Is it wrong or right?

[troutbert]

Brook trout spawn in ponds.

Just sayin.

 

[Wildbrowntrout]

I couldn't catch a brook trout in the stream where he got them. I did manage to get a nice wild brown in the fall.

 

[FarmerDave]

pcray1231 wrote:

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.

Underground trout?

Would explain the pale color.

Were they blind, too?

Did you find their little picks and shovels?

Didn't you know that ducks carry them on their feet?

I used to know I guy nicknamed Duck, but he wasn't much of a fisherman.

Likely someone else put them in there, or there is flow on the surface from time to time when it rains.

 

[geebee]

yep - trouts and char can reproduce in ponds where the springs seep through sand or gravel in shallow shoals.

the stream of oxygenated water acts the same way that creek water does - provides clean oxyegenated water and micro food particles.

i think you are very very lucky - i'm not sure there are too many ponds south of Northern New England (Green mountains, White Mountains, Rangeley etc.) that sustain wild brook trout populations.

i would certainly call the local DFW and TU straight away to get it noted and if possible protected - though without no feeder and not on public land, they may not do anything without your consent.

i woudl also think from a scientific point of view, that the stock in there would be interesting for them to look at and possibly look at as a broodstock for replanting local creeks and other ponds.

you have a treasure on your hands there, treat it well.

what a great discovery !

 

[Chaz]

pcray1231 wrote:
They could be, but I have my doubts if the two events are even related.

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.

Well except for all those Western States that now have reproducing populations of brookies. But you're probably right in saying that there is a feeder stream or an outlet connected to the pond. Brookies need a stream in 99% of cases to reproduce, the other 1% they reproduce in lakes where the habitat exists for spawning.
Land locked salmon and lake trout in Maine reproduce in lakes. Land locked salmon though are mainly river and stream spawners.
There are ponds and impoundments in PA that have brook trout in them naturally, they were once all over the Poconos.
Given the location I'd say they were native to the pond, Eagles Mere use to have natives, now it's got rough fish.

 

[Chaz]

On a second check of the map there is an outlet, it's called Rock Run, but doesn't connect directly to the pond unless it's a ditch. The outlet flows into a larger Rock Run, which coincidently also flows out of a pond.