Does the Little Lehigh have any wild browns left?

[jifigz]

Most likely Sections 04 and 07 will be surveyed at some point within the next few yrs since they are in the new C&R program for Class A (former Class A?) BT in stocked RT water.

Mike, are they going to be posting signage regarding the new Catch and Release regs regarding brown trout on those select waters? Since I have been gimped up, I have not been out fishing to see if any new signage has been posted. I just scrolled through the creel limits page and the info was not super easy to find. I found it, but I think I have probably spent more time than most average anglers perusing the website. I just hope it is clearly posted on these select Class A streams, and then I hope that people are actually able to distinguish a rainbow from a brown trout.

 

[Jessed]

I’d love to view and compare prior surveys of section 4 and 7. I would guess a massive decline. Enough to remove the class A title ? Probably not.


Mike, how do they go about surveying a section like #8? It’s not stocked by the state but has an influx of hatchery fish and potential juvenile escapes. How difficult is it to distinguish a 1 year old hatchery fish from a wild fish ?

 

[Mike]

I’d love to view and compare prior surveys of section 4 and 7. I would guess a massive decline. Enough to remove the class A title ? Probably not.


Mike, how do they go about surveying a section like #8? It’s not stocked by the state but has an influx of hatchery fish and potential juvenile escapes. How difficult is it to distinguish a 1 year old hatchery fish from a wild fish ?

Ltl Lehigh Ck, Section 04.
2013 2021
Avg. 112.2 87.5 kg/ha

Ltl Lehigh Ck, Section 07
2013 2021
97.2 10.2 kg/ha

If the population in Section 07 has crashed, it’s likely that such has also occurred in all sections downstream from there and this is hardly a fishing pressure problem.

As for Section 08, it’s easily sampled with a towed electrofishing pram. The more difficult part, although standard practice for high pop density streams, is processing the fish. That always required two processing crews there in the past due to high numbers of trout. Perhaps not anymore. Also, the vast majority of the trout are easily separated into hatchery and wild fish. Only the largest browns, such as 18-22 inchers, sometimes present a challen.

As for signage to be posted, I have no idea, but past practices would suggest that this would most likely occur.

 

[Mike]

I noticed after the fact that the data organization for Section 04 above got off center so here it is again. The avg biomass from the same four sampling sites was 112.2 and 87.5 kg/ha in 2013 and 2021, respectively. Three sites supported Class A biomasses and one was a Class B equivalent in 2021.