Silver Lake excursion

[Jig like a spider monkey!]

It's the same thing as when you cross a horse and a donkey.... You get a mule (that retains traits of both Parents) but can't reproduce.   I'm not really sure why it's that way, but that's what happens.  Tiger muskies are sterile also... Same reason.   So basically, when bull trout spawn with a brook trout, their offspring are essentially wasted and don't contribute to maintaining the population, and the population  decreases .... Unless the brookies are removed from the system, the bull trout population will remain depressed and runs the risk of blinking out.  It doesn't mean we have to necessarily run out and try to eliminate all brook trout, but maybe try to manage the fisheries in such a way to give bull trout  a better chance (example: increasing limit on brookies in certain streams)

[Jig like a spider monkey!]

Very interesting info JLASM...This topic has become quite fascinating to me...Heck, I've even learned a couple things...Thank you for contributing your time & knowledge to this subject...Take care!!!

I'm a native Montanan first, a fisherman second, and a fish biologist third (in that order)    I enjoy "talking fish" with other fisherman alot more than with most of my colleagues... Sometimes it's much more informative!  I'm finally getting the chance to get back to do some ice fishing on Georgetown the first week of March... Not alot of ice fishing here in the Portland area....  Gotta get my fix! 

[CarpCopRetired]

With regards to the comments about “food base”, back some thirty years ago I experienced one of the many amazing, exciting activities in my life by making my first SCUBA dive. We did a shore dive on the west side near where the storage buildings are now.

During our roughly forty minute dive, we went out to about the thirty foot depth. The only fish that I saw on that dive were Sculpins. I did not keep count, but they were everywhere I would look.
 
We did find a neat souvenir, a six or seven inch long Rapala type crank bait. There was a two ounce bell type sinker on what seemed like fifty pound test monofilament line.

[fishinwithbrittanies]

first let me start by saying I've really enjoyed reading this...

I have a question in regards to hybrids that I've always wondered.  I hate to derail this thread by being off topic, so my apologies if it does......

Mangament agencies use tiger muskie as a management fish often because they are hybrids and can't reproduce.  They can stock them, they work in the system until they expire.  They never need to worry about population explosions because they can't reproduce.

Why don't they hybridize bait minnows???  I've always thought that would answer the live bait dilemma. 
Anybody else ever wonder this?

[Mogi]

Are the brookbull hybrids as identifiable as say a cuttbow? Seems like it would be tough to decifer what is or isn't a pure bull trout

[missoulafish]

From what I remember, it's was determined at a DNA level if they were hybridized. You couldn't always just look and determine.

[Skalkaho]

Female  Hunter reproduces with fisherman....Sportsman!

[elktalk101]

Thats Funny,

[Jig like a spider monkey!]

From what I remember, it's was determined at a DNA level if they were hybridized. You couldn't always just look and determine.

Missoulafish is correct.  It is confirmed at a genetic (DNA) level because hybrids can't always be identified by physical attributes.  Pure bull trout will not have any markings on their dorsal fins (just a dull brownish or olive colored fin).  Sometimes, but no all the time, brook/bull hybrids will have markings on their dorsal fins (they call them vermiculations- essentially the leopard-like pattern that a brook trout has) will be visible on the Dorsal.  Let me see if I can figure out how to post a couple of pictures on here.  I appoligize in advance if I can't figure it out!

[Jig like a spider monkey!]

As expected, I screwed it up.  Let's see if I can get it to work this time....

[Jig like a spider monkey!]

Success!  (pictures are always helpful!)

[Jig like a spider monkey!]

While I'm at it, I might as well throw a picture of a brook trout up as well, so we can compare all three and see the differences...

[Jig like a spider monkey!]

This thread kind of went dead!  I must have killed it!  Ha!

[WilleyBooger]

Hey JLaSM, can brookie x lake trout reproduce? Whoops, I answered my own question. Wikipedia says theoretically they can reproduce but it very, very rare for them to do so in the wild,

Does anybody know if Silver Lake contains brookie x lake trout? They are called splake, by the way.
 

[Jig like a spider monkey!]

They spawn in such different types of habitats... Probably why it's rare.  isn't a brown and a brookie called a tiger trout or something?  Does Montana have any of those??  I'd wiki it, but I'm trying to let my google cool down a little 

[polarfsrmn]

Another way to tell the difference is by the tails. A lake trout has a deeply forked tail that is pointed and a Brook trout has a square tail and Bull trout have a rounded and a gentle curve to the tail edge.Hope this helps.