Is it wrong or right?

[Wildbrowntrout]

On my hunting cabin property, a man that I knew back in the sixties who was and avid fly fisherman fished out 15 native brook trout and put them in an abandoned pond on the property. Later on in the fall of last year, I took my fly rod back over to the pond hoping to find some leftover trout from back then. To my surprise I caught 21 trout on a dry fly all over 7". Sorry for the long story it had to be included. Do you think it was right or wrong to pull out trout from a native stream on the property and put them in a pond?

 

[troutbert]

Put em all back in the stream!

No, just kidding.

It happened in the 1960s. I don't see this as an "action item."

There is nothing that needs to be done. Or to think overly much about.

Fish the pond. Fish the stream. Have fun.

 

[Fishidiot]

troutbert wrote:
Put em all back in the stream!

No, just kidding.

It happened in the 1960s. I don't see this as an "action item."

There is nothing that needs to be done. Or to think overly much about.

Fish the pond. Fish the stream. Have fun.

Agree.
While moving fish like this would be frowned upon today, it was common practice back in past years and many well known anglers moved trout around (and insects too) to try and spread out a good thing.

Enjoy your pond with wild brook trout.

 

[FarmerDave]

I wouldn't have a problem with it even today if the pond feeds into the same stream. Oh, and if he didn't exceed his daily creel limit.

 

[pcray1231]

They could be, but I have my doubts if the two events are even related.

Fish in said pond must reproduce or they wouldn't be there. Trout don't reproduce in ponds. i.e. there is a small stream which feeds the pond where the trout reproduce.

Whether that population was "seeded" by the fish the man stocked is the question. It's certainly possible. But the odds are, probably not. If habitat suits, brookies tend to be pre-existing. If it doesn't suit, population seeding doesn't tend to be successful. It's a relatively rare case where the habitat could support brookies and no brookies exist. But those cases DO happen and I suppose it's possible this was one such occasion.

Enjoy the fishery.

 

[Wildbrowntrout]

Can they reproduce at the mouth? The feeder creek is too small coming in, but where it leaves out it has to go through a little pipe barely submerged in the water that goes straight down and then out. Near the creek, the lake is very shallow so would that be a possibility? It freezes over in the winter and temps. In the summer rarely exceed 60 degrees. Ice fishing is good, but the fly fishing is better.

 

[Wildbrowntrout]

Check it out. Its small but its there. 41° 24' 22" N 76° 36' 42" W

 

[franklin]

I wouldn't have any ethical concerns about it. I own some land that has a couple streams feed by springs. They stay under 60 all summer. I'm sure they held brookies at one time but a downstream mill dam cut off the main stream and logging in the 1800s killed those above. I have no concerns about moving a few brookies from below the dam to above. I just haven't had the time to do it.

Looks like a nice place. Have fun and enjoy it.

 

[troutbert]

Wildbrowntrout wrote:
Check it out. Its small but its there. 41° 24' 22" N 76° 36' 42" W

I found it on AcmeMapper, on satellite view.

The topo map does not even show a stream, even an intermittent one, in the same hollow as the pond. There must be enough ground water coming down that little hollow to keep the pond cool enough for brookies.

Brook trout do spawn in ponds, where the groundwater seeps in. Go there in October and you may be able to see where they spawn.

 

[FarmerDave]

WBT, not sure what pond that would be. The coordinates is on a road.

You might be surprised how small a stream can be and still have some brook trout reproduction. Even streams that are dry in the summer can support reproduction.

I've caught brook trout in streams so small that in places a 7 inch trout would have to back up to turn around. OK, I'm exaggerating a little, but not much. I can step across without breaking stride and not get my feet wet.

The trout will always try to reproduce. All it takes to sustain a population in a small pond is that they are occasionally successful.

All they need is gravel, and highly oxygenated water. It doesn't need to be deep. I tend to agree with TB that it is not impossible for them to reproduce in a pond, just unusual.

The tiny trickle that feeds one of my ponds might even support reproduction of brook trout. It's maybe 100 feet long and is just the outlet of some french draining. It's often dry or nearly dry in the summer, but the rest of the year it flows.

