Do Stocked Trout Move Upstream or Downstream?

[Solitariolupo]

Here’s a thought to throw out there that always gets me is the great Allegheny river. There are thousands of trout being thrown into creeks that flow into the river. Now for years I’ve fished the river from dam to city. Never seen or heard of trout being caught in that river except for below the dam. The fish comm.. stocks fingerlings there and the trout stay in that section of Warren. Think the oxygen and water’s staying cold enough. From a bottom fed dam.

 

[krayfish2]

Don't believe kinzua is bottom release. I will bet there are fish that cruise the big river from October through May. They then head to cool water. Many discussions on here about large / wild migratory browns. Their numbers are small but they do exist in most big rivers

 

[mt_flyfisher]

Here’s a thought to throw out there that always gets me is the great Allegheny river. There are thousands of trout being thrown into creeks that flow into the river. Now for years I’ve fished the river from dam to city. Never seen or heard of trout being caught in that river except for below the dam. The fish comm.. stocks fingerlings there and the trout stay in that section of Warren. Think the oxygen and water’s staying cold enough. From a bottom fed dam.

I don’t have anything specific to add to what you said, however I‘m always interested in any discussions about trout fishing in the Allegheny. I grew up in Warren, and as a young kid I fished extensively around there before the dam was built beginning in 1960. My family moved away in 1960, but I returned to live there again for a short time in 1965-67, just after the dam was completed.

I don’t remember catching any trout in the Allegheny before the dam was finished. I caught lots of bass, walleye, and even hooked a couple muskies in the river though, and did catch a Brook Trout or two in the Conewango Creek, and was really surprised to get any trout there.

Here’s a picture of the 1956 flood, taken at the intersection of Market Street and Penn. Ave, and I remember seeing several small ponds of water elsewhere in town filled with fish (some were big fish) once the flood water receded.

For several years after the dam was completed, the trout fishing was great in the river, possibly even better than it has been since. They even let you crawl down onto the dam abutment back then, and the trout fishing right in the discharge was exceptional. I’ve also caught large (and smaller) trout in the river both above and below the tributary streams that go into the river downstream of the dam (as I’m sure you have too) and I suspect a lot of them are, or once were, stocked trout moving into and/or out of stocked tributaries. I don’t recall that there were any trout, even fingerlings, stocked in the river back then, so it‘s logical they they came from from tributaries (being stocked or stream bred).

 

[Kyle]

upstream. my trout club stocks our waters and the club upstream from us because our fish migrate upstream to their club. its true. they dont even stock because our fish migrate to their water. unless there is a major flood event. then i think trout get pushed all over the place. the fish that find deep water survive and the trout that dont get eaten by mink and eagles.

yes im a member of a trout club that stocks trout. get over it ya blue liners lol.

 

[JeffK]

As per NJ rainbows, they are a strain developed before WW I primarily to display a nice red strip on the side. They have an uncanny ability to survive warmer conditions even though they are a domestic fish. When shad fishing in the Delaware near the mouth of the Musconetcong I frequently catch a bunch of rainbows. In the 60's NJ studied trout motion and found most didn't move far, but some population moved up to mile and a half away. The interesting thing is that the trout that moved were more likely to feed and hit flies.

Another anecdote is a friend of mine caught a 20" tagged PA bow in the lower Pohatcong Creek in NJ. He sent the tag in and it was a standard size fish stocked in the Monroe Co. Bushkill. Some stockies do OK.

 

[Fish Sticks]

upstream. my trout club stocks our waters and the club upstream from us because our fish migrate upstream to their club. its true. they dont even stock because our fish migrate to their water. unless there is a major flood event. then i think trout get pushed all over the place. the fish that find deep water survive and the trout that dont get eaten by mink and eagles.

yes im a member of a trout club that stocks trout. get over it ya blue liners lol.

Just curious what watershed you stock in

If your gonna put the dig in there towards conservationists lets own it now kyle

 

[Kyle]

Just curious what watershed you stock in

If your gonna put the dig in there towards conservationists lets own it now kyle

lol take a chill pill man. i have nothing wrong with conservationists nor blue liners. im not even in the same state as you. stop living life so seriously. this is only an online fishing forum.

 

[Fish Sticks]

lol take a chill pill man. i have nothing wrong with conservationists nor blue liners. im not even in the same state as you. stop living life so seriously. this is only an online fishing forum.

What watershed was that?

 

[krayfish2]

upstream. my trout club stocks our waters and the club upstream from us because our fish migrate upstream to their club. its true. they dont even stock because our fish migrate to their water. unless there is a major flood event. then i think trout get pushed all over the place. the fish that find deep water survive and the trout that dont get eaten by mink and eagles.

yes im a member of a trout club that stocks trout. get over it ya blue liners lol.

