total catch during the five years of census . In 

 the Madison River the catch showed a positive 

 coefficient of correlation of 0.554 with the total 

 fishing effort. The data on the Madison indi- 

 cated that the heavier fishing pressure caused 

 by the stocking of adult rainbow trout caused a 

 heavier harvest of the brown trout . The small 

 brown trout fishery in the Gibbon also showed a 

 positive relationship between the catch by year 

 and the amount of fishing effort . 



Catch of other species 



Brook trout do not grow large enough to 

 be attractive to most anglers in these streams . 

 Those caught in the Firehole are taken from 

 above Old Faithful or from small tributary 

 streams. The Gibbon has the largest population 

 and they made up 44.5 percent of the fish catch 

 in 1956. The few brook trout caught in the 

 Madison River were probably migrants from 

 the Gibbon. 



Whitefish assume importance in the creel 

 only in the Madison River where the catch 



ranged from 153 in 1953 to 1,082 in 1955 

 (table 3) . Whitefish inhabit deep turbulent water 

 which is difficult to fish and are not caught in 

 numbers in relation to their abundance. 



Grayling are abundant in the upper Gibbon, 

 but never made up over 4.7 percent of the catch 

 in this stream . The few caught in the Madison 

 and Firehole were probably migrants from the 

 Gibbon . 



FINGERLING TROUT PLANTING 



Plantings of fingerling rainbow trout in 



1954 and 1955 contributed little to the catch in 



1955 and none was recorded as caught in 1956 

 or 1957 (table 4). The plantings of fingerling 

 rainbows in the Firehole entered the fishery in 

 greater numbers than did those plantings in the 

 Madison and Gibbon, but only 0.29 percent 

 entered the catch. Some of the 1954 plantings 

 in the Firehole moved downstream and all re- 

 coveries made were from the Madison . The 

 average recovery rate of all planted rainbow 

 fingerlings was 0. 16 percent. Fingerling rain- 



Table ^. Beturns of marked fingerling (3-5 inches) plantings 

 of brown and rainbow trout to the fishermen's creel in 

 Madison, Firehole, and Gibbon Rivers, 195^-1955. 



Totals: Rainbow, W,216; estimated number caught, 78 (0,16^) 



Brown, 20,2^49; estimated nximber caught, 



1/ 

 2/ 



All caught In Madison 

 All caught in Firehole 



12 