I suspect that pond gets too warm though.

The other pond is probably cold enough, but no stream flowing into it. ... cept when it rains or snow is melting.;-)

 

[BradFromPotter]

What could be wrong with this??

 

[FarmerDave]

BradFromPotter wrote:
What could be wrong with this??

I'll tell you what is wrong with this.

That pond is not in my back yard.;-)

 

[pcray1231]

Worked for me. Copied and pasted coordinates into google maps (put a comma between the latitude and longitude). Came right up. No pond appears on map, but switch to satellite view, and there it is.

 

[FarmerDave]

Nevermind, it worked when I went to google maps first and then plugged it in. Plugging it in to google an d then hitting maps took me to an Inn.

 

[afishinado]

Interesting. The pond appears to be spring fed with no apparent inlet and outlet stream.

Like Troutbert posted above, it is possible for the trout to spawn in the pond.

Since it's a "hunting cabin" I would assume you are frequently up there in the fall. Check out the shallows to see if redds appear in any sand or gravel areas. This type of bottom is a sure sign of the presence of a spring.

Let us know what you see, if anything, this fall.

 

[FarmerDave]

So Pat, now that we have the coordinates, when do you want to go check it out?;-)

 

[FarmerDave]

afishinado wrote:
Interesting. The pond appears to be spring fed with no apparent inlet and outlet stream.

Like Troutbert posted above, it is possible for the trout to spawn in the pond.

Since it's a "hunting cabin" I would assume you are frequently up there in the fall. Check out the shallows to see if redds appear in any sand or gravel areas. This type of bottom is a sure sign of the presence of a spring.

Let us know what you see, if anything, this fall.

Of course you know what that would mean.

It would mean that Pat was wrong. ;-)

.

 

[pcray1231]

It would mean that Pat was wrong

Impossible.

Seriously, though, there is a hollow coming down into it. There's a stream, either on the surface, or perhaps subsurface, or perhaps both (intermittent).

I have caught underground brookies! There's a little spring near our camp. Not much more than a swampy area, we dug a hole and lined it with stone to make a permanent "puddle", refreshed consistently with fresh spring water. We use it to keep minnies alive. No stream coming to or from it on the surface. It then presumably goes underground and comes out as another spring (Tubbs Run drainage). Rarely, but once or twice, we've found extremely pale brookies in that spring hole. That means they travel underground to get there!

Provided a source of cold water, it's amazing where they can get to. This is why it's highly unusual for a suitable body of water NOT to have them.

 

[Swattie87]

Wrong or right ethically is a different question (I don’t have a problem with it for the record), but whether it was legal or not would have depended on the regs at the time it was done. As long as the fish kept were of legal size, and it was less than the quantity limit of the time on any given day, then I don’t think it was illegal. I don’t think there’s anything that says you can’t stock a pond on private property with fish species that are already present in the watershed. If you’re stocking invasives to the watershed, that’s clearly different.

Bigger surprise to me is that we haven’t seen Becker’s cat in this thread yet recommending it be restocked with Browns for some better fishing.

Edit: I agree with the thoughts above in the thread that the presence of Trout in the pond today may very well be independent of the "stocking" that took place years ago. Too many factors/variables in the meantime to know for sure.

 

[afishinado]

FarmerDave wrote:

afishinado wrote:
Interesting. The pond appears to be spring fed with no apparent inlet and outlet stream.

Like Troutbert posted above, it is possible for the trout to spawn in the pond.

Since it's a "hunting cabin" I would assume you are frequently up there in the fall. Check out the shallows to see if redds appear in any sand or gravel areas. This type of bottom is a sure sign of the presence of a spring.

Let us know what you see, if anything, this fall.

Of course you know what that would mean.

It would mean that Pat was wrong. ;-)

.

Wrong again, Dave!....you stand corrected....Underground brookies!

They slither in, in the dark of night and populate the pond when no one was looking.... :lol:

I really can't say anything for sure. If it were me, I'd look for Redds. If no redds are found, than it's time to look for tunnels.