Can fingerlings be stocked from wild brood stock?

[afishinado]

Can fingerlings be stocked from wild brood stock? Has this been tried? I would guess the fingerling survival would be greater. Streams like the Yough, Lehigh, Little J, Tulpehocken would benefit. In addition, it could help to reestablish populations in streams suitable to carry wild trout. Is it possible / practical?

 

[jayL]

I don't think it would be practical.

I have various reasons, which I'll get into later when I have time. I'd kind of like to hear some others' reasoning before I take a soap box stand anyway.... for a delightful change

It's a good question IMO.

 

[LehighRegular]

The answer is YES.

I read an article about a year ago that the Connecticut Fisheries Dept is doing just that to improve upon the wild brown trout population on the Housy ( I think that is the right river). They would shock the river, collect the wild trout and "milk" them. Allow the eggs to be fertilized. Not sure if they hatched the eggs and returned the fry or put the eggs in vibert boxes and allowed the eggs to hatch under river conditions.

Its a bit forward thinking and does take some effort, but I think the results would be very beneficial. I have not heard about any results from the CT work.

 

[troutbert]

Yes, it can be done. It's been done many places with trout, salmon and steelhead. I've never heard of a case where the PFBC has done it. They should have done it when they stocked brook trout in the headwaters of Big Spring after the hatchery closed, in order to restart that brookie fishery with good wild brookie genetics. Instead they stocked hatchery strain brookies.

In cases where the intent isn't to re-establish a wild trout fishery, such as on the Tully, I'm not sure it's warranted. It's a lot more work and expense and you would have to do it every year, and the result wouldn't be a self-perpetuating population anyway.

 

[tabasco_joe]

My grandfather used to tell me how the re-populated streams in the early 1900s after logging wiped out the fish in given streams. This was in central PA and the source of the transplanted fish was from the same general watershed. At that time they just netted some fish and transplanted them. Size was not much of a factor but fingerlings were included.

I own some property in the same area that has a nice stream, spring fed, that should support brookies. It has no trout today but probably did prior to logging in the late 1800s. There are minnows, I believe Dace about 6 - 7 inches in there today. I have been considering transplanting some wild brookies from streams in the adjoining watershed. My guess is that any fish I move must be of legal limit, during a legal season, and caught by legal means. I'll certainly check the legalities with the PFBC before I do anything.

 

[RLeeP]

The answer is an emphatic yes...

Wisconsin is having remarkable success with this right now.

Go here and search on "wild fingerlings".

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/

It's pretty revolutionary what they're doing.

 

[RLeeP]

>the result wouldn't be a self-perpetuating population anyway.>

Not so, at least in the case of Wisconsin streams.

I can't see a reason in the world why it would not also work in PA.

The only limiting factor I can think of whether PA has streams with adequate wild trout biomass to do this. I'd think they would. But a lot of the wild WI fingerlings come from fish taken from streams with way too many fish for the habitat anyway.

 

[Chaz]

IT's done a lot, just not in PA. The most famous time was about 15 years ago on the Sacremento River in California, where they restored the wild rainbow population that was decimated by a, surprise RR derailment. Destroyed most of the population from Mt. Shasta to Lake Shasta. A very long reach. I fished in this section a few years later and you couldn't tell me the population of wild trout was ever wiped out without me already knowing about it.
Why isn't it done in PA? I don't know but it's time it was tried. As for the rivers you mention, they would need 2 things a stabile flow regime and wild trout from the drainage to use for brood stocked a daunting task if you're talking about the Yough, the Tully would be very interesting, there are plenty of native brook trout in the drainage, the Lehigh is a no brainer every stream that feeds the Lehigh on the east side has wild brookies.

 

[Chaz]

Rleep,
Though Troutbert didn't specify I believe when he said it wasn't practical he was referring to the Tully. It would not be practical anywhere without a solid flow regime, it has to be cold water not what the Tully gets.

 

[Wulff-Man]

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. The Tully won't support reproduction. At least that's what I have seen stated as one reason that it's a good stream for planting fingerlings every year, because they can hold over year to year (at least that had been the theory in the past), but there won't be good reproduction.

 

[Fishidiot]

I think it's a good idea and at least ought to be tried on a limited basis. I would bet the results would be encouraging. This method is currently used for some warmwater fish. Muskies, for instance, are trapped every spring and "stripped" of eggs/sperm and the resulting fry are later raised to fingerling size and stocked. Of course this doesn't guarantee it would work with trout but I still think it should be tried. I suspect the PFBC probably would not care to attempt such a method due to the expense and maybe a general feeling that agency funds would best be spent on traditional put and take policies.

 

[RLeeP]

>>Rleep,
Though Troutbert didn't specify I believe when he said it wasn't practical he was referring to the Tully>>

Yes, on another read, I now see that's almost certainly what he intended.

My most humble agolopies....

 

[LehighRegular]

TULLY - I believe a wild rainbow (fingerling) was shocked out of the Tully during the last survey. I beleive it was out of the "road to nowhere" bridge stretch

Likely came out of the Cacoosing or maybe Plum creek....but who knows.

Mike K should have that info.


Lehigh would be an excellent candidate for this type of thing. We just need to sustain the coldwater longer from the reservoir. But the Yough, Clarion and some of our other tailwaters that can sustain coldwater might benefit from this greatly. Just need to have the PFBC recognize the potential these tailwater fisheries can have if there were some changes in management of these reservoirs.

 

[littlejuniata]

Should work very well provided that there is ample clean spawning gravel.

 

[Wulff-Man]

What do the locals think about stocking fingerlings in the Little Juniata? I was under the impression that there was some opposition to and complaints about this, but I'm not sure. Would that be a good place to stock wild fingerlings?