Fish-shocking survey reveals trout sabotage in Smokies

WBIR posted a report on their website last night detailing how biologist and volunteers from groups such as Trout Unlimited recently discovered several large rainbow trout swimming in the streams near Tremont.

Rainbow trout are a non-native species that were introduced to the Park by loggers looking to off-set the loss of native brook trout before the Park's establishment.

In recent years the Park has been trying to eradicate rainbows on the Lynn Camp Prong and restore the native brook trout.

"We have found some rainbows and some big ones," said Bubba Allen, volunteer from Trout Unlimited. "It is pretty clear that people have been bringing rainbows back up here so they can fish this stream illegally."

The size of the fish combined with other identifying characteristics clearly indicates that the adult rainbows were recently stocked in the streams by man.

"There were some rainbows around 14 inches in length," said Allen. "Someone had to have brought them up here."

You can read the full article by clicking here. There are a couple of interesting comments at the bottom of the article in which people are suggesting that maybe the rainbows are coming back on their own..... Not being a fisherman, I have no idea if these comments have any merit.


Jeff
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