2011 Mdc Study Out

[Phil Lilley]

PDF file

One number stands out...

20 browns measured over 20 inches!!

Compared to past years, that's pretty incredible.

Taneycomo-2011-study.pdf

[Gavin]

Dunno....20% of those sampled were bigger than 20"...but they only sampled 23 fish per hour of effort...Thats 4.6 fish over 20" per hour...looks like overall number of brown trout sampled per hour is way down from a couple years ago...with about the same numbers of fish over 20". Rainbow population looks phenominal though.

[Phil Lilley]

Yea- Shane already corrected me in an email... you beat me to the punch. Still good size but the numbers are still off from 2008.

Here's a link to the raw data he sent me.

http://ozarkanglers.com/taneycomo/Individual-Brown-Trout-2011.htm

[vanven]

I started fly fishing Taneycomo in 2005 and a significant number of the fish that I caught were browns. It has been 2 years since I caught a brown trout and after examining the numbers I see why. It is great to see the rainbow numbers maintaining a relatively high number of large fish, although I would rather catch a brown any day. Hopefully those numbers start to rebound over the next couple of years.

-Jerod

[Wayne SW/MO]

I think it would be hard to get anymore than how many fish are in the upper end without samples from all areas of the lake to compare. The lake is 26 miles long and the fact that browns aren't in the first few miles could simply mean, they aren't in the first few miles.

[Phil Lilley]

Here's a better explanation from Shane Bush, MDC biologist who conducts the study -

Twenty percent of the brown trout we sampled were over 20 inches. The attached table shows actual fish captured. We caught 10 fish that were over 20 inches, the 20 percent is just the percentage of fish captured greater than 11 inches (stock size) that were also over 20 inches. The fish in the sample that were below stock size were brown trout that we stocked early to prevent them from getting disease with the poor water quality coming through TRL dam to the hatchery this year. We stocked them at about 8.5 inches in June so they’ve grown at least an inch already. These are encouraging numbers and if we can continue to increase stocking numbers for next year we should be in good shape in a few as the larger fish exit the population. Brown trout densities are definitely lower than previous years though and this is shown through the inverse relationship of numbers to size. More fish = smaller fish, less fish = larger fish. It all has to do with competition and food availability. It should be balanced somewhere in the middle. We’ll get back to that eventually if we can get some “normal” water years. In the meantime, enjoy that year class of large browns!

http://ozarkanglers.com/taneycomo/Individual-Brown-Trout-2011.htm

[vanven]

I think it would be hard to get anymore than how many fish are in the upper end without samples from all areas of the lake to compare. The lake is 26 miles long and the fact that browns aren't in the first few miles could simply mean, they aren't in the first few miles.

That's a good point. I am interested to see what kind of impact the flooding and it's corresponding modification of the riverbed will have on brown populations in the years to come. Did it increase brown trout habitat or did it significantly decrease it?

-Jerod