Great Day

[eric1978]

I caught one last week no bigger than 5", probably no bigger than 4". Looked wild to me, but whaddo I know. OTF is right...if they can spawn and self-sustain in the LP, they can do it in the Current, too. I'd venture to guess their biggest problem in the Current is the young-of-the-year rainbows being eaten by the browns.

[Gavin]

I've caught a few under 8"..Usually up in the park...no telling were they came from..Park Raceway...accident of nature.....I can guarantee you that I've caught more fish over 18" than I have in the under 8" class on the Current since I moved back to Missouri in 1992..and thats not a huge number of fish.

The facts just dont support the existance of a significant amount of wild reproduction on the Current...period...

Plus comparing the LP or another wild trout stream to the Current is comparing apples to oranges.

Our wild trout streams contain fish that are genetically closer to wild rainbow trout. They spawn in January & February usually..Not so with the hatchery fish...Our hatchery fish are pretty far removed from wild rainbow populations...They are a manufactured fish that has been bred to make them easy to raise in a hatchery environment...There is bit of cutthroat in em...bit of steelhead in em, bit of assorted rainbow genetics. They have been selectively bred to spawn in Sept/October, stay calm in there pens, grow fast, and so on.....

I just dont think that the hatchery mutts reproduce very well outside of the confines of a controlled hatchery environment. Just the way it is.

Guess you could stock some better rainbow stock in the Current...Crane Creek McClouds or something that will reproduce, but what the heck for? Its a fantastic brown trout fishery as is.......If I want wild rainbows...I go out West or to the North Fork of the White. Cheers.

[ozark trout fisher]

. I'd venture to guess their biggest problem in the Current is the young-of-the-year rainbows being eaten by the browns.

I hadn't thought of that, but that does seem to be as likely an explanation as any other.

Gavin, I basically agree with you that the fishery is fine as it is. As I said, I'm not suggesting that the river shouldn't be stocked anymore or anything to that effect. I'm just saying the habitat on that river seems pretty conducive to a wild rainbow population. What you said about the fish being the hatchery strain-and therefore less likely to spawn successfully is probably part of the problem as well. It's just that I am a wild trout junkie, and as such I wouldn't mind seeing a few more of them in the Current. I know this isn't agreeable to most, but I'd rather have a river full of 7" wild trout than a river full of 15" stockers.

But in any case, I love the Current as it is, a will keep coming back no matter how it's managed in the future. I firmly believe it's the best trout stream in the state.

[ness]

The sampling data I've seen supports Gavin's earlier point that there just aren't a lot of tiny rainbows through there. Personal experience seems to back it up too.

I don't know what the factors all are, but the hatchery fish in there are certainly dominating the system and they're not necessarily going to be as successful at spawning as a non-hatchery fish. For generations and generations they've been doing it in-vitro with a helping hand from man. Maybe they've 'forgotten' how to do it.

[Kayser]

I've started fishing Mill Creek and the Little Piney fairly regularly since I've gone to school in Rolla, and am willing to say that I've caught my fair share of wild fish (with some big ones thrown in) from both of those streams. Secondly, I've probably fished the Current more than is fair in that same stretch of time. In the course of my fishing, I've been able to catch a good amount of the 8" and smaller rainbows from the Current, and can actually find spots specifically for them (a couple good ones below Tan Vat). These fish are short and pudgy with very few spots, have parr marks, bright red fins with red tips on them, and very little damage to the fish overall. I have also caught similar sized fish from inside Montauk- all lacking parr marks, with damaged fins, snub noses, and heavy spotting.

The fish from outside the park remind me of the Mill Creek rainbows the most, especially with their holding preference in the river- they definitely hold in different spots than the larger fish (which accounts for a lack of them in shocking surveys) as well as the small fish from inside the park. This, along with a long conversation with the local MDC fish biologist leads me to believe that there is a decent population of wild rainbows in the Upper Current.

As far as the pristine stocked fish in Taney- who knows? It could just be a little different strain stocked in there compared to the rest of the state, or a different raceway design, or something.

Rob

[ozark trout fisher]

One thing I would like to add, since Kayser brought it up, involves the whole shocking thing. I totally believe that you found no fish smaller than 8" while shocking. But I have a question regarding that-do you guys shock up every kind of habitat? I honestly don't know. Because I have noticed in my experience on wild trout streams across Missouri that the young of the year wild trout spend most of their time in very shallow riffles-a place that a shocking crew might think isn't worth the time to bother sampling. Wild trout and stockers do not tend to hold in the same areas. You'll rarely find a stocker a very shallow riffle, but it is not at all unusual to find small wild trout in the same place.

And one more point. The trout that had been stocked in Little Piney until 2001 were also once in-bred, genetically compromised stockers. And now they are reproducing just fine. I keep coming back to that example just because it's the most recent case where a hatchery supported fishery was transformed into a wild trout stream.

[jdmidwest]

Stocked trout will take on natural looking colors after being in a stream for an amount of time. Take a hatchery worn trout that was raised in a monochrome gray concrete run and put him in a colorful light colored stream and he will change. They seem to take on the colors of their surroundings. Best colors are from lighter colored gravel and clear water, deep silver and green from stained water and dark bottoms. Fins regrow unless burned off by some marking attempt from the hatchery, then it is usually the smaller fins that are not really noticeable. Natural foods will make a better orange or pink colored flesh as opposed to the gray/white of the hatchery food.

As far as size, I have caught a few on the upper Current that were sub-5 inch, but not many, and all were rainbows, no browns. They are more common on the 11pt River, but I think everyone agrees that there is successful spawning there.

Hatchery officials have tried eggs in a spawning box on the upper Current and have not had any luck getting any to hatch to my knowledge. I have seen both Brown and Rainbow trout on Redds on the Current as far down as Cedargrove. There may be more of a range, I just don't float the river that much, just wade the accesses. Whether any are successful, I don't know, but it should be possible from time to time. I think it is a flow or O2 problem on the Current which has a lower flow than the 11pt. But then there is Mill Creek and Crane Creek with less volume than Current. Who knows. Something happened thousands of years ago to remove them naturally from this range, Man has worked hard for over a 100 years trying to get them to take hold here again.

[smallmouthjoe]

I would think that clipping the adipose fins off of the stocked trout would be a good way to clear up this debate. It may take a lot of time (years) and effort(=money) but I think would be the best way to find out the proportion of stream born trout in the river when electrofishing. Random genetic sampling would be no good due to the fact that the fish would be almost genetically identical and finding the mutation that causes the difference in spawning success would be like looking for a needle in a hay stack.

[Gavin]

Dunno, I dont have all the answers...The harder evidence, and my personal experiences point one way...not much to support an abundance of wild rainbows on the Current. Exceptions, to the rule...very possible, but still a big who cares. Why waste time navel gazing about this bull stuff? Go Fish.

[fishinwrench]

I would think that clipping the adipose fins off of the stocked trout would be a good way to clear up this debate.

I'd rather be left wondering than to see a bunch of fish with clipped fins. I hate that.

Wild / Stocked, who gives a RA ?