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[Rodney]

[redtide]

im a bit partial on this. I like to fish for bull trout in the fraser but i also understand bull trout and sea run cutthroats are also ravernous feeders of juvenile salmon. I think the protection they have is just fine with C&R. If DFO does possible supplementing their populations through enhancement ie. hatcheries may not be a wise idea considering the burden they will add to juvenile salmon moving downstream to the ocean.

[Knnn]

I noticed an article that Rod posted that DFO are considering listing Bull Trout as a listed species or special concern. 

Have they been to the Skagit lately?  There are so many bull trout in the Sagit that the rainbow are becoming an endangered species in that river!

[pwn50m3 f15h3r]

They are endangered in many other places.

There are many in Skagit because there are few predators. I would think that the Skagit in Washington has few bulls

[zap brannigan]

theres a few rivers that have a decent population but for the most part their pretty scarce in other systems for many reasons, seen too many killed this season alone by anglers who either dont care or cant ID fish.

[living_blind]

Yes the rivers that have decent populations seem to be chalk full of them, but that really is only a few systems locally. I've spent quite a bit of time on other rivers and never hooked or seen one. Their willingness to bite and bite repeatedly makes them an easy target and quite vulnerable.

[firebird]

Yes the rivers that have decent populations seem to be chalk full of them, but that really is only a few systems locally. I've spent quite a bit of time on other rivers and never hooked or seen one. Their willingness to bite and bite repeatedly makes them an easy target and quite vulnerable.

Yes, and it is their willingness to bite and bite repeatedly that sometimes make it seem like a river is chock full of them. When population surveys are carried out, the numbers are often surprising low.

[Rodney]

A couple of notes. This is consultation of listing the species as Special Concern, not Threatened, or Endangered. Each listing is defined differently and different management approaches are implemented for each category.

When you submit your comments, which I hope you will, provide your feedbacks from an user's perspective. Don't comment on what you think the population is, how it is doing, as you are not a biologist (unless you work as one in this field) and do not have the data to make these claims. Instead, comment how you would like to see the fish you catch will be managed (eg. no changes, catch and release only, total closure, etc).

[zap brannigan]

suckers for bait, seen the same fish caught 4 times in a row in almost as many drifts.

makes them more easily succeptable injury/death from multiple catch and releases.

[Every Day]

Rodney, as far as them being listed, what would the implications be?

I know with many SARA species, if one species is listed, generally the whole system containing that particular fish is completely closed to fishing (or maybe I'm thinking of an Endangered status)? Would they also not have to come up with a recovery plan as well and do habitat restoration for them as well once they are listed? Would they simply state no targeting bull trout period (would suck for the die hard lower fraser fishers such as yourself or people fishing the skagit)? I'm just curious to find out what their management plan would be...

I believe the way they are managed now is a pretty good management system. Catch and release on them in oceans/rivers and retention in lakes (as it seems to me that generally lake bound populations seem to be stable or doing well). I would definitely agree that anadromous ones are suffering due to improper ID and possibly ocean conditions, and I wonder why they haven't been listed before now. In the past 2 or 3 years however, I have caught more bullies in rivers than I ever have before on a number of flows, but it could be due to a change in methods. Last year in 2 days I got 7 nice sized ones on the Vedder, which was a nice changed from steelhead. It has been much of the same throughout this entire year for me...