Naturally Reproducing Trout Fisheries

[BugChucka]

Last night I was laying in bed thinking about the various waterbodies in NH (specifically rivers), that contain populations of naturaly reproducing trout. Plenty of small streams, lakes, and ponds do, but what about the larger rivers of our state? Southern NH for the most part is depending on hatchery trucks to keep the rivers stocked, a few may hold over, but what about self sustaining populations? I'd like for us to identify the states major trout rivers, look at the river's current wild trout potential, and give some thought to the possibility of imroving it and creating wild trout fisheries. Here's what the state has listed...only the Andro is of any real size I believe.

"The N.H. Fish and Game Department manages selected waters to provide wild trout fishing experiences, meaning anglers have an opportunity to catch trout that occur naturally and the trout population is not supplemented or maintained by stocking. Since the abundance of wild trout is subject to the will of its natural environment, many wild trout fisheries are subject to catch and release only, fishing tackle is restricted, and the open season is shorter to protect spawning trout in the fall.

Waterbody Town
Alder Brook Second College Grant
Androscoggin River Berlin/Gorham/Shelburne
Ethan Pond Bethlehem
Flint’s Brook Hollis
Greenough Pond, Little Wentworth Location
Gulf Brook Chesterfield
Lamb Valley Brook Second College Grant
Long Mountain Brook Stratford/Odell
Loomis Valley Brook Second College Grant
Lyman Brook Columbia
Meadow Brook Sharon
Mohawk River, West Br. Colebrook
Pond Brook Stratford/Odell
Sand Brook Hillsborough
Shoal Pond Lincoln
Witches Spring Brook Hollis"

- NH F&G

The COLDWATER FISHERIES COALITION, Inc. does an excellent job I believe of identifying exactly the type of water I'm talking about:

A. The Connecticut River and its tributaries from the First Lake

dam south to North Stratford.

B. The Ammonoosuc River and its tributaries upstream from its

confluence with the Zealand River.

C. The Saco River and its tributaries upstream from the Route 16

bridge in Conway.

D. The Wild River and its tributaries upstream from the Maine border.

E. The Sugar River and its tributaries.

F. The Cold River in Cheshire/Sullivan counties and its tributaries.

G. The East Branch of the Pemigewasset River and its tributaries.



H. The Pemigewasset River from the Ayers Island Dam downstream

to the Boscawen boat ramp.

I. The West Branch of the Peabody River and its tributaries.

J. The tailwater fisheries on the Connecticut River below the Moore,

Comerford, and McIndoes dams.

K. The Gale River and its tributaries.

L. The Contoocook River and its tributaries upstream from Henniker.

M. The Bearcamp River and its tributaries.

Check them out here....
http://www.nhcfc.org/vision.html

[sbeausol]

I am also interested in understanding what waterbodies can naturally sustain fish in the wild, specifically trout. As far as wild tout go, is the interest in creating any wild trout fishery, or a wild brook trout fishery for example?

I am partial to brook trout myself, but would be happy to find any wild trout population in the state. I imagine this would never be possible for rainbows...

[BugChucka]

The type of trout makes no difference to me when it comes to most of the larger rivers... just as long as I have the piece of mind that the fish are reproducing. I think it's important to keep the traditional streams and such with the native brook trout.

[Steve H.]

I checked this year's NH regulations for streams managed for wild brook trout and found that this has increased now to twelve different streams. These vary in location from Hillsboro County up to Coos County, and while I haven't had the pleasure of fishing many of them, I have caught trout in a few...but this may have been while the state was stocking them. I know that these are not the only streams that have naturally reproducing trout, there are many streams in the White Mountains that have self-sustaining wild brookie populations. Apparently F&G doesn't want to mandate catch&release on all of them. I don't know of any ponds that have naturally reproducing brook trout (or other trout for that matter) but I would like to know if there are. I know a lot of lakes and ponds have a "false spawn" or run of fish that try to spawn but never do successfully due to poor conditions. Rainbows will run up Winni's tribs to try to spawn, but I've been told that these efforts are never successful. I also know a few lakes where browns make spawning runs in the fall, but these are not reproducing either. I don't know if the larger rivers like the Pemi, Androscoggin, and Connecticut support wild, reproducing trout. I guess if their smaller, colder tribs are supporting wild, reproducing trout then there's the possibility that these trout may drop down into the larger rivers at times. I think the key is the availability of cold, ph-balanced tribs where the spawning efforts are successful.

