Brown Trout Information - Lake Taneycomo

[Phil Lilley]

This is an email I got from Shane Bush today:

· We conducted a creel survey of the entire lake from 2008-2010. Only 4 brown trout were harvested during the entire two year creel and all four of those were harvested in 2008. That’s a 99.7 percent release rate of brown trout lakewide. Therefore, an increased length limit would not likely do much for the brown trout fishery in Lake Taneycomo.

· The high water in 2008 and 2009 created very poor water quality conditions in Table Rock Lake and subsequently, Lake Taneycomo and Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery. The brown trout population in Lake Taneycomo during that time did not do well and survival of brown trout in the hatchery and stocked out into Taneycomo was not good during those years. Therefore, the brown trout population experienced a decline. We have been fortunate to have some better water quality from 2010 to the present and Shepherd of the Hills hatchery staff have done a fantastic job raising brown trout so that we could increase the stocking rate from 10,000 per year to 15,000 per year.

· In an attempt to get the population to rebound from the floods, we’ve stocked 15,000 brown trout per year in Lake Taneycomo each year since 2011. Those fish are doing very well and contributing to angler catch rates this year. The 2011 fish are around 15-18 inches right now and based on fishing reports, anglers seem happy with the fish they are catching. These fish should reach 20 inches next year and provide the opportunity for anglers to harvest a true trophy. With harvest rates so low, I have no concerns that anglers will overharvest these fish and they will continue to grow larger.

· Of the 15,000 brown trout stocked in 2013, 5,000 were triploid brown trout. MDC Resource Science Division staff have been working with management and hatchery staff on this project and another 5,000 triploid brown trout are scheduled to be stocked in 2014, along with the annual 10,000 diploid brown trout.

· We continue to stock 700,000 rainbow trout annually. They studied the effects of suckers competing with rainbow trout for food for several years and did not notice any direct impacts that caused a decline in the quality or numbers of either species.

I have attached some documents for your reference. The first is the Lake Taneycomo creel survey summary and the second is the 2012 Lake Taneycomo annual report.

http://www.ozarkanglers.com/lake-taneycomo/2012-m-d-c-lake-taneycomo-annual-report/

http://www.ozarkanglers.com/lake-taneycomo/2008-09-lake-taneycomo-creel-survey/

Thanks,

Shane Bush

Fisheries Management Biologist

Missouri Department of Conservation

[BassHunter132]

Great article!

[laker67]

thx Phil, yeah for triploids.

[Lancer09]

Since the triploids don't do the spawning thing they wouldn't move up the lake in the fall correct?

[Geoff]

Not necessarily, the triploid rainbows I had in my aquarium would try to move and spawn in the fall. They will still have that instinct that will tell them to bred,but they wont have the full notion.

[Micheal Kyle]

Awesome report, thanks for posting glad to see the triploids

[laker67]

since triploids will not spawn and move into the upper lake, I see several marine dealers with their end of year specials on boats. It would be an excellent time to buy a boat and fish for them triploids down around the bridge piers. That's where I will be spending my time.

[SpoonDog]

Male triploids won't produce sperm, but they'll still produce the hormones which govern migration. They'll still try to reproduce, but they won't do so successfully.

[Phil Lilley]

Shane Bush: The questions asked seem to be whether or not the triploids will come up higher the lake. SOH staff have already had quite a few triploids come up the fish ladder, so the answer is yes. However, in our electrofishing samples, most of the triploids we collected were around Fall Creek or below. Of course, that was in August so there may be more of those upstream now.

The attachment is an excel file of a study Shane sent to me on triploids.

TriploidTroutLiterature.xlsx

[Dylan Cluver]

thank you for posting phil