Should a 'Wild Trout' Stream be Stocked?*

[pkb]

* Also posted to the Conservation BB under the subject: "Wild Trout Stream (mis)Management"

Consider a stream that has demonstrated the ability to support a naturally reproducing population of wild brook & brown trout. (In fact, it's 'Class A' trout water in some stretches.)

Add to that the fact that the stream is lacking significant in-stream cover, as determined by 5 years of state-sponsored Fish & Wildlife research.

If you were charged with managing this as one of your state's only 5 remaining Wild Trout Streams, and you thought significant real river restoration work (as planned to begin this summer/fall) could help the wild trout population begin to tick upward and rebuild, would you jeapordize the past 5 years worth of scientific research (and who knows how much taxpayer $) and add a previously unaccounted for wild-card into the mix? Wouldn't you be concerned that the findings of your research would be somehow skewed by this new variable?

Would you be willing to throw some hatchery raised rainbows into the mix just to appease some of the vocal locals who say 'Enough of this science *&%$, I want to catch some fish in my backyard!'?

What if that stream held a special place in American fly fishing history?

The Battenkill for instance.

That's what we're up against right now.

-- [url=http://www.TUSWVT.org:d3d63]Southwestern Vermont Chapter of Trout Unlimited[/url:d3d63]

Please help us make our point to the VT F&W folks. Visit our site for more details, contact info & an online petition supporting real river restoration, without the stocking part.... Thanks in advance for your support.

BTW -- There are now more big, beautiful wild browns in the BK (thanks to a 5 year test period of no-kill regs) despite the reputation it has justifiably earned as being a tough river to fish. For evidence, check out some of the photos in our gallery, and on Mike_D's site: http://battenkill.tripod.com!

[Gardenfish]

no. stocking solves no problem. Instead, restore the stream and the stream bank habitat and the wild fish will return. THe pellethead folks have plenty of places to go.

[Jed]

I would favor stocking with hatchery trout. It would make catching easier for the people who come up from NYC and want to catch a fish on their first effort. Orvis would be able to make more money. I could catch a nice hatchery trout and have a pellet tasting fish which is much better than those silly bugs that "your" fish eat. Think of the excellent opportunities you would have to open up a McDonalds right on the river and sell "burgers on the fly". Right next to it we could put the Super 8 motel and life would be grand. Then if the TU crowd wanted to fish they could just go elsewhere. We could have jobs for our kids. They could guide the river. All they would need is a boat and a bag of pellets for chum. One fly, the pellet fly would be all you would need to know how to tie.

Don't ever underestimate the power of stupid.

jed

[Eric D]

I'm not an expert on trout stream ecology but I am convinced it's far better to have wild self sustaining populations than to depend on stocking programs. If I am not mistaken the spread of Whirling disease out west is directly traced to infected hatchery trout being stocked in rivers.
The only justification to stock fish is to be create a fishery with marginal habitat that likely won't support a sustainable population or to re-introduce trout into a stream where they have been eliminated to restore the population.

If you you have a healthy population of wild or native trout in the stream, stocking should not be considered. Instead, think of stream improvement for areas of the stream that can be improved, allowing more quality habituate for the fish to spread to.

Most State Department of Natural Resources, have programs to help local Trout Organizations, to help keep the cost down. Who better know the stream than the locals? It is better to take time and do something right, that will last many lifetimes, than go for a quick fix.

If there is a problem because of property rights, I suggest that the locals talk with the owners, and explain how allowing the rehabilitation of the stream will be an improvement to the property as well as the stream, by allowing designated lanes of access across their property, and a margin along stream-side for anglers to travel, up and down stream.

That is how it is done in Minnesota, with the money raised from Minnesota Trout Stamp Revenue.

~Parnelli

[Royal Wulff]

RW here,

Absolutely not!! Here in Maine, especially in the northern part of the state we have many remote wild trout populations and they are treated as such.

Maybe I should add wild and "native" brook trout populations.

RW

[Photojoe4]

Were'nt brown trout imported from Europe and stocked over here? If I'm right in my thinking, then this wouldn't really be a "wild" population, or at least not a native one. Still, it would be a shame to see a great fishery get ruined just so some bait chucker can take his/her limit. There's this little cutthroat stream (see my "Blueberries" story next week) here facing the same dilemma- it's being stocked with rainbows/cutbows, and I'm worried they'll make their way upstream and outcompete the native cutts.

Regards,
Joe Martin
Salem, OR

[Jed]

pho-jo,

IMHO, I think that the browns (with a few exceptions) after 5 years of a no stocking program can be considered wild fish. That is born and bred in the river, not a hatchery. They are not native or indigenous but they are wild.

je

[pkb]

As Jed pointed out correctly, the browns are wild but not native.

There has been no official stocking in the mainstem of the VT BK since the early 70's - '71 I believe.

-pkb

[pspaint]

Jed, I always looked at them as native fish, not indigenous. That is to say, if they were born in a perticular stream, they are native to that stream but there ancestors came from elsewhere, and thus are not indigenous to that stream.
As to stocking the Battenkill, I would say i'm against it. There are still fish there and if the habitat is improved, the populations will improve as well. The bait-chuckers have plenty of other streams to molest.