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Fishing planet oregon smallmouth bass9/25/2023 The park, along with conservation partners such as Trout Unlimited, has battled non-native lake trout in Yellowstone Lake for years with mixed success. Yellowstone National Park is no stranger to the impacts of invasive fish. ![]() Read Next: Officials Cull 58 Mountain Goats From Helicopters in Grand Teton National Park The February 19 catch justifies those fears-and signals that an invasion of smallmouth bass, which are voracious predators and can outcompete trout, may be inevitable. In recent years, scientists had worried that smallmouth populations have been creeping closer and closer to the park because of rising temperatures. The fish that was recently caught was likely a result of smallmouth bass populations slowly spreading from the Tongue River. Smallmouth bass, which are native to waterways in the Midwest and East Coast, were stocked in Montana beginning in 1914 but never near Yellowstone National Park, which is historically a cold-water fishery. This will be the only nonnative fish species in the park capable of preying upon semi-aquatic animals such as snakes or fledgling waterbirds.” If that happens we will one day see them at Tower, the Buffalo Ranch, and the Slough Creek campground. “There is a good chance that smallmouth in the Yellowstone River will eventually be able to pass over Knowles Falls in the Black Canyon. ![]() “I spoke to the angler who provided a video of his catch that leaves no doubt where he was,” wrote Koel. In an email to federal and state fisheries biologists acquired by WyoFile, Yellowstone’s supervisory fisheries biologist Todd Koel said that smallmouth bass entering Yellowstone’s famed cutthroat waters was a potential “nightmare.” It is by far the closest the non-native species has ever been documented to the national park. The catch is historic-and not in a good way.
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