List of fishes of Yellowstone National Park

[1] In 1889 the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries began a 60-year program of stocking and hatchery operations that significantly altered the ranges of native and non-native species within the park.

Grayling are occasionally caught by anglers or fisheries biologists in the Gibbon River, but all evidence is that these are escapees from Grebe or Wolf lakes.

[6] The Longnose dace (Rhinichthys cataractae) is widely distributed in all the major river systems in the park, to include Yellowstone Lake and its tributaries.

Native mountain whitefish survive very well in the presence of introduced trout species.

The Mottled sculpin (Cottus bairdi) is widely distributed in Yellowstone streams and rivers below the major falls.

[9] The Redside shiner (Richardsonius balteatus hydrophlox) is native to Yellowstone in the Snake River drainage, most commonly in lakes and ponds.

These introductions into non-native waters were not official and has been attributed to the release of shiners being used as bait by fishermen.

The Oxbow/Geode stream complex creek in the Yellowstone River drainage contain a genetically pure, but not native population as a result of stocking done in 1922.

The introduction of brown, rainbow and brook trout into its original ranges essentially extirpated the subspecies from park waters.

[12] In 2017 the NPS embarked on a multi-year native trout restoration project in the upper Gibbon watershed.

Lakes (Grebe and Wolf) along with tributaries and the main stem of the Gibbon above Virginia Cascades have been poisoned with Rotenone to remove non-native rainbow, brown and brook trout as well as non-native lacustrine arctic grayling from the watershed.

When the removal is complete, the NPS will stock native westslope cutthroat trout and fluvial Arctic grayling in the upper Gibbon watershed to create a refuge for these species in the park.

Although labeled a restoration project, neither species were indigenous to the upper Gibbon watershed.

Prior to the introduction of non-native trout, the Yellowstone cutthroat was the primary quarry of anglers in the park.

[14] The Utah chub (Gila atraria) is native to the Snake River drainage in Yellowstone, most specifically Heart Lake.

Brown trout are the predominant species in the Madison River drainage and very popular with anglers.

While cutbow hybrids may occur naturally, most native populations of rainbows and cutthroats were separated by geography or habitat.

Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) were widely stocked in park waters beginning in 1890.

Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush) were one of the first non-native species introduced into Yellowstone.

They are also the largest fish species in the park growing to an average length of 20 inches (51 cm).

[21] The following species were introduced into park waters but did not establish viable populations (with the exception of the Yellow Perch).