Brookies At Meramec Springs

[Quillback]

I don't see how disease spread could be a problem as they are in the hatchery, so if they (Brookies) caught a disease it would come from..?? Brookies have been stocked in the White below BS quite a bit, didn't cause any problems and made some folks happy that wanted to catch a brookie.

[Flysmallie]

Brook trout and concrete should never co-exist.

Well I don't think we should be doing it for any trout but that's never going to change.

[Gavin]

There are some brookies on LOZ if you want to track them down......Frankly, I'd rather catch them up North.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Be kind of cool if they made one of the parks a brook park. It would give us something different.

I don't think they grow as fast as trout. I know that the few I caught in waters with both they ran about 2/3rds the size of the 'bows. I don't know if it is a characteristic of Brook trout, but in a couple of lakes that had large populations they got really tight mouthed in the fall and I believe they were in spawning mode at the time. There would be large schools of them in the shallows and they would even look at a fly?

[stlfisher]

I don't believe Brookies are quite as tolerant as other trout...but it would be super cool to have them somewhere. I'd be happy if they would stock more Brown's in the parks and make it 18 inch 1 fish state wide limit.

I am all for organizing a late night concrete removal operation...

[Quillback]

I don't think they grow as fast as trout. I know that the few I caught in waters with both they ran about 2/3rds the size of the 'bows. I don't know if it is a characteristic of Brook trout, but in a couple of lakes that had large populations they got really tight mouthed in the fall and I believe they were in spawning mode at the time. There would be large schools of them in the shallows and they would even look at a fly?

They are a fall spawner. Under the right conditions they can become over populated and become stunted. Some of the alpine lakes and creeks in Washington state were, and probably still are, over populated with them.

[ozark trout fisher]

I guess they might as well stock the brookies at some point. But honestly those "novelty" fisheries don't really interest me much. Give me my brook trout on a little mountain stream in the Adirondacks, not at Maramec Spring. Don't know how long they could survive in an MO stream anyway.

[stlfisher]

I guess they might as well stock the brookies at some point. But honestly those "novelty" fisheries don't really interest me much. Give me my brook trout on a little mountain stream in the Adirondacks, not at Maramec Spring.

They wouldn't survive the meet chuckers and grappling hooks anyway

[Wayne SW/MO]

I would think that if they are growing them to keep a pest under control it would be in their interest kick the bigger ones out and replace them with more small fish. I don't thing you could put a length on them in the parks, too many who don't pay attention to that. They could easily survive the winter season though and that is what I think would the best plan. Thin them out the first of November.

They are a fall spawner. Under the right conditions they can become over populated and become stunted.

That answers that. This lake had some really nice fish in it, but it was in a string that was stocked carefully. One had Atlantic salmon and brookies, nothing else. Oregon had decided that brooks were invasive, ?they put the there, and were in the process of getting rid of them through poisons in the mountain lakes that were hard to access. Not sure why, given the fact that most of these lakes were void of fish until the were stocked by helicopter. I would imagine if they quit stocking brooks they would fade out on their own.

[Quillback]

I would think that if they are growing them to keep a pest under control it would be in their interest kick the bigger ones out and replace them with more small fish. I don't thing you could put a length on them in the parks, too many who don't pay attention to that. They could easily survive the winter season though and that is what I think would the best plan. Thin them out the first of November.

That answers that. This lake had some really nice fish in it, but it was in a string that was stocked carefully. One had Atlantic salmon and brookies, nothing else. Oregon had decided that brooks were invasive, ?they put the there, and were in the process of getting rid of them through poisons in the mountain lakes that were hard to access. Not sure why, given the fact that most of these lakes were void of fish until the were stocked by helicopter. I would imagine if they quit stocking brooks they would fade out on their own.

Yeah they were recently considered "invasive" in some of the Washington alpine lakes and creeks. Thy didn't go as far as to poison the lakes, but they did remove limits on them. But who is going to hike 10 miles out of the mountains with a cooler full of trout? In some of the lakes they have really taken hold and are doing fine, too fine, they get stunted. But they'll never fade away on their own. There are alpine lakes that don't have good spawning structure and in those lakes they stock fingerlings, but nowadays those fingerlings are rainbows or cuts. They have stopped that also in the National Parks, as the bows and cuts are also considered invasive. many of the Alpine lakes did not have fish of any kind in them until trout were stocked. The main concern is that the trout may damage amphibian populations of salamanders and frogs. So no more trout stocking in the National Park highland lakes.