Fish Travel

csoult

csoult

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A guy I work with is involved with a local sportsmans club, and he told me today that they tagged three trout that were stocked in a small stream here in our area. One month later one of these fish was caught in Sunbury, this 110 miles away by road and many more by river. I thought this was an interesting story to share. I don't know of any dams between here and there on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, so I believe his story. It was a Brookie.
 
I figure it close to 180 miles or more.
 
A few years back the Lehigh River Stocking Association tagged a few trout. One that they put in Bowmanstown was caught on the West Branch of the Upper Delaware. That fish had to go over 4 dams and over 200 river miles. I can not remember if it was a brown or bow.
 
guess they don't stay under the bridge!
 
guess they don't stay under the bridge!

That's actually really funny!!!
 
What do you think drives this migration behavior. Surely there must have been some good lies with available food closer than 100 miles away.

This seems to be uncommon behavior to me rather than the norm for PA wild trout - agree or disagree and why?
 
Yes, I do understand that the example fish were stocked. So, I guess you are agreeing that it is not normal behavior of stream bred wild trout.

Perhaps the stockies are just enjoying their new freedom or the resident fish keep sending them on their way because they don't like outsiders. Or perhaps they are migrating in search of the ocean.
 
Or maybe they are dumb
 
They're looking for pellets.
 
maybe they were just bored, or lost ?
 
I wasn't familiar with the story of a tagged fish from the Lehigh ending up in the WB. Is that even possible? I know the NY DEC radio tagged fish for a study. I think is wa back in the late 90's. I believe they documented fish migration from the lower sections of the main stem all of the way up into the Beaverkill. I think a few fish made it as far as the fly fishing museum on the Willowemoc. Swimming up the Beaverkill would suck! It was like it was one fish per year doing it but a fairly large number of fish were moving that route every year. I think fish are more transient than we would like to believe. If you told me there were large pods of trout that roam the Susky and then move 60 miles up feeders for cold water during the summer.... I'd believe it.

15 miles of main stem + 15 miles of EB and then 20+ miles of the Beaverkill.
 
This is not an unusual story. It's been common knowledge for some years that some stocked trout will go miles downstream.
I don't know of any theories that explain this.

It would certainly be possible for a fish from the LL to wind up in the WB. After all, shad cover the river on an annual basis. A fish moving from the LL down to the Del river would certainly be inclined to migrate upstream as the lower river warms. I'd think, though, it would be much more likely to move up a cold trib rather than continuing to move up the main stem of a warm river.
Who knows?
 
I recall a tagged trout stocked at the dam on the yough ended up being caught somewhere up the Allegheny river...
 
Fishidiot wrote:
This is not an unusual story. It's been common knowledge for some years that some stocked trout will go miles downstream.
I don't know of any theories that explain this.

It would certainly be possible for a fish from the LL to wind up in the WB. After all, shad cover the river on an annual basis. A fish moving from the LL down to the Del river would certainly be inclined to migrate upstream as the lower river warms. I'd think, though, it would be much more likely to move up a cold trib rather than continuing to move up the main stem of a warm river.
Who knows?

Big Lehigh in Bowmanstown.
 
Yeah, this isn't all that unusual for stocked fish. It would be fairly unusual for wild fish I think.

Theories? I certainly don't know. I'm not sure if any studies have been done along these lines, and could be proved wrong. But I've always believed that trout establish somewhat of a "home" at a certain age. A lot of this could be water chemistry related.

So, for instance, if a trout was raised in a limestone fed hatchery, this line of thinking would say that the fish is unlikely to feel comfortable in any freestone water, especially a more acidic one. And it could go "looking" for water more similar to it's home water.
 
one theory is emf's from stream buried power cables can screw a fishes lateral line or there is a genetic flaw that causes a screw up in their natural compass.

i've also read that this may help nature restock formerly polluted streams - this was Salmon and sea run browns in Europe though...

its nature, who knows ?
 
I can't speak for the theory of stocked fish moving but the migratory fish in the Delaware are wild. I still can't understand how the fish got from Bowmanstown to Hancock.
 
I would assume the Bowmanstown fish went downriver to the D then upstream
 
krayfish wrote:
I wasn't familiar with the story of a tagged fish from the Lehigh ending up in the WB. Is that even possible? I know the NY DEC radio tagged fish for a study. I think is wa back in the late 90's. I believe they documented fish migration from the lower sections of the main stem all of the way up into the Beaverkill. I think a few fish made it as far as the fly fishing museum on the Willowemoc. Swimming up the Beaverkill would suck! It was like it was one fish per year doing it but a fairly large number of fish were moving that route every year. I think fish are more transient than we would like to believe. If you told me there were large pods of trout that roam the Susky and then move 60 miles up feeders for cold water during the summer.... I'd believe it.

15 miles of main stem + 15 miles of EB and then 20+ miles of the Beaverkill.

On the Beaverkill, I've caught what I believe were wild rainbows from the D (the wild, wild rainbows that rip out line and tail dance across the water). I'm a believer.

Also, I have no doubt that some of the bows in the lower upper D (like from Lordville > Callicoon and even down past Damascus) migrate up the river into the WB when the water warms. Others stay, but hang out in lower upper near spring seeps and cooler tribs. I've witnessed this while SMB fishing in the summer.
 
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