Natural Reproduction

[Phil Lilley]

Brian, I respectively disagree with your summation.

1. Hatchery personnel have said it is impossible that these trout are escapees. Bret states he's seen these fingerlings for a couple of months, assuming this they were even smaller a month ago.

2. I have never seen or heard of this event in the past 23 years I've been here... fingerling rainbows being seen in these numbers anywhere on the lake. This includes high water years, normal times-- but we've never had 'no flow' for this extended amount of time, thus the successful hatch.

BUT in saying that, during high water winters, rainbows could spawn in the upper end, get dispersed throughout the lake and virtually disappear from being seen- that's possible. But I again go back to what I've been told by Kruse and others- "no natural reproduction in Taneycomo".

[Wayne SW/MO]

Well while we're on the subject, what is the source of the Rainbows below Powersite? They seem, as a group, to be too small to be from the hatchery.

[Phil Lilley]

What's too small? How small are they?

[Wayne SW/MO]

I caught some I would put at between 7-8". And I would say the bulk of what I caught would range 10" or shorter. The thing that has me curious is because that represents the fish, and fish in the 10"-12" were rare for me.

[mhall02]

The areas that I am referring to are very small headwater streams that at one time had a private trout hatchery in place, so yes the land I fished is private (it is good to ask land owners). The hatcheries are gone, but the trout are not, humm... I grew up in the Monett area and worked for Mike Kruse for about 6 months in my former life as an MDC employee. I throughly picked his mind on this subject and informed him of my findings, and he confirmed one stream and checked the other out for himself (hook and line sampling method don't you know). There are not a lot of fish in them and the population I'm sure could easily be wiped out, I've never kept a single fish out of them. Yep the Current supports NR as well, I have caught a beautiful brown about 2-3" long, the browns stocked are not this small, and the browns stocked are from Tany, not the Montauk hatchery.

[WebFreeman]

I've heard there used to be a hatchery on or near the James in the Spfd. area and that occassionally a trout is still caught in the area. The story I heard, which is was second, was a 20+ incher. Anyone else ever heard these rumors?

[Flysmallie]

I've heard there used to be a hatchery on or near the James in the Spfd. area and that occassionally a trout is still caught in the area. The story I heard, which is was second, was a 20+ incher. Anyone else ever heard these rumors?

There is a small private hatchery at Rainbow Run Trout Park just south of Nixa. I have heard of guys catching a few trout where the small creek that flows though the park enters the James. I would say that if you caught a 20 inch trout out of the James, it would have to be an escapee from this park.

[Phil Lilley]

I think you're talking about Brown Branch Springs. I've been there once years ago. There used to be a hatchery 50-80 years ago and I think they had MoCloud rainbows. The hatchery was at the head of the spring. All the land is private now and isn't easy to access. Landowners have been burned alot by litterers and loud parties at night.

I went one time with our TU group - Pat Rash had permission- that tells you how long ago it was.

[motroutbum]

I still feel Tanyecomo would only produce a 1-4% of natual spawning fish..... and that number would be a touch higher in solid high water time.. but not low water.

Believeing that our 'lake-dwelling' trout would prosper against no water is the strongest argument... in my honest opinion.

High water flows through the winter could produce such extra fingerlings.. but no water at all - no way.

These are hatchery escapees. Brian

if you are so sure that they are hatchery escapees, then what is your explanation to how they got from the rearing tanks inside of the actual hatchery to the lake!!!! no one person would beable to just walk in there and take them out with their hands! with the numbers of these things in the lake and the fact of 0 generation makes perfect sense.

the reason that there is natural reproduction in other sreams, and especially in the west and in pretty much any natural stream that holds fish that are not stocked is because there is a pretty much regulated flow. with the tail water there is no set schedule to when there will be high water flows. it could happen at any time and with the high flows, the power of the water completely wipes out the beds. with no generation for at least a month when the rainbows came up to spawn, there was more than enough time for the eggs on the beds to be fertilized. the gestation period of the eggs is a few days to no more than a week. so depending on exactly what day the eggs were fertilized, there was more than enough time to become fry. and now since there are hundreds of these things swimmin around, there was more than just one set of eggs that made it. no, those fry probably wont survive long if at all, but maybe a handful will survive.

where as on a free stone stream, the fish spawn before the high water hits. it could be as early as feburary to as late as april, in any case, there is time for the eggs to be fertilized and in turn into fry. then the run off hits. and the little fry that are left after the high water are then left to fend for themselvs. there is only one time of high water that lasts from 1-3 months depending on the snow pack for that particular year. in an average year, the runoff starts in late april and lasts till the middle of june. and i know not all streams are exactly the same. in many years, there will be more naturally reproduced fish in general than others. but after the blow out happens and ends in june, then there wont be any more extremely high flows for the rest of the year until the next spring when the run off happens again.

as for the corps regluating the flow to support natrual reproduction....that is very unlikely to happen because there intrest is in maintaining the dam and producing electricity. they dont have anything to do with the fish in the water.

as for the rainbow trout pattern the browns and the trout fry....there is most likely not any relation. you can go down just about any day or night, throw a rainbow trout pattern, and catch browns and rainbows on it. they are such opportunistic feeders that they could think it was anything as long as it pissed them off enough to eat it. before i left to come to colorado, i was catching rainbows on a gray and white clouser fished on the bottom like a sculpin. so its not necessarily a correlation that the browns were eating that rainbow trout pattern because of the rainbow fry in the lake.

just my thoughts

motroutbum

[OnTheFly]

I think there has always been a little natural reproduction on Taney but not enough to make any difference one way or the other in fish population…but it is kind of neat.