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Hundreds of brook trout released into the lake Wednesday by Wilson, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife technician, represent the next best experiment in boosting Fish Lake's angling opportunities while biting back on its growing tui chub problem. The fish were trapped at Gold Lake, where the brook trout are considered unwanted pests that have trampled a popular rainbow trout fishery near Willamette Pass. Instead of finding themselves dead and buried like past brook trout there, these fish instead are expected to turn their predatory instincts on Fish Lake's chubs and grow to sizes that will lure anglers from Medford and beyond. "If they take off in Fish Lake, maybe they can prey on those chubs and provide a different kind of fishing opportunity there," says Chuck Fustish, an ODFW fisheries biologist working on the project. Advertisement "I think it'll be a real positive program," Fustish says. "We'll see what happens." The experiment is a welcome gesture at the lake, where the presence of tui chub threaten to damage the rainbow trout fishery and eventually over-run the lake much like chub did at Diamond Lake. But the chub levels are not near that level, in part because of a small, remnant population of brook trout from past ODFW stocking at Fish Lake. Fish Lake Resort owner Jim Blodgett hopes these new brook trout will jump-start the chub predation and trigger a two-tier fishery there for rainbows and quality brook trout. "More fish," Blodgett says, "can't hurt us." The experiment is one way to lessen the hurt on Oregon's hatchery rainbow program caused by a disease outbreak at Butte Falls Hatchery. Adult steelhead carrying the natural IHN virus apparently migrated above Butte Falls' water intake during last winter's storms, infecting the hatchery's water supplies. ODFW policy is not to stock trout from an IHN-infected hatchery in an IHN-free lake like Fish Lake. So biologists are scrambling to fill the stocking schedules at lakes throughout Oregon, borrowing fish from IHN-free hatcheries to meet the rainbow needs at virus-free waters like Fish Lake. "It's a big enough deal to go looking for trout elsewhere," Fustish says. One such elsewhere is Gold Lake, a 100-acre water body near Odell Lake just southeast of Oakridge. Once teeming with enough big rainbow trout that this flies-only lake became a haven for fly-rodders in float tubes battling big trout that were all required to be released. Then an uninvited cousin came to town, and the trophy lake hasn't been the same. Brook trout found their way into Gold Lake, likely washed in from a nearby waterway during a winter storm. They thrived in the cold, insect-rich lake and began out-muscling the wimpier rainbows for food and space. "Brook trout are just really aggressive fish," says Erik Moberly, an ODFW fish biologist stationed in Springfield. "Nine out of 10 times, they'll out-compete a rainbow." By the early 1990s, the brook trout explosion showed a marked decline in the number and size of rainbow trout, despite no restrictions on brook trout limits. In the mid '90s, ODFW biologists began firing back. They set net traps, capturing hundreds of live brook and rainbow trout at a time. The rainbows were released. The brook trout weren't so lucky. "When they started, they just dug a hole and buried them," Moberly says. In recent years, the trapped brook trout ended up released in nearby Charleston Lake. With the stocking dilemma here, ODFW biologist Dan VanDyke in Central Point remembered Gold Lake from his days in the Springfield office. So he asked for, and received, this year's fish. A truckload last week yielded about 400 brook trout. Wednesday's haul was 600. They measure 5 inches to 16 inches, Moberly says. The goal was to get 12,000 brook trout into Fish Lake this year, Fustish says. But poor trapping success this year means just the 1,000 fish will make the trip to Fish Lake this year. Fustish believes the brook trout will focus on the small chubs for food, and hopefully will provide more room for rainbows to flex their muscles there. If brook and rainbow trout flourish, Fish Lake will become a two-fish lake. "We have no idea," Fustish says, "until we try it." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] . Advertisement Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback online casinos news Home Security Systems Windermere Van Vleet Men's Clothing Southern Oregon Loans --> GMAT Prep Fundraisers Send Flowers Texas Electric Choice Entertainment Guide --> Casinos Canada Trunks, Footlocker Online Casino Reviews Online poker at AbsolutePoker.com