Spruce Run Tests and Checkup (Stocking Tests)

[KrsnaM]

Since the rain and flooding, I've been dying to check out how Spruce Run is doing, the small, unpopular tributary to the Ohio River next to my house. I was shocked to find the waters had risen roughly 4 inches, with many more pools, averaging around 3 feet depths or more, with the waters moving at obviously higher speeds.

I took the temperature of the water, which was roughly 44 degrees, as well as the pH level, which seems to be roughly 7ish. Does anyone have information if these levels of temp and pH are in the ballpark with other waters at this time that contain trout? For those not familiar with my last thread, I want to stock Spruce Run with trout (with a Notice of Stocking). Since the PFBC is very busy and backed up, I figured I could do these tests myself to determine the water's quality for trout. Every week, I will try to take a test of the water temperature and pH level, monitoring it.

If you'd like, please leave some advice. Thanks!

 

[jifigz]

Wait until it's July, August, or early Sept and go check the temperature, or, preferably, check the temp at all three times of the year. The water temp is mostly meaningless right now. 7 is a good pH. You typically don't want to see highly acidic water, or highly alkaline water, for that matter.

Just pump the brakes and wait till summer.

Edit: after watching your video, I'd be willing to bet that stream gets mighty skinny in the summer.

 

[KrsnaM]

Wait until it's July, August, or early Sept and go check the temperature, or, preferably, check the temp at all three times of the year. The water temp is mostly meaningless right now. 7 is a good pH. You typically don't want to see highly acidic water, or highly alkaline water, for that matter.

Just pump the brakes and wait till summer.

Edit: after watching your video, I'd be willing to bet that stream gets mighty skinny in the summer.

Yea, I definitely will give close attention as the weather gets warmer... idk ab it drying up tho, in the videos you can't really see the water depth, so ill prolly go back out their today with measuring tape.

 

[jifigz]

I'm not saying it is going to dry up. I am saying I think it looks like it will get very shallow in many places and probably get warm.

Another observation from your vids, and it's hard to tell, so I could be wrong, but it looks like the stream bed there is lots of bedrock/shale type of a bottom. That is typically an inferior bottom type and substrate for encouraging the presence of lots of macros and, therefore, fish. Small pebbles, rocks, gravel, etc is much better at having "bugs" in it.

 

[KrsnaM]

I'm not saying it is going to dry up. I am saying I think it looks like it will get very shallow in many places and probably get warm.

Another observation from your vids, and it's hard to tell, so I could be wrong, but it looks like the stream bed there is lots of bedrock/shake type of a bottom. That is typically an inferior bottom type and substrate for encouraging the presence of lots of macros and, therefore, fish. Small pebbles, rocks, gravel, etc is much better at having "bugs" in it.

Yeah, the stream definitely does have a lot of bedrock, but it has a good lot of smoother rocks and pebbles too. There are a good number of different bugs in the water, lots of water striders and I've seen some dragonfly larvae whilst lifting up rocks, plus other bugs that look like little underwater earwigs. There are also some ducks that live in the water, and I assume they feed off the wildlife too, since nobody is really around to feed them.

 

[jifigz]

Yeah, the stream definitely does have a lot of bedrock, but it has a good lot of smoother rocks and pebbles too. There are a good number of different bugs in the water, lots of water striders and I've seen some dragonfly larvae whilst lifting up rocks, plus other bugs that look like little underwater earwigs. There are also some ducks that live in the water, and I assume they feed off the wildlife too, since nobody is really around to feed them.

That depends on the ducks. If you are talking about ducks such as mallards, which I am assuming you are, then they feed on vegetation, not really animal matter. Water striders are typically, at least in my opinion and observation, not a great sign if you're looking for trout-y water. I don't often find them coexisting in my favorite trout streams. Also, dragonflies are sort of the same way. They, and damselflies, don't overlap too much with trout habitat. They tend to be found in waters that are warmer.

There are definitely mayfly, caddisfly, and/or stonefly larva in your stream, and I am assuming that is what you are referring to as "underwater earwigs." There is some form of mayfly, caddis, or stonefly in virtually every flowing water, unless it has been killed by AMD or something.

 

[KrsnaM]

That depends on the ducks. If you are talking about ducks such as mallards, which I am assuming you are, then they feed on vegetation, not really animal matter. Water striders are typically, at least in my opinion and observation, not a great sign if you're looking for trout-y water. I don't often find them coexisting in my favorite trout streams. Also, dragonflies are sort of the same way. They, and damselflies, don't overlap too much with trout habitat. They tend to be found in waters that are warmer.

There are definitely mayfly, caddisfly, and/or stonefly larva in your stream, and I am assuming that is what you are referring to as "underwater earwigs." There is some form of mayfly, caddis, or stonefly in virtually every flowing water, unless it has been killed by AMD or something.

