![]() Channelization of streambeds and the loss of bank shading along with the slowing of the streams increases the water temperature and lowers the oxygen to levels beyond what redbands can tolerate.īut habitat loss from modern irrigation practices is perhaps the biggest hurdle the fish face. Both are voracious eaters and prolific breeders, and in many streams they out-compete the native trout. What’s more, many of the streams in Oregon were at one time stocked with brook trout or bass, species not native to redband territory. Once fish from neighboring streams might have accidently run up the wrong creek from shared wetlands and deposited their eggs or milt, introducing new genetics to that tributary. In many streams, genetic mixing is now impossible. The fish persevere, but their lives today take place in a patchwork of streams and small rivers isolated from one another genetic diversity is a concern. Once, their ancestors made pilgrimages to the ocean or a large sea, migrating from their natal tributaries to rivers and eventually to saltwater. There, they would feed and fatten up until they felt the urge to return to their birthplace and spawn, completing their life cycle.Īs eons passed, their migration routes diminished. Many redbands that lost access to the sea would utilize as a proxy the lakes and marshes that formed in the valleys between ranges. In my native state of Oregon, these survivors can be found in seven distinct ancient lake basins in the south-central and eastern part of the state. Due to their high-desert environment, redband rainbows evolved to adapt to higher water temperatures and lower levels of oxygen than many of their contemporaries. They’re underdogs, plucky heroes surviving on sheer force of will. It is because they are the ultimate survivors. It’s not because they always grow to enormous size (some do) or that they’re feistier than some of their cousins (many are). And of all the fish in the sea, river or lake, I most prize those that descended from the great oceangoing salmonids, trout and char.įor me, the king of them all is the Great Basin redband rainbow. I love fish - the way they look, the way they fry up, the secret lives they live under the water. Watch Video: Thousands of trout pumped into reservoir in northeast Colorado
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