 1991 stocking were less than 20 inches, while three were between 20 and 25 inches, and seven were > 25 inches. It appears that some individuals never convert to a fish diet and consequently never reach lengths >22 inches."
The fish mentioned in the article above is hardly surprising...especially since both Wyoming and Utah fish managers have been saying for years that Flaming Gorge doesn't have adequate forage to support the lake trout population. So, because the forage isn't adequate, a bottlenece develops where only a few fish are able to squeeze through and reach trophy sizes. Age is definitely not the key determining factor for lake trout sizes...but diet.
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