Brook Trout, Warm Pond

[jifigz]

This is about thermal stress on trout and I am specifically talking about my experience today. I took a youngster fishing at the 7 mtns boy scout pond because the panfish and bass are generally easy to catch. I am also aware that the PFBC stocks the pond with brook trout. Now, we were fishing and I went to rinse the nightcrawler goo off of my hands and I see a few brook trout milling around. I honestly would have figured that they'd have all died of thermal stress, especially given our weather recently. The pond was warm. I mean, I didn't take a temperature (I should have) but it felt warm. Probably at least 76 where I was. The majority of this pond is very shallow. I caught about 15 largemouths on a woolly bugger and hooked a brookie. The brookie got off which made me thankful. Less stress on it and no handling. A very large brookie stormed my fly and I missed it. Overall, all fish were lazy and sluggish and required coaxing, but the brookies would cruise and chase my streamers with a lot of energy but not commit and take the fly.

Specifically, however, I am just surprised at the shape of these fish given the water temps..I know, you're all probably going to tell me there are probably cold springs or something rising out of the ground but, I don't know, this pond can't be that cold. Just surprising info that I thought I'd share.

 

[Dave_W]

Interesting account. I've seen and caught stocked trout, including brookies, in some strange places when I was targeting other species.

It's observations like this that make FFing in PA such an endlessly fascinating interaction with nature.

 

[Swattie87]

Trout are way tougher than we give them credit for. Even the "fragile little Gemmies". I think afish made a post in one of the WW threads about the Smallie population struggling the other day commenting about how well (relatively speaking) wild Trout were doing by comparison in PA. It's very true.

More on topic to your point...There are many "small" impoundments in headwater Brook Trout streams in PA. Some of these are big enough (a few acres or more) that they create an area large enough to be largely devoid of shade. If there are wild Trout in the stream, there are wild Trout in these little impoundments. Though I'm sure the surface water gets way above what we think of as Trout tolerances, the fish survive. They're either deep by the dam, or at the head by the incoming stream.

 

[jifigz]

Swattie87 wrote:
Trout are way tougher than we give them credit for. Even the "fragile little Gemmies". I think afish made a post in one of the WW threads about the Smallie population struggling the other day commenting about how well (relatively speaking) wild Trout were doing by comparison in PA. It's very true.

More on topic to your point...There are many "small" impoundments in headwater Brook Trout streams in PA. Some of these are big enough (a few acres or more) that they create an area large enough to be largely devoid of shade. If there are wild Trout in the stream, there are wild Trout in these little impoundments. Though I'm sure the surface water gets way above what we think of as Trout tolerances, the fish survive. They're either deep by the dam, or at the head by the incoming stream.

Are you familiar with the 7 Mtns Boy Scout pond? The stream feeling it is essentially non existent right now. Over half of the pond is less than 18 inches deep I'd say..I was no trout in the deeper water near the breast of the dam. They were all in the shallow end. But, like I said, water was warm everywhere I touched it. The feeder stream is barely flowing..I am just surprised they had so much vigor.

I did see a largemouth in the 5lb range..it ignored my fly, of course.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

I've seen trout laying in a seep going into a warm pond in Georgia. I asked the owner about them and he said they were older fish that had adapted to that little cold flow . Probably the same in that pond. I've caught nice brookies there during a Jam. GG

 

[Swattie87]

Yeah, I know it. I was speaking more in general, but yeah. The stream is still there, underground. It may be contributing water via a spring in the pond somewhere. And the water temp in any impoundment isn't completely uniform. There are warmer and cooler spots, based on shade, etc. Still, I take your word on the temp and the fish still being active...They're tougher than we think.

 

[troutbert]

jifigz wrote:


Are you familiar with the 7 Mtns Boy Scout pond? The stream feeling it is essentially non existent right now. Over half of the pond is less than 18 inches deep I'd say..I was no trout in the deeper water near the breast of the dam. They were all in the shallow end. But, like I said, water was warm everywhere I touched it. The feeder stream is barely flowing..I am just surprised they had so much vigor.

They were probably in the shallow end because that's where the cool water was. There was probably much more water flowing under the surface then on the surface.

When walking along small freestone streams during droughts, I've seen places where the stream is flowing over flat bedrock. In those places you can see the entire flow of the creek.

Then at another part of the creek, you don't see bedrock at all, because it's covered with a layer of cobble and gravel substrate. The visible flow there is noticeably much less, because much of it is flowing through the cobble and gravel below the surface.

In severe droughts, these places can actually be dry, with no surface flow at all. But the water is still flowing, just under the substrate.

These stretches where the water is flowing under the substrate helps cool the water.

 

[Chaz]

People have always said that 90% of a streams flow is in the substrate. When a flow comes to an impoundment it comes out above the substrate. Nearly every place I’ve fished where there is an impoundment I’ve always found trout in the impoundment.