Trout populations

[Dave T]

So i had a long discussion with my uncles last night about how all or almost all of the lakes in BC got populated with trout. My theory was that they populated by themselves, it may have taken 1000's of years but im sure they were able to do it. His theory was that the government flew fish up to remote areas.

So how did they do it?
Does anyone know?

[Zane]

Good question. It will be interesting to see the answers.

[edinshaw]

My 2 cents

There are natural occurring populations of fish and most isolated bodies of water all the fish are there are 'wild". Government hatcheries (and private ones too) "enhance" lakes around populated areas for fishers. There are sites on line that you can find out what fish are being stocked in what lakes and how many. There are "non indigenous" fish (like brown trout on the island, carp, and (I believe) small mouth bass were an introduced species). This practice (of introducing non indigenous species) is generally discouraged now, but make in the early 1900's it was quite common. History has many examples of where introducing new species to an area can have bad repercussions, like the cane toads in Australia or killer bees, there is the chance a new species would take over an ecosystem. For fishers, an important example is millfoil weeds in lakes.

Hmmmm...I seem to have drifted off topic...LOL. Good luck with your next discussion with your Uncle

[scissorbill]

A bit of reading:

http://www.livinglandscapes.bc.ca/cb...almonidae.html

http://www.fisheyesoup.com/article_details/491.html

http://http://bss.sfsu.edu/holzman/c...ow%20trout.htm

http://www.gofishn.com/content/rainbow-trout

Though they are indigenous to B.C. there are quite a few lakes that did not have a resident population and were stocked.
Some unintentionally (those are the secret lakes that were stocked by accident before the advent of GPS and such, when planes dropped them in or they were hiked in).

[Bbulltrout]

I believe through DNA testing they've found that just about all the resident rainbow populations in B.C. came from California and the Queen Charolttes as the Ice cap retreated last Ice Age. In the Interior lots of lakes were populated by what was called the "Bucket Patrol". People taking fish into lakes by horse.

[rkwhite]

Probably 85% were stocked, do a googe search. Gofishbc.com is an awsome resource.

[professori]

Probably 85% were stocked, do a googe search. Gofishbc.com is an awsome resource.

Although large numbers of lakes in the Kamloops area are stocked, that is due to fishing pressure which would deplete wild stocks in short order. Most lakes with rainbows are or were populated by native trout. 85% stocked? Not even close. North of Kamloops there is half a province with lakes and streams teeming with rainbow that, if stocked, must have been stocked by first nations.