Outdoors

By Tom Venesky tvenesky@timesleader.com
Sports Reporter
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Daryl Pierce dipped his net into the Lehigh River and pulled up a work of art.

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Daryl Pierce and George Vernoski work the shore line of the Lehigh River.

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George Vernoski electroshocks the shoreline of the Lehigh River in search of fingerling trout.

Fred Adams photos/FOR the times leader

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What is a fingerling trout?

According to Pierce, a fingerling trout is less than a year old and is three to five inches in length if it’s a brown trout, and four to six inches long if it’s a rainbow.

Rainbows grow the fastest, and Pierce has found them to reach nine to 10 inches in length several months after they were released.

You can help

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is employing several methods to determine how many fingerling stocked trout survive and are caught in the Lehigh River. Aside from talking to anglers along the river, the Lehigh Coldwater Fishery Alliance has erected numerous boxes along the river for anglers to fill out and deposit a survey card outlining what they caught. PFBC biologist Daryl Pierce said the survey cards are critically important to the fingerling trout study.

“We want to see a certain percentage of these fingerling trout returned to the anglers, and these cards will tell us if that’s happening,” he said. “This entire program is about enhancing the fishery that’s here by having trout for anglers to catch.”

Anglers can also report their catch to the agency by downloading a Lehigh River Angler Log from the PFBC website ( www.fish.state.pa.us). The log book contains information about the program and sketches of what a fin-clipped trout looks like.

Lastly, Pierce said if anyone catches a fin-clipped trout on the Lehigh, they can simply call the PFBC region office – 477-5717, and report it.

What other aquatic life was found

Trout weren’t the only aquatic life that Pierce found in the Lehigh River on Thursday. Here’s a look at what Pierce netted in a 200-meter stretch of the river below the Frances Walter Dam (and the family they belong to):

- Tessellated darter (perch)

- Margined madtom (catfish)

- American eel

- Sea lamprey

- Blacknose and longnose dace (minnow)

- Cutlips minnow (minnow)

- Smallmouth bass (sunfish)

Other fish that Pierce finds in the Lehigh River include white suckers, fallfish, common shiner, yellow perch, black crappie, bluegill and pumpkinseed.

“There’s a lot of diversity in this river,” Pierce said.

Inside Pierce’s net was a seven-inch wild brook trout painted with striking orange and blue spots offset with a bold white slash along each fin.

Pierce inspected the fish for clipped fins while his assistant, George Vernoski, measured its length and then released back into the river.

Because the adipose and pelvic fins weren’t clipped, Pierce determined it was a wild trout, born and reared in the Lehigh River or one of its tributaries.

The presence of a clipped fin, Pierce said, is an indication that the fish was one of the thousands of fingerling trout released into the river over the last two years by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. Pierce, who is a river biologist with the agency, is surveying the river from the Cementon Dam in Northhampton up toward White Haven to determine how many of the fin-clipped fingerling trout are surviving.

But that’s only half the story.

“The goal of this study is to look for the presence of fin-clipped trout, and also find out how many are being caught by anglers,” Pierce said. “We want to find out if these fingerlings make it to become a catchable adult, and determine what percentage are being caught.”

To find the fish, Pierce and Vernoski use a backpack electrofisher unit that sends a light electric current into the water, temporarily stunning any fish in the area long enough to be netted and checked.

On Thursday, Pierce and Vernoski waded the edge of the river below the tailwaters of the Frances Walter Dam hoping to prod trout from the small pools along the bank.

The first stop of the day was a 200-meter stretch that included the outlet of a small, unnamed tributary that turned up five wild trout (four brook, one brown) and two adult rainbows that were likely stocked earlier in the year.

“I think we did really well for trout in this stretch,” Pierce said. “I’m excited to see fingerling trout down the river a lot farther than I thought I would. The population overall in the Lehigh is doing pretty well.”

Although no fin-clipped trout were found in the stretch, that didn’t lead Pierce to conclude that none were there. For three years beginning in 2009, the PFBC released 68,000 fin-clipped fingerling trout (browns and rainbows) combined in sections 6 and 7 of the Lehigh River, from the dam to Palmerton.

“I wouldn’t say the fingerlings aren’t surviving. They’re just not here when we are,” Pierce said. “Mortality from predatory fish is an issue, along with the fact that they have to adapt to a new environment when they’re stocked. Plus, they do move around so they can be anywhere.”

This summer is the last year that Pierce will survey the river for fin-clipped trout. Next spring, the agency along with the Lehigh Coldwater Fishery Alliance will conduct streamside angler surveys on the opening day of trout season to determine how many fin-clipped trout are reaching legal length (seven inches) and are being caught by anglers.

After that, Pierce will review all the data and issue a report with recommendations to the PFBC board. Depending on Pierce’s recommendations, the PFBC could stock more fingerling trout in suitable waterways or cut the program entirely.

“The gamut is wide open right now,” Pierce said.

If it is proven that stocking fingerling trout is a viable method to enhance angling opportunities, anglers will reap a big benefit. The goal of the program is not necessarily to build a wild trout population, but to give anglers more trout to catch.

“The nice thing with stocking fingerlings is it’s basically a wild trout when you catch it,” Pierce said. “It will look and taste like a wild trout.”