John, that is so cool that you actually have a picture of one of those brookies! Thanks for sharing! I can imagine it was at one time a pretty productive stream. All those tributaries would have made for a healthier population. But a highway interchange built right on the headwaters is about the worst thing imaginable for a brook trout stream.
As for the fish in the pond, the description sure sounds like a brook trout, and they have been known to survive in very low densities for long after the majority of the population is depleted. Many Gunpowder tributaries are a good example of this. There is a stream near my parent's house in PA where every few years I will randomly see a lone brook trout even though it is a very good brown trout stream and electrofishing surveys have never turned up a brook trout. They are quite good at finding a way to barely hang on, and I actually don't think road crossing themselves are a death sentence to these fish because the deep culvert pools can provide refuge when stormwater impacts have wrecked literally every other potential hiding spot on the stream.
Interestingly, the USGS gage on lower difficult run has a water temp reading. Last year it peaked around 80. While that is harmful to brook trout reproductive health it is not definitively lethal, though it's close for sure. Imagine that the headwaters and tribs are a couple degrees cooler and now you're talking about something they can certainly survive, though with a lot of stress. Now, whether there is suitable spawning substrate and in stream cover for them to sustain a population... doubtful.
I wouldn't say it's totally impossible for there to still be a few brook trout hidden in there somewhere, but I do think it's extremely unlikely. If the fish seen in the pond was indeed a brook trout, there's always the possibility it was brought in by bucket from some mountain stream. And, of course, maybe it wasn't a brook trout at all.
--
http://www.tpfr.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tidal-potomac-fly-rodders+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to tidal-potomac-fly-rodders@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/e4b42c01-2ea9-4ff0-855c-2a9b31b88d62%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
0 comments:
Post a Comment