Section 2 produced an estimated 46 pounds of brown trout per acre of stream, well above the minimum of about 35 pounds per acre for Class A streams. Section 3 produced an estimate of 18.5 pounds per acre and Section 4 an estimate of 16.8 pounds per acre.

Except for several deep pools, long reaches of wide, shallow, open stream dominate the habitat in sections 3 and 4, with none of the overhead cover that trout prefer. Habitat improvement here could greatly enhance the quality of the fishery in this trophy brown trout stream.

In other action, a 2.9-mile section of East Fork Sinnemahoning Creek in Potter County was removed from Catch-and-Release regulations.

NORTHEAST REGION
One of the more interesting recent studies involved the movement of pre-season stocked trout at Tunkhannock Creek in Susquehanna County and Wysox Creek in Bradford County. The study included tagging, radio telemetry and electro-shocking.

Almost all of the pre-season trout stocked in both streams were tagged by a piece of colored plastic attached near the dorsal fin. A dozen trout with implanted radio transmitters were placed into Wysox Creek and 13 such trout were released into Tunkhannock Creek. These were about evenly mixed brook, brown and rainbow trout.

The transmitters send signals that biologists can track to see where and when the fish move. Funding from the FishAmerica Foundation contributed to this study.

The radio-tagged fish showed little movement for the first three days of the study, and then between day four and day six, all of the rainbows in Wysox Creek and four of the five rainbows in Tunkhannock Creek left their stocking points. Three of the Wysox rainbows disappeared. A fourth tracked trout was found on day 16 in the North Branch Susquehanna River between Catawissa and Danville, 123.1 miles away from where it was stocked!

All but one of the Tunkhannock rainbows dispersed downstream from the lower stocking limit. The other, which was stocked near the town of Smiley, stayed at its stocking point for 14 days before taking up a position in a deep pool 0.4 mile downstream. Once they took up a position, most of the Tunkhannock rainbows remained in that vicinity for the duration of the study. The farthest downstream movement documented for the Tunkhannock rainbows was 12.6 miles.

Some of the brown trout moved between day 1 and day 2, but most stayed at their stocking points for at least seven days. Brown trout movement was generally downstream, but one Wysox brown moved 0.7 mile upstream. One Tunkhannock brown moved a total of 6.3 miles, but the others did not travel as far. Only one of the brown trout found its way into the river and two were lost.

All but one of the brook trout remained where they were stocked for a minimum of 10 days. Brook trout movement ranged between 0.5 mile and 11.6 miles with the greatest movement occurring in Tunkhannock Creek.

Anglers catching one of these tagged trout are asked to report it to rwnuk@state.pa.us

For more information about trout fishing in Pennsylvania, contact the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, P.O. Box 67000, 1601 Elmerton Avenue, Harrisburg, PA 17106-7000; or call (717) 705-7800.

For information about traveling in the state, contact the Pennsylvania Office of Tourism, Room 404, Forum Building, Harrisburg, PA 17120; or call (717) 232-8880 or (800) VISIT-PA.