The Beardslee Trout

taken from http://www.fishingphotos.net/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/2694/title/beardslee-trout-2c-lkcrescent-2c-wa/cat/502

On a recent trip into the majestic Olympic National Park i heard about a native Trout i'd never heard of before. A ranger at the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center told me about the Beardslee Trout.
My question which started the conversation was actually about the Brook Trout found in Grand Valley, a popular hiking destination in the park. The conversation turned to the range sharing about the only native lake trout found in the park, The Beardslee!!
The Ranger went on to tell me that trout ran up from the Strait of Juan De Fuca to Lake Cresent at one time. A huge landslide cut off the route up to the lake creating two lakes: Lake Cresent and Lake Sutherland. Lake Sutherland was at one time apart of Lake Cresent . The trout which were in Lake Cresent at the time became landlocked and became a subspecies of trout.
The Beardslee Trout is still in the lake today though the population has slowly decreased. Simply fascinating!!!
I hope to one day catch one of these "Bluebacks" as their called.

Take from http://www.washingtontrout.org/crescent.shtml

The text above was all info from the ranger, below is info i found on the web.


http://www.washingtontrout.org/crescent.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beardslee_trout
http://www.craigmagnuson.com/beardslee.htm
://httpwww.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nccb1F_koKE

Moose lake Brook Trout

Moose lake Brook Trout in 2013

This last Saturday i headed up to Grand Valley in the North Olympic National Park for a two night stay at moose lake. With fishing pole in hand i packed in a couple lures for some spin casting.
Three beautiful fish were caught. All three were Brook Trout. The bellies of these fish are slight red to deep red. It almost looks like their bleeding from the hook in their mouth until you reel them in closer.
I love packing in a light fishing set up with low weighted test line to feel these guys fight.
The teeth on these reds are quite impressive for small 6 to 8 inch trout. One can feel a little pain and last year one fish actually drew blood from my thumb.
After the hike out i stopped by the Hurricane Ridge Visitor center for a quick question about the brookies in the Olympic National Park's Moose lake and other lakes. Are they native?
Nope their not.
How did they get their?
The Ranger told me that they think someone planted them their. He said catch as many as you want!
What about other lakes?
Nope, no native brooks in any lakes.
There's one native Trout though, the Beardslee Trout!!!
More coming on the Beardslee!





Brook Trout caught by Jeff Wheeler from moose lake in 2012