NWPA Stream Levels

[Sruflytyer]

Whoa!!!! I’ve fished East hickory since I was ten and I’ve never seen it look like that. I’ve caught quite a few brookies in EHC and tribe over the years. I wonder how many trout either succumbed to predation being trapped in holes or bailed down to the Allegheny.....

 

[sarce]

Prospector wrote:

1) Using my anecdotal data. That stream in Potter that had a 74% drop in brook trout after the 2016 drought year while the brown trout population stayed roughly the same. The brook trout have not recovered to their 5:1 ratio. This year it was 1.65 browns per brook. So I did not intend to imply that the stream was devoid of trout but an abrupt redistribution has occurred that may never change. I’m confident that wild populations will rebound in times of favorable conditions.

I feel this is exactly how browns outcompete brookies over time. When things are good, they can coexist. But in a drought year, the browns have an edge. A few drought cycles after browns first show up, and no more brookies. I am very interested to see what the ratio is next year if you fish the same stream.

I think the same thing can happen after floods but I'm less confident it hurts brookies more than other trout. But as a recent example, one of my favorite small WV streams with rainbows and brooks was devasted by a flood. I didn't know this and fished it a few weeks ago. Only found one adult rainbow and saw several YOY bows, but no brook trout seen or caught. Prior to the floods it was about 50/50 between the two.