Leftovers

[Swattie87]

We made it out today in Central PA, to a new to me stocked/nat repro stream. I can't be sure whether this stream holds over its stocked Trout every year this well, but it clearly did this year. It has wild fish too, so I'm sure it's capable of it, but the majority of our catch today were stocked holdovers.

I can't say I encounter this much when fishing Spring stocked only streams in the Fall. I suspect a lot of small stocked freestone streams had a better than average chance of holding over their stocked fish this year with the consistently higher flows over the Summer. Every primo spot on this stream held a stocked fish. Tough to judge, as it was my first time there, but that's definitely not the norm in my experience on similar type streams...Normally by the Fall, all you catch is wild fish. And when you do catch a stocker, it’s emaciated and in rough shape. These fish seemed very healthy.

Anyway, Leftovers was the theme of the day it seemed, as we paired our fishing with TGiving leftover sandwiches...Turkey/Cranberry/Stuffing/Extra Mayo on white. Even had one FBS that managed to make it through the TG dinner gauntlet with my family. int:

 

[salvelinus]

Very nice. And a FBS fan to boot. Cheers!

 

[Dave_W]

Good stuff - and the melting snow didn't seem to put 'em down either.

Definitely the rumor that stocked fish are prevalent over the summer and fall this year in greater numbers than normal. This isn't surprising considering conditions, but it's interesting to get specific reports such as this that support such general beliefs.

 

[jifigz]

Hey Swattie, how close were you to my neck of the woods? I've got a personal favorite wild/stocked mountain stream that always holds over lots of stockies and they are always in great shape. The stream also has a lot of wild brookies and some wild browns thrown in......hmmmm......I wonder if it is the same place.

 

[Swattie87]

Josh - PM Sent

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

The question is:
A wet summer with lower temps and better flows= good for wild trout.

A wet summer with lower temps and better flows = good for stocked holdovers.

Will the stocked holdovers in such a stream cause the wild trout population to decline?

Will the extra flow provide niches not normally there and the wild trout be ok in turn?

When water levels go lower, will the biomass of fish be so high as to have a detrimental effect of the wild population?

Stay tuned....

 

[geebee]

Dave_W wrote:


Definitely the rumor that stocked fish are prevalent over the summer and fall this year in greater numbers than normal. This isn't surprising considering conditions, but it's interesting to get specific reports such as this that support such general beliefs.

i have seen local photographs of similar healthy browns in my local DHALO stocked creek caught in early October.

there is some very limited natural repro, usually evidenced by the odd fingerlings caught near known spring holes, but due to the size of the fish these were 100% stocked holdovers caught in the General regs section by club members fishing for bass and panfish.

the fish were all returned, but due to high water levels ever since i have not been able to confirm their presence personally, but i will try to.

interestingly, the browns were caught in fast deep water on heavy nymphs.

i have tyed up a few perdigones nymphs to see if i can winkle one out , or more !

so get out there guys and give it a try is my advice.

 

[Swattie87]

salvelinusfontinalis wrote:
Stay tuned....

I know you were speaking metaphorically, but I probably won't personally find out actually. The stream overall was just meh in terms of its habitat, and I know of many better options within a similar day trip drive (about 2 hours or less) from my house. From that perspective, I probably won't devote the time resource to fish this one again when I have better already known options, or would rather try out something new.

That said, I think the long term effect of a good holdover year for stocked fish in small wild Trout freestoners (like this year presumably was) is that it's a minor, momentary blip from the norm. All else being equal, the stream will return to its long term status quo in terms of its carrying capacity for wild Trout. Granted, that may be higher if stocking were ceased all together, but the extra stockers presumably present now will only be a temporary thing. They'll be caught and harvested or die off, and they'll still be less able to deal with poor small stream conditions...low flows and drought, or severe scouring floods, than the wild fish will be. This stream already has wild Browns in it (I caught one clearly wild Brown yesterday, along with several small wild Brookies), so it's not like these holdover Browns will establish a new Brownie population in a place they weren't before.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

All very good points and all very logical and I agree.

However, what if what we are experiencing is a new normal for PA? Say this small blip becomes a long term trend, then a sudden off year it gets low?

In that case, I could see some very bad effects to the resident trout population. I would assume, as long as no pollution event occured, that the habitat is poor otherwise it would be class a likely and not stocked. This means less niches when the water is low, leaving the resident trout to compete with the stocked fish. Which we know the likely outcome of.

I'm not saying this is going to happen but I have wondered these questions this year. I too have seen a good head of holdover trout unlike any prior year. One thing people like to talk about is how the effects of stocking is minimal because the fish get yanked out and then the rest die off.
This is not the case this year, something tells me you could see a repeat next year.

Hope Iam wrong, I like river bass fishing...

 

[jifigz]

salvelinusfontinalis wrote:

Hope I am wrong, I like river bass fishing...

Amen to that. I'm still waiting on the Juniata to drop to catch those autumn smallies and walleye.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Nicely tied together there.

There are holdovers all over SEPA even this year. Another issue with the floods is that wild sections below stocked sections are seeing more stocked fish pushed down (over falls for example). A couple creeks that have Class A browns and only get bows stocked are showing a lot of bows...

 

[Mwheaps32]

jifigz wrote:

salvelinusfontinalis wrote:

Hope I am wrong, I like river bass fishing...

Amen to that. I'm still waiting on the Juniata to drop to catch those autumn smallies and walleye.

This has been such a brutal year for those addicted to smallies