Region 4 Brown Trout

[Long_Rod_Silvers]

I've long wondered why the brown trout distribution in region 4 is lacking. There's plenty of lakes with no outlets, but yet very few lakes with browns. Sup with that? Anyway, I've been sending emails to region 4 office asking why that's the case and if they'd consider adding a few brown trout lakes to the mix. The responses are very generic, but I will at least give them credit for responding. Too, the responses don't indicate it's a $ thing or indicate any limiting factor. They just kind of state that it is the way it is.....

Throwing this out there, they may be more receptive to adding a few brown trout stocked lakes to the mix if they heard from a few more people.

 

[Old406Kid]

Along the same vein, I wonder why Region 2 gets Triploid Brook Trout while a number of lakes in Region 1, Spokane and Stevens counties for instance, get regular Eastern Brook Trout. My guess is distance from the current hatchery but that said, if EBT's aren't sterile (?) there seem to be the potential for bucket biology.

 

[Paul_]

the responses don't indicate it's a $ thing or indicate any limiting factor. They just kind of state that it is the way it is....

Anadromous fish rule the roost on the west side. Inland fish/fisheries are not a priority and get very little time, effort or thought put into them.

I’ve been working with a local fly club to collect data on a somewhat famous fly fishing only lake in SW WA. The goal is to collect a basic data set and share it with WDFW to hopefully help manage the lake to its fullest potential (which includes stocking Brown Trout).

 

[Stonedfish]

What is really odd is how they stocked browns in some Westside lakes that provided some great fishing then just stopped stocking them.
So, what was the motivation to start putting the browns in and what was it that lead to them not stocking them any longer?
I’ll send an email to the region 6 biologist and share what response I get back.
SF

 

[Smalma]

Without a doubt there is a great paranoid about the potential impacts of exotics on the anadromous resource; case in point is the recent liberalization of warm water fish regulations in the name of reducing those impacts. Equally that concern will make much more difficult to get the permits to expand the use of brown trout on the Westside and likely eastside lakes.

If one wants to look at potential waters I suggest that folks look at those lakes that have outlets that don't flow to anadromous waters as well as having public access. Suspect that is a pretty short list, especially when layered over those waters with the potential to produce a quality fishery.

More to the point not sure that the planting of brown trout is the panaceas to improving the quality of a fishery. I admit most of my experience on this topic comes from Pass Lake in region 4. WDFW has been monitoring that fishery and its fish with local fly anglers with angler catch sampling every spring and gill test fishery. I have taken part in the angler sampling as well as regularly fishing Pass (at least in past years) as well as examining the planting history of the lake. My assessment is that we anglers are paying a pretty steep price in having those brown trout in the lake. The local WDFW biologist will giving a presentation on his finding from that monitoring to the Evergreen Fly Fishers this month; should be interesting.

Not to steal his thunder my observations are that about 1/2 of the poundage of trout planted in the lake are brown trout. The first several years both the browns and rainbows grow at about the same rate. As carryovers the browns tend to be slightly longer but thinner. The browns do occasionally produce a larger fish but the vast majority of the browns caught be anglers are approximately the same size . Comparing the planting rates, angler catch rates and the partial gill net results I have seen it looks like the Pass Lake rainbows are much more catchable than the browns; maybe on something like 4 times more catchable. Or to put it another, if the brown trout plants were converted to rainbows, I would expect roughly a doubling in angler catch rates with the loss of that odd very large brown.

For some anglers that chance at that large brown trout or for that matter any brown is worth the reduction in catch rates. For the average angler not sure that is the case. In the spirit to providing an alternative to planting browns it might be worth considering planting cutthroat as fall fingerling (like the browns). That switch would provide a diversity in the catch and I suspect as many or more fish in excess of 20 inches. Though maybe that reflects my love of our coastal cutthroat.

curt

 

[Old406Kid]

Thanks Curt, Now that you mentioned the Browns being thinner in Pass it came to me that we have much the same situation in Medical in Region 1.
The Rainbows of equal size are pretty girthy while the Browns of the same size have larger heads but are thinner in the body. The lake has a burgeoning population of several species of spiny rays that I would think the larger browns would feed on to plump them up but perhaps not.

 

[Long_Rod_Silvers]

Without a doubt there is a great paranoid about the potential impacts of exotics on the anadromous resource; case in point is the recent liberalization of warm water fish regulations in the name of reducing those impacts. Equally that concern will make much more difficult to get the permits to expand the use of brown trout on the Westside and likely eastside lakes.

If one wants to look at potential waters I suggest that folks look at those lakes that have outlets that don't flow to anadromous waters as well as having public access. Suspect that is a pretty short list, especially when layered over those waters with the potential to produce a quality fishery.

More to the point not sure that the planting of brown trout is the panaceas to improving the quality of a fishery. I admit most of my experience on this topic comes from Pass Lake in region 4. WDFW has been monitoring that fishery and its fish with local fly anglers with angler catch sampling every spring and gill test fishery. I have taken part in the angler sampling as well as regularly fishing Pass (at least in past years) as well as examining the planting history of the lake. My assessment is that we anglers are paying a pretty steep price in having those brown trout in the lake. The local WDFW biologist will giving a presentation on his finding from that monitoring to the Evergreen Fly Fishers this month; should be interesting.

Not to steal his thunder my observations are that about 1/2 of the poundage of trout planted in the lake are brown trout. The first several years both the browns and rainbows grow at about the same rate. As carryovers the browns tend to be slightly longer but thinner. The browns do occasionally produce a larger fish but the vast majority of the browns caught be anglers are approximately the same size . Comparing the planting rates, angler catch rates and the partial gill net results I have seen it looks like the Pass Lake rainbows are much more catchable than the browns; maybe on something like 4 times more catchable. Or to put it another, if the brown trout plants were converted to rainbows, I would expect roughly a doubling in angler catch rates with the loss of that odd very large brown.

For some anglers that chance at that large brown trout or for that matter any brown is worth the reduction in catch rates. For the average angler not sure that is the case. In the spirit to providing an alternative to planting browns it might be worth considering planting cutthroat as fall fingerling (like the browns). That switch would provide a diversity in the catch and I suspect as many or more fish in excess of 20 inches. Though maybe that reflects my love of our coastal cutthroat.

curt

I like the idea of cutties stocked in the fall.

You might know the answer to this:
Why are the rainbows stocked in the spring and the browns in the fall? Is it to follow the species normal reproductive cycles and keep costs at hatcheries down?

Asking because I've also noticed the skinnier browns at pass too. Although I have caught some large very healthy looking browns there, the majority of the browns I've caught (especially the ones caught at night) were snaky. Which had me thinking the skinny browns were victims of being outcompeted by the rainbows, which are stocked earlier in the year (so they'll be bigger when the browns are planted) and there's roughly twice as many rainbows.

Makes the idea of cutties and browns both stocked in the fall quite intriguing. Unless I'm oversimplifying (which I tend to do).