Perkiomen Trout

[Chaz]

I went fishing yesterday at the Perkiomen and saw some spawning beds, but no trout were spawning during the day. I saw 2 pairs of browns laying side by side. It's early, and the spawning has been done by November 1 some years but not even started by November 1 other years.

I caught a couple of fish and had some good strikes, the water was gin clear so I yanked away the fly a couple of times on good fish. A beautiful day to be out. I also checked out Hosensack Creek and saw some trout, but none spawning and some spawning beds were seen.

 

[poopdeck]

I grew up fishing the perk but have not been back in decades. enjoyable post. thanks

 

[SteveG]

I'm not familiar with that stream, but I was told that spawning in some streams is being held up by lack of water.

 

[Chaz]

I would consider any spawning of brown trout to be early at this point, streams are low, but spawning is more temperature related than dependent on flows. There are a lot of leaves still laying in the streams and a good rain will wash them away from spawning areas. Trout like the leaves gone, but too much rain and an entire year class of fish will be washed away.
We saw plenty of trout, mostly spooked. I expect a good spawning year base on the number of mature browns seen.

 

[Mike]

The number of young produced is seldom limited by the number of adults. Production of young is almost entirely related to environmental conditions during and after the spawn. Low numbers of adults can and do produce great year classes, and this is not limited to trout. Trout anglers and enthusiasts should reconsider the emotional idea that a large number of adults is necessary for maintenance and growth of trout populations, and by extension that fishing over spawning trout is harmful at the population level. Neither is generally true despite being natural things for anglers to think.

 

[Oregon_Owl]

Mike, are we talking floods (thus siltation), ice thickness, and flow volume as the primary determining factors?

 

[Chaz]

I didn't mean to imply that the number of fish large enough to spawn meant it would be a good spawning year, though I see now that it was sort of implied. Looking at what I said again I see it lead that way. But floods in particular impact the number of young and if there is exposed spawning beds after the spawn that limits the YOY trout. So it's good to have low water during the spawning period, some high water after the spawn is good, and certainly we want the water to come up rather than a prolonged dry spell after the spawn. It's not so good if the eggs are washed away by floods or exposed by dry weather.

 

[Mike]

Depending upon the species involved: Water too low, water too high. More universal problems include: frazil ice, floods or near-flood conditions, falling pH/low pH associated with acid precip/snowmelt.

 

[Chaz]

Mike wrote:
Depending upon the species involved: Water too low, water too high. More universal problems include: frazil ice, floods or near-flood conditions, falling pH/low pH associated with acid precip/snowmelt.

There's no doubt that we've nearly lost whole populations of trout in streams that suffered these events, and we'll continue to lose nearly whole populations, because there will always be floods and droughts, frazil Ice, anchor ice, and so forth.

 

[PASKIINGSUCKS]

Got a few little ones closer up toward 100 when I was out with the GF and kids last weekend. I'm very impressed by how healthy the Perky is these days. We were worm dunkin as the kids are 5,7, and 10, none the less though it was nice to show em a fish as pretty as a little perky Brown. Had to explain a bit about trout as they were a little disappointed I didn't let em pet it or hold it to throw it back. They all agreed though that it had beautiful little red spots.

Gonna miss that stream. Buying a house in Birdsboro. Guess it's time to scope out some new waters, that's life. I'm kind of excited as it looks like there is no shortage of good trout streams up that way as well.

 

[Mike]

I was not speaking about lost populations; just about impacts on year class strength that typically outweigh the importance of spawner abundance.