I know this site is mainly concerned with the anadromous fishes but appeal to your knowledge of lakes for an answer to a curious scenario: recently I hiked in to Twin Lakes here on Orcas to try out my new float tube, and was surprised to find both of these little gems full of rough-skinned newts (Taricha granulosa)--the orange bellied variety. I thought at first that the big fish would be eating them, but a field guide I have mentions that "...this newt is so strong in the poison department that it can sicken or even kill a small animal that eats it."
They swam freely about, and I even saw a few couples engaged in amphibian reproductive affections. Saw many rises in the larger lake, and hooked a half dozen 6" brookies on an orange caddis. No sign of larger fish, though, or of larger rises.
Do fish eat these newts? Has anyone experienced success fishing lakes that were full of them? And what do they indicate about the health of the lakes?
I'm going to try the wooly bugger thing today--gotta find the ones that'll put a bend in my rod!

Don't know about what they tell you about a lake. But a few years ago some college kids dared someone to swallow one(live like a goldfish). He did and it killed him. They are really poisonous.

Must be why all of the hag witches used them for potions and make up. Eye of a newt was a very common recipe when making up a poison potion. Bubble, Bubble toil and trouble. LOL. You ever notice how dogs don't screw with toads and newts(pukeus aloticus) . Ours did once, and it yakked for a couple of days. He would run from toads after that. Newts are just a skinnier version. My $.02

I have never seen a fish eat these things. I was fishing at Swofford Pond by Morton once and caught nothing but newts. They really like worms. I did not even hear of a fish caught that day.

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Just because I look big, dumb, and ugly, doesn't mean I am. It means I can stomp you for calling me it!

Trout do eat newts!! My uncle has a pond that is full of them. We caught fish during the winter that had bellies full of them. The Trout were 18- 20" so they were big enough to eat them whole. Some of them were digested almost completely.

tight lines

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Marty
www.steelheader.net
marty@steelheader.net

Was fishing Chopaka Lake in the Okanagon last May and noticed one of th orange tinted critters coming up next to my tube for a burp of air. Coincidentlly, a herpatologist was camping at the lake and asking the fishermen if they had noticed any reptiles in the area. Some type of census and study relating human and livestock impact on the local slimies was going on. Anyhow when I mentioned to her I'd spotted a brown backed,orange bellied newt she just about crapped. Supposedly they are only native to the wetter coastal climates, not the more arid eastern side. She got very interested in how these newts would be relocated to a sub-alpine lake such as Chopaka and spent several days combing the lake looking for them. Anyhow, I probablly caused the demise of that fishery by mentioning it to her.
However, I asked several questions about the newts and she confirmed that hey were extremely toxic and didn't have any natural preditors. However, she wasn't sure if they posed any threat to other organisams in their habitat (ie. trout) by competing for food. See quite a slug of them in the lakes I fish between Hood Canal and the Coast.
Glad to hear Twin Lakes are still kicking out those brookies. Beautifull little puddles for a fun day of flyrodding. Better try for the big cutts in Mountain Lake, or wait for the opener on Cascade!