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Fishing: Creek cleanup will not happen overnight
Fifty years ago, Green Drakes disappeared from Spring Creek in Centre County after someone from a Penn State University chemistry lab dumped cyanide into the water. The big mayflies haven't been seen there since. "A bunch of us tried to reintroduce them by planting nymphs in the stream and duns in the foliage," said Dan Shields, of Lamont, Pa., who wrote about the incident in his book "Fly Fishing Pennsylvania's Spring Creek." "We even netted thousands of spinners from another stream, but they never took hold. We tried for three or four years, but it was no use." Although the recent train derailment and chemical spill on Sinnemahoning Portage Creek in Mc-Kean and Cameron counties was much bigger and more deadly, experts are cautiously optimistic that insects will rebound on what had been pristine, wild trout water, but predict a long, slow process.
Utah's Game Fish: Lake Trout
The lake trout, or mackinaw trout, comes in a wide range of colors, from gray to brown to dark green. The distinguishing feature is the light yellowish or white spots that cover the body, from head to tail, and dorsal and tail fins. The other fins are unmarked and lined with white. The tail is sharply forked. Characteristics The lake trout grows and matures more slowly than other fish. After one year they are about six inches in length and when mature range between 19 and 23 inches, usually at the age of four to five. Typically, lake trout run between 5 and 30 pounds. The world record is 72 pounds. The Utah record is 51 pounds, 8 ounces, and was caught in 1988 in Flaming Gorge Reservoir. Smaller lake trout make excellent meals. Larger fish tend to take on an oily taste.
Trout blamed for too much
WITH the new trout fishing season upon us, I think that my recent discovery is timely. Among some old papers which were stacked in a box under my house, I found a report concerning the native spotted tree frog, Litorea spenceri, which was threatened with extinction some time before 1990, although the report I have is dated 1997. The main theme of the report was that these threatened frogs were declining in numbers as a result of being eaten by rainbow trout. To help the dwindling frog numbers there was a scheme afoot, involving the Victorian Government and then Department of Environment, to withdraw or eradicate rainbow trout from streams in the Mt Buffalo National Park in particular, in an effort to halt this alarming decline in frog numbers. Both rainbow trout and brown trout are exotic fish species, being introduced into Australia from the US and England respectively in the late 19th century.
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