In the Ninemile Run, the run that goes through Frick Park and into the Allegheny, I was fishing there a few months ago and I saw trout like 10 inches, hiding under some underwater boulders and bedrock. In the run, there's also lots of the same: mallards, lots of butterflies and dragonflies, tons of waterstriders. Anyhow, I've still got a lot of exploring to do in these waters for sure, but idk they feel promising, like clean and practically untouched.

 

[jifigz]

There is your natural reproduction list for Allegheny Co. Ninemile Run isn't on there. I'm not saying that you didn't see a trout, but as far as the PFBC are concerned, they have not really documented a population there. Allegheny is definitely not high on the list of counties with wild trout.

 

[KrsnaM]

Yes, I've seen the map ion

There is your natural reproduction list for Allegheny Co. Ninemile Run isn't on there. I'm not saying that you didn't see a trout, but as far as the PFBC are concerned, they have not really documented a population there. Allegheny is definitely not high on the list of counties with wild trout.

Yea, I've seen that on the PFBC natural trout reproductions... it definitely shocked me to see trout, but I've fished there for a while, seen how the creek chub and other fish look in the water... they were most certainly trout, couldn't tell if they were brownies or bows tho. They were hiding in a pool, probably 8 feet deep or so, right under one of the bigger waterfalls in the run. When I was patient, they came out a little bit more and darted back under when I tried to catch them, they were very shy and stubborn, but super cool and strange to see them.

I also have seen that only like a mile or two from Spruce Run, the PFBC states that the Sewickley Run (which connects to the Ohio) and Fern hollow (which connects to Sewickley Run) both have notable wild trout populations. Im assuming that since those waters are so close, they would have roughly the same conditions as Spruce Run in terms of the temperature, prey and predators, and pH level, so it gave me some more hope about stocking.

 

[troutbert]

Wait until it's July, August, or early Sept and go check the temperature, or, preferably, check the temp at all three times of the year. The water temp is mostly meaningless right now. 7 is a good pH. You typically don't want to see highly acidic water, or highly alkaline water, for that matter.

Just pump the brakes and wait till summer.

Edit: after watching your video, I'd be willing to bet that stream gets mighty skinny in the summer.

Where is the video?

 

[KrsnaM]

Where is the video?

it should be posted, if not, I attached them here

 

[dryflyguy]

Interesting about nine mile run in Frick park.
From what I recall, it was badly polluted until rather recently.
When they put the trail beside it, along with some pollution reduction effort

 

[lycoflyfisher]

To the untrained eye white sucker's and hognose sucker's can have a trout like appearance as well as being quite agile swimmers. I would be shocked if you saw a wild trout in Frick Park.

 

[KrsnaM]

Interesting about nine mile run in Frick park.
From what I recall, it was badly polluted until rather recently.
When they put the trail beside it, along with some pollution reduction effort

right, they've been doing some work on it for some years now, lots of volunteering events to pickup the area and several fish surveys.

here's some of the trout caught during their fish survey

 

[KrsnaM]

To the untrained eye white sucker's and hognose sucker's can have a trout like appearance as well as being quite agile swimmers. I would be shocked if you saw a wild trout in Frick Park.

Yeah I know, its what really makes me inspired to try stocking the waters here in Spruce Run. When I fished in the Ninemile, the conditions and terrain were nearly identical, and since there were trout there, in a once absolutely destroyed and polluted water, I thought, why couldn't I add them here? This place is no where near as polluted, and there's more wildlife, as well as less people and human intervention.

 

[troutbert]

it should be posted, if not, I attached them here

View attachment 1641235266View attachment 1641235267

When I click those, I hear the sound of water flowing, but don't get any video.

Must be a technical glitch on my end.

 

[Mike]

Looking at the pic above, if that stretch is representative of an approximately 2 mile long minimal length required for PFBC trout stocking, except special reg areas, it may be too narrow. Mean width for a stocked trout section needs to be 4.0 meters or wider, with widths usually taken in the summer.

 

[jifigz]

Looking at the pic above, if that stretch is representative of an approximately 2 mile long minimal length required for PFBC trout stocking, except special reg areas, it may be too narrow. Mean width for a stocked trout section needs to be 4.0 meters or wider, with widths usually taken in the summer.

When was that stipulation implemented? Has it always been that way? They used to stock a specific stream here in Central PA that was TINY.

 

[dryflyguy]

right, they've been doing some work on it for some years now, lots of volunteering events to pickup the area and several fish surveys.

here's some of the trout caught during their fish survey

View attachment 1641235269View attachment 1641235270

Do you know who stocked the stream, and is doing the surveys?

 

[KrsnaM]

Do you know who stocked the stream, and is doing the surveys?

The group that did the survey is called "Upstream Pittsburgh", here's the link

Annual Fish Study - UpstreamPgh

Studies of fish in the Nine Mile Run stream date back to the 1940s, when one identified no fish in the stream. Numerous additional studies were conducted by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and others before the restoration; nearly all showed very meager or...

upstreampgh.org

Idk I feel people are getting way too technical with these trout, they can adapt pretty well... don't think anyone is stocking them, definitely not a significant amount by any means. I gotta check back there sometime, maybe I can get some pictures of them.