Should They Stock Browns On The Eleven Point?

[ozark trout fisher]

I like fishing for trout in 11 pt, but, if the trout disappeared and all of the native species returned to normal, it would still be one of the most scenic and wonderful rivers.

I am with you there. It's a great river, period. If it were just smallies, goggle-eye, sunnies, and pickeral, I can't say it would be any less cool.

But I do love the rainbows.

[Greg]

I'd love to see browns on the 11 point. It does seem like the deep holes on this river are made to order for that species. Someone asked the question about why they stock rainbows on the 11 point when there is natural reproduction? I'm pretty sure I read that while there is definitely natural reproduction it is much less than on the NFOW. For there to be good numbers of rainbows on the 11 point supplemental stockings are necessary.

Greg

[Brian Wise]

To totaly switch gears....

Brian, did you ever hear any more about taking brood from the NFOW and raising "our" strain to see how they would do in the Eleven Point? The rivers are so similar in several regards that it just makes sense to me to at least try to see if taking fish from the NFOW and raise a few stocking years and see if that would help wild trout reproduction. This year our water level was the lowest during spawn that it had been in YEARS and you could still do a connect-the-dots with redds in almost every spawn-type area.

[Justin Spencer]

I noticed a bright orange belly on several of the parr marked bows I caught there the other day. Ryan said that it was a somewhat common occurrance on the "wild" bows of the eleven point. I would really like to see a fish farmer take some of these fish and breed these as it seems pretty unique. Don't know if they'd breed true, but a really cool trait to look for next time you go to the point. With the lack of many long deep pools on the North Fork I think we just have more good spawning areas for trout than the 11 point. With more smallmouth, sunfish and pickerel on the Point they also have more predators to eat both eggs, and fry before they reach catchable size. My theories as to why they have less dependable recruitment than the NFoW.

[Gavin]

Had a chance to talk with Jon Ackerson & A.J. Pratt (who were the 11pt & NFoW Biologists at the time)...They both said that there wasnt any conclusive evidence of natural rainbow trout reproduction on the 11pt...Young of the year just didnt turn up in their samples when it was managed as a wild trout stream...The theory was that most of the fish in the river migrated up from the stocked waters below Turner....and the fishing was dismal in comparrison to what it is now that it gets stocked..We used to fish all weekend for 3-5 fish between Greer & Turner, but they ran bigger on average than they do now...These days its pretty easy to have a 10-20 fish day, and its been downright silly at times.

Think the lack of YOY might have something to do with their sampling methods or the chosen sampling stretch. Greer Spring seems to have the best spawning habitat/nursery area but they dont sample up there. Plus there electrodes are only effective to 4-5' and the 11pt is deeper than that in most places. Cheers.

[Justin Spencer]

I think last years high water helped the spawn a bunch between Greer and Turners. Caught or hooked probably close to 20 fat parr marked trout (I assume were stream bred) without taking a step in one of the shoals near hurricane creek. Obviously in areas without stocking there will be much more variation from year to year on fish numbers, some years great, some years poor. The NFoW like many other rivers went through a prolonged period of low water back in the late 90's early 2000's and from what I understand the fishing was tough. After a few good years of water I have noticed an improvement in the fishing, and I think the sampling numbers being up correlate to the better water levels.

[Brian Wise]

The NFoW like many other rivers went through a prolonged period of low water back in the late 90's early 2000's and from what I understand the fishing was tough.

I will attest to that....I started guiding in 2000 and for a green guide it wasn't fun. A LOT different now, thank God!

[Brian Sloss]

Brian,

As I understand it, they are raising those hatchery/NFOW crosses at Montauk now and they will make up a portion of the blue ribbon stocking this year when they stock the blue ribbon area. I think they want to do it again next year as well. Looking forward to seeing what happens with them. When are you coming over to fish for an afternoon?

There is no doubt that they had a good spawn last year as we are catching a lot of YOY compared to previous years and a lot of those are coming from around Hurricane creek's mouth, which is where we witnessed lots of spawning last year when the water was high. That said, we have always had some reproduction (as we have been catching some YOY since we bought the canoe rental in 2004), just generally considerably lower levels. I am excited to see these fish in a year or so.

[kdan]

I noticed a bright orange belly on several of the parr marked bows I caught there the other day. Ryan said that it was a somewhat common occurrance on the "wild" bows of the eleven point. I would really like to see a fish farmer take some of these fish and breed these as it seems pretty unique.

The orange belly is a trait of the arlee strain that mdc now raises for stocking. As the young trout grow, they will most times have orange throat markings like the cuttthroats.

[Justin Spencer]

The orange belly is a trait of the arlee strain that mdc now raises for stocking. As the young trout grow, they will most times have orange throat markings like the cuttthroats.

Thanks for raining on my parade!