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Yellowstone seeks anglers' help

Yellowstone seeks anglers' help




YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) - Park officials are appealing to anglers to help control lake trout in Yellowstone Lake.




They are providing maps of lake trout spawning areas for shore and boat anglers in hope that more of the nonnative fish will be caught.




"Lake trout are beginning to move to their spawning beds and are vulnerable to anglers during September and October," park Superintendent Suzanne Lewis said.




"There is no creel limit for lake trout on Yellowstone Lake and the more removed, the better."




She recommended fishing in the lake's West Thumb area, where there is a large concentration of lake trout between 16 inches and 8 pounds.




According to the National Park Service, lake trout were discovered in the lake in 1994. Lake trout threaten the park's population of cutthroat trout, which are smaller.




One large lake trout can eat as many as 50 cutthroat trout in a year.




Yellowstone Lake is the largest remaining undisturbed natural habitat of Yellowstone cutthroat, which live and spawn in shallow streams and lake waters and provide food for at least 42 species of birds and mammals.




Park officials have also been using gill nets to try to control the lake trout population.