Full of dinks.

[tjm]

 Are trout native or natural in the Niangua River?

 

[BilletHead]

43 minutes ago, tjm said:

 Are trout native or natural in the Niangua River?

 

Now naturalized 🤣.

[DADAKOTA]

Great pics.  Looks like ya'll had fun.

[tjm]

24 minutes ago, BilletHead said:

Now naturalized 

If  trout are naturalized (breeding in stream) why are they still stocking it at all? Are carp also naturalized there? are they managing them?

I have a bit of a problem with intensive stream management for the benefit of exotics. Tailwaters are ruined for our native species and require intensive input to maintain a fishery of a sort, the trout parks are what they are, but that stream could support suckers and bullhead, maybe.

[Johnsfolly]

1 hour ago, tjm said:

 Are trout native or natural in the Niangua River?

 

TJM - From what I could find there are no native trout species found in Missouri. Not even brook trout which are native to the eastern mountains were not found in Missouri historically. @Al Agnew will likely know more than I do on that subject. I do not believe that there is a naturalized (breeding population) population of rainbows in the Niangua. There are many other sites in MO where the water temps and dissolved oxygen concentrations year round remain in the range where the rainbows have become naturalized, like Crane creek, Barren Fork creek, Mill creek, Blue Springs creek, etc.

[tjm]

1 minute ago, Johnsfolly said:

there are no native trout species found in Missouri...

I believe that's true. My point is if a non-native fish is introduced as a recreational "put and take" fishery, it needs no management besides putting them in and taking them out. Trout grow (like swine) much faster in confinement than in the wild and if large fish are wanted then confine them until they reach the desired size. Study of hatchery trout and wild reared trout show 20g/year wild growth compared to 500g/year in confinement.

[Flysmallie]

14 hours ago, BilletHead said:

     

  I tell people with fat and age comes earned wisdom  

 

No wonder I'm an effing genius. 

[fishinwrench]

59 minutes ago, tjm said:

My point is if a non-native fish is introduced as a recreational "put and take" fishery, it needs no management besides putting them in and taking them out. 

A little more effort than just dumping them in at a couple of accesses would do wonders for the fishery.   When you dump them like that they all hang together like a school of crappie which makes loading a bucket way too easy.   They could actually stock less fish while having a much better overall fishery if they'd break up the gang a little bit.  

Being able to stand in one spot making identical drifts and catching 15-20 fish is not what trout fishing should be like.    There is a bit more to "fishery management" than just throwing fish in a river, for crying out loud.

[tjm]

I suspect that if they stocked parr  or fingerlings the fish might distribute throughout the river better, but then the fish would take several years to become more than dinks, if they ever did.  How cool is the Niangua? In the 50s mostly or up to the 70s?  Growth is largely a factor of temperature, I've read. To stock the entirety of a stream there would have to an all weather roadway adjacent to the entire stream, that might detract from the stream-side experience. It's been decades since I've been up there and then I was in the park only, but I have thought that would be a great smallmouth stream.

Didn't they run some polls years ago about what the trout anglers wanted, bigger fish or more fish? They are probably managing the put according to the desires of the takers. Fishery management is usually about happy consumers, often at the expense of nature. 

[Trout Man]

tjm-Don't over think it.  Very simple.  Stock trout, catch fish more than one time, and have a nice fishery available for 4 or 5 miles on the Niangua.