Penns Creek Rainbow Fingerlings--Or Not

[DGC]

I noticed today was a tentative date to stock rainbow fingerlings From SR 45 to the mouth of Elk Creek. No indication of where or how many.

If anyone has knowledge of whether this happened and the rationale for doing so and/or any other details, perhaps you could elaborate.

PFBC 2013 Fingerling Trout Stocking

 

[McSneek]

What a useless waste of resources if that's the case. Manage the WILD brown trout population of Penns Creek and put the RT fingerlings elsewhere like the Yough.

 

[bikerfish]

that section gets stocked anyways, and the dutchies will clean them out soon enough, whether they are legal size or not.

 

[PatrickC]

bikerfish wrote:
that section gets stocked anyways, and the dutchies will clean them out soon enough, whether they are legal size or not.

Gotta love them. We stock our TU stream and they show up by the van load 3 days later and clean them out. I'm no fan of stockies, but it is a great way to get kids involved in fishing...if you get there quick enough :-/

 

[Fishidiot]

Thanks for the heads-up on this - will be interesting to hear the rationale and results.

 

[krayfish]

I think in another post that there was a study and it pretty clearly showed that stocked and wild populate different sections in the same stream and don't breed with the wild fish. Not sure I understand the rationale but don't believe it will be an issue with the already existing brown population.

 

[troutbert]

krayfish wrote:
don't believe it will be an issue with the already existing brown population.

I don't think it will be an issue either. The existing brown trout will simply EAT the stocked fingerlings. And not even say thank you.

 

[PENZZZ]

A friend and I were in the No-kill lot in 2004 when seven stocking trucks rolled in. Supervisor told me the state had excess fingerling browns any were stocking 17,000 four inchers, all with adipose fin removed. They went in between Cherry Run and Coburn. These trout grew fast and fat. Caught my last one around five years later and it weighed an absolute ton. Then they were gone.

Anyone else remember these fish?

Jeff

 

[bikerfish]

troutbert wrote:

krayfish wrote:
don't believe it will be an issue with the already existing brown population.

I don't think it will be an issue either. The existing brown trout will simply EAT the stocked fingerlings. And not even say thank you.

yep!!

 

[vcregular]

Yes, I do.

And I don't recall them being around for too many seasons. In fact I believe the state shocked Penns a few years later (2005) and only turned up a handful if that. I do remember the fin clippies rising in bright sun where you'd never find a wild Penns brown rising. I certainly don't ever remember one of those clippies ever weighing an 'absolute ton.' That said, a few here and there might have held on to become monsters.

EDIT: Just looked at the write up from the 2005 PFBC shocking from the c&r stretch and here is what is written: Only one adipose fin-clipped brown trout from the 2003 fingerling stocking was collected during the 2005 survey.

 

[PENZZZ]

Looking back at my journal I see the stocking took place May 30, 2003. Last one I caught was in May, 2007. To fill the bottom of my net bag it had to be around 18-"19". Thick fish. When I looked at the pictures at home it wasn't clear to me that the fish had no adipose fin. So ten days later I visited the trout again and caught it to verify the missing fin. One other thing I remember about the stocked fish, they were very easy to fool.


http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag29/PENZZZZ/Photos028_zpsa19ef035.jpg

 

[PENZZZ]

"EDIT: Just looked at the write up from the 2005 PFBC shocking from the c&r stretch and here is what is written: Only one adipose fin-clipped brown trout from the 2003 fingerling stocking was collected during the 2005 survey."

PFBC must not have been looking very hard. My journal shows I landed six of them in 2005, then three in 2006 when they'd reached 16" in length. They always were thick fish but I think we all agree that despite being stocked at 3"-4" they didn't have the genetic make-up of a wild brown.

 

[DGC]

PENZZZ thanks for that. For some reason I am not finding that 2005 survey summary for Penns but that's ok it's tabulated in the 2007 biologist report.

Great records by the way. Surveys only sample a very limited area and typically the same ones over the years, so angler records like that help fill in missing details.

 

[Chooch]

I actually don't think this is a bad thing. Rainbows can generally handle temps a little warmer than browns. So best case scenario a few survive and possibly even reproduce and Penns has a small thriving population of wild rainbows. Worse case scenario, they get eaten by the resident browns. I do not like when the PFBC does stuff like this but it is much better than stocking fingerling browns. The gene pool of the browns in Penns now is one that is accustomed to survival in the stream and the challenges that presents (namely warm water). If a few of the brown trout fingerling survive and starting throwing their genes in the pool that could screw things up a bit.