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Results from Plantings of Tagged Trout in Spring Creek, Pennsylvania
Author(s) -
Trembley Gordon L.
Publication year - 1945
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1943)73[158:rfpott]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - trout , rainbow trout , fishery , fishing , brown trout , catch and release , salvelinus , biology , zoology , fish <actinopterygii> , recreational fishing
Data on anglersˈ catches, the growth and migration of stocked trout, and the efficiency of fall and spring plantings were obtained by means of a creel census in Spring Creek, Pennsylvania, during 1939. Of 2,130 tagged trout planted, 50.8 per cent were recovered by anglers. Due to heavy fishing pressure, more than 40 per cent of all tagged trout taken during the entire season were removed on the first day. A high first‐day kill (76 per cent of the total recoveries) of brook trout was noted. The quality of fishing declined rapidly during the early season. Fishing for brook trout was good for only a few days, brown trout fishing was fair for about a month, while rainbow trout fishing lasted slightly longer. Catches of tagged trout after 6 weeks were negligible. Only 10 trout were recovered during 1940 and 1 during 1941. Six of these fish were brown trout and 5 were rainbow trout. There was no evidence that any brook trout survived from one fishing season to the next. Growth studies of trout planted in the fall indicated that rainbow trout grew fastest, followed by brown trout and brook trout. There was evidence that the growth rates of brown trout and rainbow trout decreased as the size of the fish increased. This was not true of brook trout. Migrations of fall‐planted trout were not extensive. Those undertaken averaged considerably less than 1 mile. Brown trout favored upstream and brook trout downstream movement, while rainbow trout moved in equal numbers in either direction. Spring‐planted trout, captured after less than a month in the stream, had moved very little. A majority of brook trout and brown trout remained within the planting areas. About half of the rainbow trout migrated. Fall planting of the three species of trout was nearly as efficient as spring planting, as 49 per cent of the former and 54 per cent of the latter were recovered. Eight per cent more brown trout from the fall plantings were recovered than from the spring planting. Recoveries of spring‐planted brook trout and rainbow trout exceeded those of fall‐planted trout by 8.8 per cent and 13.6 per cent respectively. Contrary to the common belief of anglers, fall‐planted trout did not become “wild” over the winter. They were taken even more readily in the early fishing season than were trout of the spring plantings. The high returns from the fall plantings were attributed largely to the heavy fishing pressure, the moderate winter conditions, the lack of important predators, and to a possible scarcity of wild trout from natural spawning in Spring Creek.