Great Day

[Kyle]

I know the brown go through the motion I have seen the redds, but I have never seen the rainbows. Maybe I am there at the wrong times.

Also, I have heard there are rainbows that spawn in the fall/winter and another strand that spawns in the spring. I have also heard we have both in the state of MO. I wonder MDC could breed a strain a Browns that would spawn at a different time of year, say winter, when the water temperatures would be cold enough to sustain the eggs? Just a thought, I know messing with mother nature is an up hill battle, but if the fish could eventually sustain themselves in MO stream it might be worth it in the long run.

Anybody have any thought? (silly question, I know)

Kyle

[Guest]

 

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[stlfisher]

I would like to think there are a few wild fish mixed in and there is some minute amount of spawning success, but who really knows. I guess the real questions is: They go through the motions so why aren't they being successful? I wouldn't think there is enough foot traffic to wipe out all the nests...so I guess it is habitat related, but why? The water is cold enough, it moves enough, and there seems to be enough food. I am sure there are many other factores as well, so what is the missing ingredient?

[ColdWaterFshr]

I would like to think there are wild stream-born fish there too, but if anyone knows, I would say its the biologist in charge of the river. Someone oughta give him a call and ask. Whether you want to disagree with him or not seems like folly, but I would think he is armed with a lot more facts than us yay-hoo fisherman who claim we seen the foreplay, the conception, the nests, the egg laying and even the actual hatching. I forget his name, but I imagine he would be easy to track down through MDC.

Why isn't there wild fish on Taneycomo for that matter? Plenty of water, cold enough year round, plenty of food, etc.

[Phil Lilley]

One misconception anglers have is that if a rainbow looks really good, colorful, has all it's fins -- it's stream born. IMO and from experience on Taneycomo, that's simply not true 99% of the time. Raceway rainbows tend to rub the bottom of the concrete floor and this keeps the lower fins from growing but not on all rainbows. Also, the rainbows from Neosho Federal Hatchery seem to always be in better shape-- their fins are hardly ever damaged. I don't know how they raise their rainbows but it must be in a way they aren't rubbing a concrete bottom. I don't know if the Current gets any rainbows from Neosho. Plus when you say wild, we you saying hatchery rainbows are spawning and having young so it's the same rainbow.

The only evidence anyone can provide of stream born trout -- if you find a good number of rainbows, the same size or year class, much smaller than those that are stocked. But even then, you just never know. Recently, here at Taney, hundreds if not thousands of small 2-3 inch rainbows washed over a screen and into the lake from Shepherd of the Hill Hatchery.

[Phil Lilley]

Have to add... MOST of the rainbows I catch on Taneycomo have all their fins.

[ozark trout fisher]

Yeah, they're always going to go through the motions, I just don't think they have much, if any success. I've seen a number of browns doing the same thing.

I'm not sure why they couldn't be successful... Just up Highway 63 15 or 20 miles is Little Piney Creek, and they spawn very well in there. The trout habitat on the Current is much better than Little Piney in my opinion...The Little Piney has to deal with gravel mining, low/warm flows in the summer, and lots of slow, unproductive water. The Current on the other hand is 100% spring water in the Blue Ribbon stretch, has little or no water temperature problems, and more good spawning habitat. If the rainbows can spawn successfully in Little Piney, than it seems like they wouldn't have any trouble on the Current. With there being a large number of rainbows in the system and the nearly perfect habitat, it's pretty much inevitable that there is going to be some successful spawning.

There are a couple things standing between the Current being a high quality wild trout stream. #1 is the huge numbers of stocker rainbows that migrate down from Montauk, and browns that are stocked directly in that area. They compete with the wild fish throughout the year, and eat a lot of their eggs during spawning time. The second problem is the huge number of fisherman, most of which do not know to watch for redds when they wade and stay out of them. That's a big problem on a river that sees as much pressure as the upper Current.

That said, the Current will probably never be managed for wild trout, and that's probably for the best. A self-sustaining population just couldn't stand up to the constant pressure the upper Current recieves.

[Gavin]

I've helped the MDC biologists shock the Current before...We probably handled 8-900 fish over the course of two days....not a trout smaller than 8" in the bunch. What does that tell ya?

[Guest]

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[ozark trout fisher]

I've helped the MDC biologists shock the Current before...We probably handled 8-900 fish over the course of two days....not a trout smaller than 8" in the bunch. What does that tell ya?

It tells me that the stockers are out-competing the wild fish, and that fisherman are stomping the redds.

I have personally caught fish under 8" out of the Current-last winter I caught a 5" parr marked bow-a fish that looked exactly like a regulation small wild trout that you would catch on Mill or Blue Spring or some place like that. There aren't many trout under 8" in the Current-I'll grant you that-but they are in there in limited numbers.