Great Smoky Mountains National Park 1998 Fisheries Management Report

Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM) encompasses over 558,000 acres of Federally protected mountains, which are estimated to be 200-300 million years old. The Park is home to diverse populations of plants, insects, and animals due to variety of forest types, soil types, geological formations, disturbance histories, and elevational changes (1,000 to over 6,000 feet). The Park has over 2,000 miles of streams, roughly 800 miles of which are thought to contain fishable populations of trout. The Park is home to roughly 53 species of fish. Three of these species, the Smoky madtom, yellowfin madtom, and spotfin chub, are federally threatened or endangered and thus protected in GRSM. Two other species, the flame chub and the duskytail darter, are considered species of special concern. The brook trout is the only salmonid (i.e. trout/salmon) species endemic to the Park. Brook, brown and rainbow trout were introduced into GRSM by logging companies during the early 1900’s to replace trout populations decimated by their logging activities. Stocking of brook, brown, and rainbow trout by the NPS continued until 1975, when Park managers realized that stocking these exotics did not conform to NPS mandates to protect and preserve native species. Today rainbow trout are found in almost every watershed in the Park, brown trout are found in roughly half, and non-native brook trout in about a third of the Park’s watersheds. The purpose of this report is to: (1) inform and educate GRSM staff and resource users about GRSM fisheries management projects, (2) present 1998 sampling locations and results, (3) present 1998 ranger creel results, and (4) describe upcoming projects.