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Factors Influencing Production of Immature Cutthroat Trout in Arnica Creek, Yellowstone Park
Author(s) -
Benson Norman G.
Publication year - 1960
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1960)89[168:fipoic]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - trout , tributary , oncorhynchus , biology , fishery , ecology , geography , fish <actinopterygii> , cartography
Data are presented on the variations in production of immature cutthroat trout from Arnica Creek, a tributary of Yellowstone Lake, from 1951 to 1958. Of 36,786 immature trout counted, 87.3 percent were age‐group 0. The highest production occurred during years when large numbers of age‐group 0 trout migrated downstream to Yellowstone Lake from mid‐July to mid‐August, or soon after they emerged from the gravel. Ecological conditions associated with a large July‐August migration were receding water levels and much light. High populations of age‐group I and II trout in Arnica Creek, which are predacious on fry, did not appear to have as much influence on the production of good year classes as did the downstream migration pattern. No relationship between year‐class variation of immatures and reappearance of these same year classes in the spawning runs was evident. The number of spawners or the time of the spawning run did not bear any consistent relationship to the production of immatures.