salmo
Well-known member
Was watching a video on a remote Colorado drainage. The brookies compete well with the rainbows, browns cutbows, cuts and rainbows. Why there and not here?
Colorado brookies
- Thread starter salmo
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TimMurphy
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Dear salmo,
Just a guess but look at how browns have out competed brook trout in PA for a clue.
Browns are invasive in Colorado too, though I know few CO fisherman who care. Rainbows are a west slope fish, supposed to be only in streams on the western side of the Continental Divide. Cutthroats are native CO trout throughout the State.
With invaders everywhere, can you see how and where brook trout can carve out a niche?
I'm not trying to be a jerk when I say that. We've moved a lot of fish around in this country and there are bound to be both winners and losers.
Regards,
Tim Murphy 🙂
Just a guess but look at how browns have out competed brook trout in PA for a clue.
Browns are invasive in Colorado too, though I know few CO fisherman who care. Rainbows are a west slope fish, supposed to be only in streams on the western side of the Continental Divide. Cutthroats are native CO trout throughout the State.
With invaders everywhere, can you see how and where brook trout can carve out a niche?
I'm not trying to be a jerk when I say that. We've moved a lot of fish around in this country and there are bound to be both winners and losers.
Regards,
Tim Murphy 🙂
salmo
Well-known member
Tim, here’s my response
Acristickid
Well-known member
I think brookies are prolific breeders.
It’s truly shocking where these invasives show up. Was on a Quinn River cutthroat stream in remote Nevada and the first two fish I caught were brookies. It’s amazing the tiniest little trickle got the attention of someone who would have put them there. This stream used to be attached to the Quinn River but I’m guessing many decades since it’s connected to it and just runs downstream and into the ground. Someone had to drive or ride a horse many miles to get them into this stream. Catching the Quinn River Cutthroat is hard earned. Back when it put there for food or the more is better mentality.
Same type of thing on a tiny desert stream in Alvord basin where the Alvord in its tiny stream was stocked with rainbows and interbred and now extinct. Although I know off three anglers this summer who have caught the Alvord phenotype. I hope to catch one someday.
It’s truly shocking where these invasives show up. Was on a Quinn River cutthroat stream in remote Nevada and the first two fish I caught were brookies. It’s amazing the tiniest little trickle got the attention of someone who would have put them there. This stream used to be attached to the Quinn River but I’m guessing many decades since it’s connected to it and just runs downstream and into the ground. Someone had to drive or ride a horse many miles to get them into this stream. Catching the Quinn River Cutthroat is hard earned. Back when it put there for food or the more is better mentality.
Same type of thing on a tiny desert stream in Alvord basin where the Alvord in its tiny stream was stocked with rainbows and interbred and now extinct. Although I know off three anglers this summer who have caught the Alvord phenotype. I hope to catch one someday.
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redietz
Well-known member
Brook trout thrive all over the west, and generally compete very well with browns and rainbows. Here in the East, it's not just competition with other species that are causing them to fail, it's that the environment here no longer favors brook trout.
From what I've seen, brook trout are common in small streams in the west, but not so much in medium to larger streams. Which is also true here in PA.
There are some exceptions to this. I know of a stream that is 70 feet wide in PA that has native brook trout, but no brown trout population. The reason is that the water is too acidic to support wild browns, but OK for brookies.
There are some exceptions to this. I know of a stream that is 70 feet wide in PA that has native brook trout, but no brown trout population. The reason is that the water is too acidic to support wild browns, but OK for brookies.
nymphingmaniac
Well-known member
uh-oh, lock the thread now 😆
jifigz
Well-known member
I just deleted that post. I think that is what you were referencing. You are right....
salmo
Well-known member
So how do we acidify the water?
hooker-of-men
Well-known member
Probably don't want to rush into that project too quick...
"State pauses brook trout stocking to study acid rain recovery"
"It’s no secret the Adirondacks have had a long and complicated history with water quality. The park infamously suffered severe acid rain damage during the 1960s, when fallout from fossil fuels devastated lakes, streams and rivers in the region and decimated aquatic life – especially brook trout."
"State pauses brook trout stocking to study acid rain recovery"
"It’s no secret the Adirondacks have had a long and complicated history with water quality. The park infamously suffered severe acid rain damage during the 1960s, when fallout from fossil fuels devastated lakes, streams and rivers in the region and decimated aquatic life – especially brook trout."
hooker-of-men
Well-known member
Didn't seem off base, though. It just felt like you said Beetlejuice three times.
jifigz
Well-known member
I think everything I said was 100% accurate.. What's that old safe than sorry saying?
Apple cider vinegar. (Just kidding.)
nymphingmaniac
Well-known member
LOL maybe second to asking if Frank Nale catches all those fish 😂. (I'm not questioning him))
jifigz
Well-known member
I mean, 25 tiger trout does seem like a lot....
I've never caught a tiger. I hope I never do. (I'll leave this sentence out. Just imagine what it might say. I had a good one for here, but....)
The Rodfather
Member
I found an interesting placard at the Smoky Mountain Museum at the entrance to the park in Gatlinsburg last spring. It pretty much read that Brookies and Rainbows struggle to coexist. I lost the photos of the sign but it was essentially this:
NPS Brook Trout
Obviously different habitat than mostly what is fished here in PA, but I found it interesting coming from the NPS.
NPS Brook Trout
Obviously different habitat than mostly what is fished here in PA, but I found it interesting coming from the NPS.
HopBack
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From my personal experience Brook trout are able to reproduce prolifically out west. A lot of these streams flow into larger ponds or lake which are cold water and suitable for brook trout reproduction.
I once fished the piney creek ranch in Colorado in September and encountered thousands of spawning brook trout in the stream upriver from the cold water lake. I went there for cutthroat but that wasn’t happening. It was a spectacle and reminded me of a salmon run in Alaska. This is an extreme example but I imagine the same thing applies to most waterways out there.
I once fished the piney creek ranch in Colorado in September and encountered thousands of spawning brook trout in the stream upriver from the cold water lake. I went there for cutthroat but that wasn’t happening. It was a spectacle and reminded me of a salmon run in Alaska. This is an extreme example but I imagine the same thing applies to most waterways out there.
