Mixing wild and stocked populations in lakes

[nimrod]

I'm new to the board and have enjoyed the discussions and information. Quite a discussion about mixing stocked with wild trout in rivers.

It doesn't seem to be an issue in lakes, at least in the Finger Lakes where the NYSDEC has done a great job. As an example, Canandaigua Lake used to support natural reproduction of lake trout but silting over the years has covered their spawning beds so for the past many years the fine lake trout fishery there has been totally supported by susbstantial fingerling stocking. A brown trout fishery is supported in the same manner. By contrast, rainbow trout in the lake are totally wild fish produced from spwning runs up feeder creeks. While these are different kinds of fish, they inhabit the same or similar areas and compete for the same food sources, although there's plenty of food to go around. The wild and stocked populations coexist just fine although you can argue that stocked fingerlings essentially wind up as "wild" fish.

If you're up in that area, Skaneatales Lake offers some fly fishing opportunities for rainbows and landlocked salmon.

 

[SlumpBuster]

Thats an interesting point, but a lake is a much diffrent ecosystem compared to a stream. I am not sure how trout act towards each other in a lake but would assume it is much diffrent than in a stream because of how territories work in a stream. From experince I know that a lot of trout in lakes cruise the banks and shallows looking for food. In streams they tend to sit at one place and wait for food. Also lake trout live in a much diffrent area comapired to Rainbow or Brown Trout in a lake. So the fact that lake trout are stocked probably has no affect on the other trout. This has perked my intrest though and I'll definitely have to look into this topic.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

it is my understanding that they co-exist fairly well. more room and food. but be careful. The Rangeley chain of lakes in Western Maine is a land of salmon and brook trout. The brook trout are native; the salmon (and the smelt they feed on) were introduced over a hundred years ago. Before the salmon were introduced, brook trout gorged on blueback trout and grew to tremendous size. The blueback's disappeared after the turn of the century because of the salmon. stocking lakes can be just as dangerous. if not more

 

[JeffK]

The Finger Lakes sure are an interesting case with complex environments that have been changing enormously over the years. Probably the biggest issue is alien species with the bait populations going from whitefish species/sculpins to smelt to alewives. The zebra and quagga mussels have altered the biomass distribution. Even shrimp, plankton and algae species have been introduced. Fertile likes like Cayuga and Owasco have different stories than oligotrophic Skaneatles where the aliens have a hard time getting started. The lamprey issue is also controversial with the current thinking that they are native to the Finger lakes and only went crazy a few decades ago due to changes in the system (new evidence is that Finger Lakes and Lake Ontario lampreys have different DNA than sea lampreys and the Seneca lakers are lamprey resistant). They are fascinating and complex environments to fish and study. And every time some simplified model is proposed or a fishijng pattern is developed some new data or a new introduction changes everything (i.e. VHS may be a massive problem just starting).

The balance between lakers and the browns/rainbows/landlocked in most lakes has gone out of whack in favor of the lakers largely due to changes in bait distribution. The quagga mussels have filtered significant algae out of the water and moved the biomass to the bottom and the introduction of alewives has favored the bottom loving lakers over the rainbows etc that cruise higher, warmer waters near the thermocline. Another complicating factor is EMS, a thiamine defficiency in salmonids caused by an alewive diet that causes reproductive failure, particularly in landlocks. One odd plus for the quagga mussels is that they have renewed silted over spawning beds on Cayuga and wild lakers are showing up for the first time in decades.

The Finger Lakes have been very dynamic lately with broad season-to-season and lake-to-lake variations. Some are good, some are bad - but it is very interesting.