Are Kokes Safe in the future?

I read so much about commercial salmon farming and the huge Lice problems these days.. I wonder if Kokonee could also get these parasites and be in some danger?

I know it is a landlock salmon, but never the less it is a salmon specie. Could there be a fresh water problems in the future? There are fresh water lice you know..

See the attach photo and think about it. Just wondering what is your opinion.

Thats a good question. Some of our reservoirs here have a problem with parasites attaching themselves to the skin of our trout. It makes the fish look like they have soars. Recently I have read a report that tiger trout were introduced in some reservoirs for a couple reasons, to target other unwanted species of fish and also to target the parasite problem. We will know in a few years if it worked or not. As far as Kokes go, there could be a solution for that or experimenting with maybe some hybrid species taking place to help combat that situation. If that happens, I hope they don't create another Koke killer. No matter how hard we try to make something good, we could be turning ourselves into our own worst enemies.

There was a discussion of this on the Flaming Gorge section. There are other threats to Kokanee. Read this article

http://gf.state.wy.us/downloads/pdf/...etter_2008.pdf

With government budgets being cut so much, maybe the largest threat is the possibility of reduced or eliminated planting programs.

This is not uncommon in the California lakes and it is cyclical where some years are better than others at particular lakes. Lots of concern / theorizing and speculating but general consensus is that all lakes have parasites and it is a matter of their cycles and the fishes resistance to getting them. The DFG claim at one time was that this occurs only in the lower valley warmer lakes but that theory went out the door when one of the Lakes near Tahoe, Stampede started showing them. That lake is frozen over in the Winter and a cold water lake in general.

The trout can often times be a lot worse than the Kokanee in some lakes and we refer to them as furry trout. The external copepod variety are generally around the pectoral or anal fin areas as well as the gills for Kokanee. I'm sure I could round up some photos if somebody wanted to see some examples. We

In the end it does not seem to affect meat quality and you don't see them at all if you fillet out the fish so I never worry about it.

Kevin

has become a big problem in Colorado, about 2 years ago the gill lice about killed off all the kokes in 11 mile , Green Mountian is suffering from the same fate, first I ever heard of it then it got into 2 lakes around the same time.

I have caught a few bows that have had lice. Have never caught a koke that had them (knock on wood). .With all the problems the kokes have at the gorge,let hope lice won't be one of them.

It has been interesting to see how one year the Kokes and Trout and Kings all had them more than usual two years ago at Lake Berryessa and we thought the Kokes were doomed. Last year the Kokes were very clean and rarely found a "Kokopod" at all. The trout were even very clean. The Kings always tend to have them in the gills at Berryessa but not on other part of the body. Some theories are the fish that lay near the bottom more will get them if they are less resistant. They plant Brook trout in just a few lakes to help counteract the problem.

What does planting brook trout do to counteract the lice? When we catch and release a fish with parasites, are we supposed to remove the parasites before releasing?

Brookies eat the parasites. You would definitely damage / kill the fish by trying to remove the parasites.

Kevin