Trout stocking question

[Pumpkin QAAD]

If a small lake/pond sized body of water was stocked with 2,000 brown or brook trout in 2006 what are the chances those fish are still there ?

Both ponds (the brook and brown) are more than deep enough under the freezing line say 40 or 50 feet.

[chairrock]

I would say it depends on ...Ph,fishing pressure,food available,predation.....

[Pumpkin QAAD]

Hey Chairock, I didn't mean to question your hunting story in the other post I just have the road and house rules ingrained in my head....


Regarding the trout i always assumed if it is stocked that they would check the water parameters and ensure they were safe for the fish they were adding but I guess I was wrong. I have a aquarium test kit I'll test the ph myself....

[chairrock]

I don't know if they checked,with the State i don't assume anything,and no offense taken, nice to know some others are aware of the laws and safety

[Hobbitling]

I've heard some stories from DEC folks and those in the know about the stocking methods, and they vary from place to place, from very careful to pathetic. some crews check the water chemistry and watch the weather and really baby those fish, and others just dump them in whenever and wherever.

One guy was telling me about a little mill pond with so little oxygen all the fish are dead by the next day. but they keep stocking it, every year. The locals just pick up the dying fish with nets and baskets after the truck leaves. I guess its better than letting them rot.

[Pumpkin QAAD]

Have you guys seen/heard the helicopter that is used. I'm not sure if it was stocking or testing water. It was a helicopter with pontoon floats and it was going to a few no road access ponds. I was just hoping maybe they were giving me an end of season present.

[ripple]

the DEC uses a method of 30 trout per acre
since they do not own a helicopter they employ the state police chopper
and man do they mess up sometimes by stocking the wrong pond, the wrong allotment and so forth.
believe me it's not their fault , they are police officers and not DEC officials
why the S.O.N.Y does not support their Encon officers and provide them with the means is beyond me.

[Simon1]

heli.

I am not sure that the DEC doesn't have their own chopper. I was on a small remote pond fishing this spring and the stocking chopper came right down, flew over us and went to the far side of the pond. They dropped right down to within ten feet of the water and dumped a load of fish in. It was really cool to watch. I didn't notice any State Police insigna on the doors or anything. I have seen that chopper before though in the sky-with the pontoons etc. For the record, we did not immediately go over to where they dumped the fish and try to catch any. We do not actively pursue stocked fish. Not being aware of the politics behind he fish stocking program I would like to say that without the program there would be basically no trout in the Adirondacks. Good 'ol "progress" has ruined enough water.

[AlSara]

Last spring, I made a phone call to DEC and spoke with the fisheries biologist in charge of Franklin County and nothern Region 5 areas.

I asked about places for wild trout. He told me two. I asked about holdovers and wild fish in the West Branch of the Ausable. He said there are too few to even count...both hold overs and natives. He went on to explain that the Ausable system can not support a wild population because of the fishing pressure.

I went to a TU meeting in Saratoga a few years back. There was a different representative from NYS fisheries. He addressed the the PH concern at the beginning of the thread, Chairrock and Pumpkin QAAD. Some of the ponds in the ADKs are tested for sure. Those ponds do not appear on general stocking charts. Why? Because the hope is to develop a brood-stock population for Heritage Brook Trout.

The acidity in the ADK soil can be high by itself, but not necessarily too high to support fish, tip the scales by adding acid rain...and there's the major difference from here and out West. In the famous waters of the western states, they have significantly less pressure, better PH levels and avoided the logging raids that raped the ADKs in the early 20th century

Say what you will about their (DEC) efforts. It's a super tough balance between reclaiming and restoring a population of fish AND allowing sportsmen and women to pressure that population.

[Gray Ghost]

There are many variables, including species, but assuming this pond has adequate depth there should be some holdovers regardless of fishing pressure...that is unless the ponds is bathtub sized.

[Buckethead]

I'm pretty sure the DEC has a chopper. It is located in Indian Lake NY, right next to my relatives RV park. There's one there taking off / landing pretty much every day

the DEC uses a method of 30 trout per acre
since they do not own a helicopter they employ the state police chopper
and man do they mess up sometimes by stocking the wrong pond, the wrong allotment and so forth.
believe me it's not their fault , they are police officers and not DEC officials
why the S.O.N.Y does not support their Encon officers and provide them with the means is beyond me.

[ripple]

i may be wrong, and i never claim to always be right
but as i am told form region #5 dec biologist
the dec does not own a chopper
they employ choppers from the military and state police for stocking
after reading through some rescue articles , this seems to be the case

now i'm out the door for the week to see how those ponds have shaped up

[bigbryan]

maybe its time to close a few ponds and streams for 10-15 years and let natural reproduction do its thing. do a few wild egg takes and start a legitimate hatchery program with "native" strains. you could raise some of these hatchery trout in lower pH's make them suffer a few generations to build some tolerance.

our state hatchery program is established to raise catchable trout to sell licenses.. not so much ecology or restoration. What are rainbows and browns doing in New York? And why are they present in suitable brook trout waters?

[Wldrns]

i may be wrong, and i never claim to always be right
but as i am told form region #5 dec biologist
the dec does not own a chopper
they employ choppers from the military and state police...

If the DEC had a chopper I'm sure it would have been employed in any of a number of SAR missions I have been on. It's always a state police craft flying a search pattern with DEC rangers on the ground. I also know for a fact that choppers from Ft Drum are used in liming of certain lakes to raise the pH. During a "hiccup" year in which the Ft Drum CC did not allow use of his choppers for state environmental purposes, those lakes went without their scheduled liming.

[bigbryan]

agencies working together