Studies show where the trout are

By Tom Venesky tvenesky@timesleader.comSports Reporter

Here’s a secret: if you want to find trout on opening day, fish within 300 yards of where they were stocked by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

As far as catching them, that’s up to you.

Since 2006, agency biologists have been visiting area streams after they have been stocked to determine the “residency” of the trout, or how close they are staying to the area where they were released.

If more than 90 percent of the fish are within 300 yards of where they were stocked, that’s a good thing according to area fisheries manager Rob Wnuk.

“It gives us insight into which streams the stocked trout won’t stay,” he said.

On March 13 agency biologists electro-shocked a section of Big Wapwallopen Creek in Wright Township to find out if the rainbow trout released 10 days earlier stayed put of disappeared.

The biologists start electro-shocking 200 yards below the stocking point and continue 300 yards above.

The verdict?

“It was excellent,” Wnuk said. “Ninety-seven percent of the fish were still within 300 yards of where we stocked 10 days earlier.”

Waterways Conservation Officer Greg Kraynak, whose district includes the Big Wapwallopen, was pleased with the study results but wasn’t surprised.

“I attribute it to the good cover and habitat on the Wapwallopen,” he said. “If the cover is there, the trout won’t move.”

Other streams to be researched this spring include the Lackawanna River, Gardner Creek and the North Branch of Sugar Creek. Some waterways, such as Fishing Creek near Benton, can’t be studied because they are too swift or deep to electro-shock. Others, such as the upstream section of Bowman’s Creek, won’t be sampled because they are stocked right before opening day (April 18).

Wnuk said many of the streams sampled since 2006, such as Harveys Creek, have had good results. In a few streams no trout were found, and Wnuk said they could’ve moved or succumbed to heavy predation.

“When we find a problem sometimes the solution is simply changing the species that is stocked or, in areas with high heron predation, stock the stream closer to opening day,” he said.

Most streams in the northeast don’t have a major problem with herons because the birds don’t return to the area until later in the spring, according to Wnuk.

Still, streams with poor habitat – degraded banks with no overhead tree cover, make the stocked trout easy pickings if the heron do visit.

While the work has yielded information on trout movement, it has also shed light on which species do well in certain habitats.

If the habitat doesn’t suit the species of trout stocked there, Wnuk said they are more apt to move.

“One thing that surprised me a little bit is stocked brook trout prefer a lower gradient stream. They prefer slower water,” he said. “So in some high gradient streams we might switch from stocking brook trout to rainbows.”