M
Mike
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2006
- Messages
- 5,567
Pcray reminded me in one of his comments that an update is in order regarding the stocked trout residency studies over the past 5 years. With well over 500 stocking points sampled, it is now clear that rainbow trout have shown significantly (very statistically significant) better residency than either brook trout or brown trout. On average, using rounded numbers for better recall, rainbow trout residency has been in the neighborhood of 80 percent while brook and brown trout residency has been cir 50 percent (brooks 48 percent, browns 52 percent). The residencies of stocked brook and brown trout have not been significantly different. While residency in any given stream may be stream specific, rainbows, when examined statewide, on average move less than brooks and browns in Pa's stocked trout streams. We are even finding that rainbows survive better in lower pH waters than we once thought. We did not used to stock rainbows at pH's less than 6.5 and we are now finding good residency in streams with pH's at least as low as 6.2. I would expect that you will be seeing more rainbows being stocked in some streams in the future. In fact, that has already been occurring in some streams for the past few years where residency of browns or brooks has been poor.