[Jammin' Salmon]

You hit it right when you said "ph balanced" tributaries. This is one of the obvious and major differences between here and western creeks. Each year I wait and hope that a stream or section of river would be used to try out a "liming station" to maintain proper ph. As you know the proper ph will lead to a whole change in the amount of life in a stream improving water ecology. Someday, hopefully in my lifetime, I will see at least one liming station tried in this state. Not expecting our streams to fish like the Bitterroot but if we could improve our fishery even a little it is worth it!

Rick

[BugChucka]

Steve....I listed in my first post the streams you were wondering about. Most of these are very small water bodies. The best fisheries I suppose in terms of health are usually tailwaters that are regulated with appropriate flows. The Connecticutt and Androscoggin both have wild populations of trout, the Andro has drastically improved If some of our other tailwaters were managed differently, we'd start seeing some natural reproduction I believe. We just need to concentrate on getting appropriate flows. If more water flowed durring the summer months etc.. I bet we'd see some changes. The south has some unbelievable fisheries right now because of these constant cold flow tailwaters and the fertile and nutrient rich areas they flow through.

[SaltH2oFly]

Not to head too far off track but...Steve and Rick are on to the real issue (in my opinion). One of the latest updates I heard on S. Salar in Maine was that as the Y of Year were heading out to the salt for the first time, they would turn back up stream as soon as they hit the brine. More work is needed but the thesis is that the freshwater Ph is so low and the fish are just able to survive but when they hit the salt - they just can't handle it. So a liming station on that front may be in order. I've been talking to NHF&G for a few years about us implementing a lime dropper as well but like Rick said...we are slow in getting there.

F&G said bring it to the Commisoners and present it as a "rehap" project not an enhancement. Bascially, we need to say, with the current EPA laws in place, we will get our streams back to the healthy state they used to be in, but it will take 100 years (generaly speaking), but with a lime project, we can get there in 3-6 months. I'm game to start a project with someone to gather the data from Maine, W. VA and other states and make a pitch to the Comminsioners if anyone else wants to.

If you asked me - my preference would be to create wild Trout streams that support Brook Trout - RT are not a NH native so leave them to the stocked streams. Let's lime a remote Brook Trout stream and watch them grow!!!

[PW]

Just curious anybody ever fish Witches Spring in Hollis? It's a little tiny brook and I wouldn't think it would be healthy enough to hold natives. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the state uses the fish from here and another brook on the Brookline/Hollis border for nursery stock. I wonder if it's Flint's Brook?

[BugChucka]

Whatever the issue...I'm in favor of supporting anything geared toward naturally reproducing wild trout. The needs are different from river to river, that's why the first step is to identify the water body. I presented lists of streams and rivers that are being or have been looked at. Each piece of water will have different needs and avenues of approach whether the issue is PH, dissolved oxygen levels, water temps, shelf ice, etc...etc...

Maybee we could begin by identifying a few different waterbodies throughout the state and put something into action?

[FishcaneNH]

Hello, All~

I've read this thread with interest and may be able to offer some useful information.

TU has a very successful program in place down South that is doing exactly the kind of things that you're all talking about. It's called "Back the Brookie" and can be seen at <www.brookie.org>

It's in place in the Southeastern states, and is in its early formative stages here in the Northeast.

Admission: I'm a TU member.

With that out of the way, I'd like to suggest that if there's a real interest in doing this type of work, TU may well be a good vehicle to do it through as it goes hand in hand with TU's plans and goals. My chapter has gone a bit dormant for the summer, and others may have as well, but there is still a lot of work being done behind the scenes.

Basil Woods Chapter in Concord always welcomes guests at the meetings- I'm sure that others would also. Go to <www.TU.org> to see if there's a chapter near you or I'll b e happy to answer any questions I can , either on-board or through my inbox.

Just a thought.

All best~

Dan