Boy oh boy, you did it now. Nothing but five inch natives for you. You better not cry when all you guys get hauled off in the paddy wagon either 🤣

 

[Fish Sticks]

Boy oh boy, you did it now. Nothing but five inch natives for you. You better not cry when all you guys get hauled off in the paddy wagon either 🤣

We push back on a rutters being built in wetlands on little J , raw sewage being dumped into susky, buzzi cement dewatering bushkill, a stream restoration project dumping some sediment into the tully, carlisle war college causing fish kill on letort but ya wanna go and put 2000 11” invasive fish that crap out mudsnails, spread proliferative kidney disease/gill lice, and cause the loss of multiple native fish, crustaceans, macros, and hellbenders and we just call that “conservation”

Thats what its called on my local tu’s monthly meeting atleast. Good job everyone

 

[Kyle]

What watershed was that?

musconetcong water shed. any further questions, please let me know.

 

[falcon]

Musky has some nice water below Changewater.

 

[Fish Sticks]

musconetcong water shed. any further questions, please let me know.

Nice looks like there is wild native brook trout in there. Glad your so proud of supporting stocking invasive species in there. Our grand kids got this mass extinction/biodiversity crisis thing.

 

[Kyle]

Nice looks like there is wild native brook trout in there. Glad your so proud of supporting stocking invasive species in there. Our grand kids got this mass extinction/biodiversity crisis thing.

wild and native, should never be used in the same sentence. there is a difference. do your homework before you post on a public fishing forum. cheers buddy. and remember dont take life so seriously. its only fishing.

 

[troutbert]

wild and native, should never be used in the same sentence. there is a difference. do your homework before you post on a public fishing forum.

"wild native brook trout" is an accurate term. These fish are both wild and native. There is no contradiction there.

 

[caddisflyer]

I've done some searching and found some large migratory Browns in certain streams entering the Susquehanna. They appear in fall and I think spawning is only part of the picture because these fish are following shad and other river minnows into these feeder creeks. Interestingly I have also caught big Rainbows that show up at the same time as the Browns and stay for the same amount of time. So I assume they are hanging together. There are still many mysteries about fish behavior.

 

[JeffK]

Actually, the Musconetcong brook trout have been recovering in the section between Penwell and Changewater where there are numerous limestone springs. I have caught up to 6 in a morning and they can get up to 10 or 11 inches in a bigger river. On the down side, two of the Musconetcong tributaries that were great brookie streams 50 years ago have been taken over by brown trout.

 

[Mike]

General observation regarding Musconetcong: If the “blue line” streams that are being presented here are wild brook trout streams and are located downstream from the dam that was removed at least a couple of yrs ago, then wild brown trout have likely had full access to those tribs for decades unless there have been other blockages on the Musconetcong or the tribs. If the dam was below those tribs, then wild brown now have potential access. I would add, realizing that I could be wrong in this regard, that I thought from a popular article(s) that the Musconnetcong for at least part of its length is a wild brown trout stream. Maybe my impression was wrong and will rightfully be quickly corrected here. Jeff K?

As for other potential sources of wild browns, in at least some springs and I assume winters as well there are wild browns in the Delaware R on the Pa side in probably at least the two miles in each direction bracketing the mouth on the NJ side. I doubt that they have any difficulty going across the river and up the Musconetcong as the river warms. Why the browns in the river in this particular stretch? Because four wild brown trout streams enter the river within that stretch on the Pa side, two of which are Class A’s and are the closer of the four streams to the Musconetcong. One is about a half mile downstream from the Musconetcong and the other about a mile upstream.

 

[JeffK]

Musconetcong has some wild browns, but can't really be considered a wild brown trout stream. NJ stocks only rainbows and I catch more brookies than browns in the Muskie. The neighboring S Branch Raritan is a wild brown stream, but for the last 8 years the wild browns are depressed.

The Musconetcong is known as an "upside down" river where it cools down as it goes downstream. The top 7 miles is a series of warmwater lakes and the top section is warm. Then it enters the limestone valley near Hackettstown ( where the limestone springs provide the source for the Hackettstown Hatchery). The limestone valley gets wider and more springs come in as one goes downstream. The town of Changewater got its name because that is where historically the river became more a spring creek.

Like most Eastern streams it was a hardworking stream and I did a rough count of 25 dams in its 32 mile length. About 60% are gone. TU and others made the Muskie a project river and I think 5 dams were removed, most notably the 2 remaining last ones at the downstream end opening up the lower section to shad runs. The lowest dam is now in Warren Glen which is 40 ft high and a pretty big project. The one stream that has gone to browns enters the headrace of the Warren Glen dam. The next trickle up still has brookies. Go figure. The other stream of concern is Penwell Bk. 60 years ago I could catch brookies all day there and pods of them congregated at the mouth in the summer and in the winter (same at many other tribs) Now very few trout. Don't know why. Other tribs upstream have suffered from development, but Penwell Bk is largely in park land now.

 

[Kyle]

for the large dam in warren glen the sediment will be trucked out and dried on pavement before disposal. that dam is huge. next dam up from that is the bloomsbury dam. i live within walking distance of that dam. i believe the army corp of engineers are working on removing the bloomsbury dam but that has been in process for years already with no result. the concrete on one side of the dam is falling apart. couple more big floods and that wall may collapse.