WV brook trout restoration

[sixfootfenwick]

Brook trout revival in West Virginia bucks the trend

A 19-year stream project that began in the nooks and crannies of mountain ravines in West Virginia has transformed the headwaters of the Potomac River into one of the most

www.bayjournal.com

 

[raftman]

That's great news. Thanks for sharing!

 

[sixfootfenwick]

That's great news. Thanks for sharing!

Indeed. WV and MD are accomplishing many great things and leading the way.

 

[The Rodfather]

Awesome share! Thanks! Hopefully PFBC reads this and takes some hints.

 

[nd1001]

Dustin and others are doing some great work down in WV. Really inspiring to see.

 

[td566]

Great article and great news.
I lived and worked in WV for over 30 years. I saw some of these projects where landowners had fenced stream banks and the difference between them and unfenced areas is truly amazing.
Usually WV is at or near the bottom of the list in most discussions. So happy to see them at the forefront in this arena.
I need to head down and fish that beautiful state again.

 

[goose54cdd]

Great work, great article, and great news!

 

[Broodstock]

It is great to see this. The pattern of interconnected watersheds above a reservoir seems to have worked out great in the Savage and NB systems. I would love to see this replicated in PA. What candidate systems do you suppose would be ideal?

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

Thanks, Fenwick.
The best statement in the article is at the very bottom.
"He’s already seeing proof. His daughter Brooklynn caught her first brookie at age 2 on a fly rod and dry fly in one of the restored streams."

 

[sixfootfenwick]

It is great to see this. The pattern of interconnected watersheds above a reservoir seems to have worked out great in the Savage and NB systems. I would love to see this replicated in PA. What candidate systems do you suppose would be ideal?

I would say watersheds above a reservoir just have in place a barrier but the reservoir itself, or lack thereof is not a deal breaker.

There are candidates in PA and some are prime, others are going to be lost in a decade. You need to install a barrier and do heavy brown trout removal.

This is not a popular notion amongst fisherman or on this board.

I'm not willing to name candidate watersheds due to the lack of enthusiasm from both the public and the PFBC. These watersheds can and do produce the occasional larger brook trout, but not in the numbers like WV is seeing. I'll just enjoy what I can while I can without advertising them in the interim.

 

[tjsingle]

Thanks for sharing. Definitely a cool project, hopefully more states including PA get on board with this approach.

 

[wildtrout2]

I'm not willing to name candidate watersheds due to the lack of enthusiasm from both the public and the PFBC. These watersheds can and do produce the occasional larger brook trout, but not in the numbers like WV is seeing. I'll just enjoy what I can while I can without advertising them in the interim.

Couldn't agree more. 👍

 

[kbobb]

I'd think PA would certainly benefit from this. What's stopping TU and/or the Fish Commish from doing this?

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

I'd think PA would certainly benefit from this. What's stopping TU and/or the Fish Commish from doing this?

The likely reason is the lack of an advocate to knock on property owners' doors and convince them that the cost incurred for the additional actions are worth the improvement of habitat for the State Fish.

 

[JeffP]

Am I missing something? What in the article hasn't been done here? Is it the scale of activity? Did I miss something other than the anecdotal evidence presented about the success? I mean I believe it based on other discussions on here about West Virginia. Is the issue genetics?

 

[JeffP]

On a related note, what ever happed to the Hammer Creek project that FishSticks was working on. Essentially no mention on the Doc Fritchey website. Hammer is not even listed as one of their streams.

 

[sixfootfenwick]

Am I missing something? What in the article hasn't been done here? Is it the scale of activity? Did I miss something other than the anecdotal evidence presented about the success? I mean I believe it based on other discussions on here about West Virginia. Is the issue genetics?

I don't know how familiar you are with the NF in the article and WV in general but I'll give you a little insight.

In the mid 90's the NF was highly affected by AMD but beginning to clean up. A lot of places in WV are and we have our share of AMD impacted waterways. As they clean up and the PH is still low, brook trout will be one of the first fish to reappear, likely from out of the tributaries that were clean. If left alone, Brook trout will once again inhabit the mainstem and the tributaries. The main difference is that when a AMD impacted waterway is cleaned up in PA, the green light to stock the crap out of it and make "recreational opportunities"is given.
Brook trout numbers become suppressed and eventually brown trout begin to reproduce and take over a watershed. The PFBC is about to stock one such watershed I believe this year and has given a sportsman's club the ok for years.
It's ridiculous.

It has happened time and again in PA. I can think of many watersheds in my lifetime that had good size brook trout lost, some that are in process of being lost and ones still needing cleaned up that this will also happen to.

Truth is, if left alone, where competition is low, brook trout can grow quite large. This has been discussed on the forum many times.

WV won't be immune to this, if they aren't wise.

 

[JeffP]

Thanks! I was pretty familiar with that through the many conversations on here. I don't think the article really addressed the stocking issue. If you look at what was stated in the article, it doesn't really point out anything that we don't do here in Pa. That is a great story and I am totally with the efforts to restore brook trout. I guess I was responding more to the reaction of people above that asked why pa can't do that.

 

[nd1001]

I don't know how familiar you are with the NF in the article and WV in general but I'll give you a little insight.

In the mid 90's the NF was highly affected by AMD but beginning to clean up. A lot of places in WV are and we have our share of AMD impacted waterways. As they clean up and the PH is still low, brook trout will be one of the first fish to reappear, likely from out of the tributaries that were clean. If left alone, Brook trout will once again inhabit the mainstem and the tributaries. The main difference is that when a AMD impacted waterway is cleaned up in PA, the green light to stock the crap out of it and make "recreational opportunities"is given.
Brook trout numbers become suppressed and eventually brown trout begin to reproduce and take over a watershed. The PFBC is about to stock one such watershed I believe this year and has given a sportsman's club the ok for years.
It's ridiculous.

It has happened time and again in PA. I can think of many watersheds in my lifetime that had good size brook trout lost, some that are in process of being lost and ones still needing cleaned up that this will also happen to.

Truth is, if left alone, where competition is low, brook trout can grow quite large. This has been discussed on the forum many times.

WV won't be immune to this, if they aren't wise.

Is there a good resource which lists the waters that are stocked by sportsmen’s clubs in PA? I’ve found some older private stocking lists, but I was a bit confused by the “notice of stocking” requirements and whether the published lists captured the full breadth of (legal) private stockings.

 

[Cznymph]

Is there a good resource which lists the waters that are stocked by sportsmen’s clubs in PA? I’ve found some older private stocking lists, but I was a bit confused by the “notice of stocking” requirements and whether the published lists captured the full breadth of (legal) private stockings.

https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/fishandboat/documents/fishing/stocking/cnu-stockings-website.pdf