As part of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s effort to involve the public in management of the state’s fisheries, Bob Frye of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review sought input from six local anglers.  Participants come from a variety of backgrounds and offered some unique and interesting viewpoints and suggestions regarding trout management.

Opinions varied, and included the following:

1) Stop stocking hatchery fish on top of populations of wild trout

2) Stock the best fish in waters where they will provide the most benefit

3) Spend more time on habitat restoration

4) Work on fishing access issues

5) Add an extended, catch and release season prior to the general trout opener

6)  Recruit more fishermen, who will fish later into the season

For a more detailed account of these viewpoints, read the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article here.

This huge 16 lb, 4 oz. brown trout was caught by John Chester in southern England.  The fish was caught incidentally after the season had closed, and was released back into the water.  The trout was reported as being the biggest brown caught in the area in over 100 years.

Weston Mercury article

Japanese officials are encouraging people to catch and kill bluegill caught in Japan’s waters in an effort to reduce competition between bluegill and native fish.

Bluegill were brought to Japan in the 1960’s as a gift from Chicago mayor Richard Daley to the emperor of Japan.  The emperor has since stated that he regrets what has happened as a result of bringing the nonnative fish species to Japan, and efforts are ongoing to rid the country of bluegills.

See the story here

The federal Bureau of Reclamation accidentally caused a huge fish kill in California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta recently while draining water to perform repair on a levee.  After draining water, fish started floating belly-up on the surface in hordes, to the point where a local marina owner estimated fish losses to be in the tens of thousands. 

This came after a U.S. Fish and Wildlife study that predicted no significant impact on populations of endangered delta smelt.  The California Department of Fish and Game is investigating the losses.   

See the story here

Signs posted at popular fishing locales throughout the United Kingdom are just in time for the Holidays, and targeted at eastern European immigrants, such as the Polish, who traditionally enjoy eating a dish of pike or carp for Christmas.

The fish are prized by European sport anglers, who primarily practice catch and release.  Officials and anglers hope that the signs prevent those ‘less sophisticated’ immigrants from ’stealing’ their valuable sport fish. 

It’s an understandable cause, but doesn’t it make you wish there were more fish around for those traditional Poles who just want to catch Christmas dinner?  I propose that we Americans (and Australians too) make our own version of these signs:  PLEASE TAKE OUR CARP!!!

A great story recently came out of central Oregon, where the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s South Santiam Hatchery donated summer steelhead to a local food bank.  This was without question a great gesture, considering that they weren’t going to do anything else with the fish.

What really gets me, though, is the quote below:

“In past years the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has had more fish return than necessary to produce the next generation of hatchery fish, so the steelhead were surplus.”

 What’s this?  More fish than necessary?  Then what’s all this we hear about low salmon numbers and problems with salmon recovery in Oregon?  Is there a limit to the number of fish the Department can stock?  A limit that forces hatcheries to dispose of fish that are somehow considered surplus?  Somebody help me here…..

In the Flathead Valley of northwestern Montana, populations of threatened bull trout appear to be on the rise, according to fisheries biologists from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

After about a month of redd counts, overall numbers of redds (nests that fish build to deposit their eggs in when spawning) have increased significantly, but varied by stream. 

Read the full story here 

The taimen (Hucho taimen) is the largest trout in the world, growing to over 6 feet long and up to 200 pounds!  While it has suffered declines from overfishing in parts of Russia and China, northern Mongolia boasts a healthy population of taimen.

Read more about taimen here and here

New research techniques and more attention to detail has allowed for the identification of 57 new freshwater fish species in Europe, according to a recent National Geographic article.  The results come from a 7 year study conducted in collaboration with the World Conservation Union.  

Many of the new species have been found to have extremely slight differences in morphology, and little or no behavioral differences (such as a sculpin with rough skin as opposed to one with smooth skin).  While it’s cool to see that a bunch of new species have been found, I think that the reader should be critical of the findings of ‘new species’ because of the substantial subjectivity involved with the categorical arrangement of species.  

In addition, while 57 new ’species’ have been found, the report states that more than 1/3 of Europe’s 522 documented fish species are at risk of extinction: a statement that is sure to turn heads, but caused my eyebrows to raise a bit, considering that scientists haven’t even been able to document all of Europe’s fish species.  How does sufficient information exist to allow scientists to make statements about the status of every species identified?  While likely precautionary, such statements appear to be subjective at best.

The New Mexico Game and Fish Department is planning to stock about 2,000 Rio Grande cutthroat trout next month in McLure Reservior, in Santa Fe.

The Rio Grande cutthroat, which is a subspecies of cutthroat trout, is native to the Southwest, and is the state fish of New Mexico.  Like most native trout in the West, the occurrence of Rio Grande cutthroat trout has declined as a result of human impacts in the form of habitat degradation and nonnative species introductions. 

A recent effort by New Mexico Fish Game and Fish involves restoring these native fishes by stocking them in lakes and streams, and removing nonnative species.  For the McLure Reservoir project, biologists will stock cutthroats within the next month, and return next spring to capture nonnative rainbow trout via electrofishing and remove them from the area. 

Removing rainbow trout is a very important part of the project because rainbows and cutthroats spawn at the same time and tend to hybridize, or crossbreed, with each other, which can then compromise the genetic integrity of the native fish.  In addition, rainbow trout and cutthroat trout share similar diets and occupy the same areas in streams, which provides the potential for competition between the two species.  More serious competitors with cutthroat trout are brown trout and brook trout, but neither of these species can hybridize with cutthroat trout.

The Rio Grande cutthroat trout was petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act by environmental groups in 1998.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the available information did not warrant listing of the species, and the issue has been tied up in the courts ever since.  The USFWS is currently conducting another status review on the species.

Hopefully the McLure Reservoir project will prove to be successful, and if not, it may provide an important learning experience for those interested in native species recovery. 

Read more about Rio Grande cutthroat trout on the Santa Fe National Forest website.