By Mike Bleech

Following a temporary large reduction in trout stocking quotas for the 2002 season due to changes in water quality standards, Pennsylvania's stocking numbers rose slightly last year. This was accomplished by stocking slightly smaller trout, and it will be the pattern again this year.

There will be additional trout available for stocking from other sources, so even though the state's trout hatchery system is under severe stress, trout anglers barely notice this blip in one of the best trout management programs in the country.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission's popular "put-and-take" trout program was reduced from 5.2 million fish in 2001 to 3.8 million trout in 2002 because new water quality regulations forced hatcheries to reduce production. In 2003, about 4.1 million trout were stocked during the regular stocking program. This was accomplished by raising trout to 10 inches, or about 1/2 pound, which is slightly smaller than the trout raised for stocking the previous year. Limitations on hatchery production are based on biomass (pounds of fish), not on the actual number of trout. By raising slightly smaller trout, more trout can be raised.

This year, the same strategy will be used to produce about 4 million trout in the state hatcheries. These trout will be distributed pre-season and in-season. Most in-season stocking is done during the first several weeks after the regular statewide trout season opens in mid-April. Additional fish are stocked during fall and winter.

More trout will come from other sources, including a commercial hatchery.

Photo by J. Michael Kelly

"We've got a contract in place now," said Dan Tredinnick, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. "The low bidder was an outfit out of North Carolina. We're going to purchase about 100,000 trout from them."

According to Richard Snyder, head of the Fish and Boat Commission's Fisheries Management Division, "Those fish will be stocked in lakes. The company already sells trout in Pennsylvania, so they are familiar with us."

All of these trout will have been tested in Pennsylvania for PCBs.

Most, if not all, of the trout from the North Carolina commercial hatchery will be rainbows and may be stocked throughout the year.

"We expect to have around 4.2 million trout, including about 100,000 fish from the Allegheny National Fish Hatchery," Snyder said.

An agreement was reached last year with the Allegheny National Fish Hatchery, which is operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The main purpose of this hatchery, which is at the base of the Kinzua Dam in Warren County, has been raising lake trout for Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service policy requires that only native fish may be raised, so all of the trout raised for inland stocking will be brook trout that will be stocked into Allegheny National Forest trout streams. These fish will replace trout from state hatcheries that would normally have been stocked in the national forest, freeing them to be stocked elsewhere.

Upgrades planned for the Allegheny National Fish Hatchery might increase quotas to 300,000 brook trout in the future.

"We're excited about the possibilities," Snyder said. "We expect to have a few new waters for the program."

Among the new waters will be the tailwaters of Tionesta Dam in Forest County, and the tailwaters of Mahoning Dam in Armstrong County.

"We're working with the staffs at those facilities to see if anglers take advantage of the opportunity," Snyder said.

The reason these places were chosen is that they are public facilities in areas that can handle a lot of people. These tailwaters areas also have reliably good water flows at temperatures suitable for trout.

"We're not talking about thousands and thousands of trout to begin with. We're going to start out slowly," Snyder cautioned.

According to Tom Greene, Coldwater Unit leader for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, the following lakes and streams sections will also be added to the catchable trout-stocking program:

• A one-mile stretch of the Delaware Canal in Upper Washington Crossing State Park.
• Upper Hereford Manor Lake in Beaver County.
• The lower three miles of White Deer Creek in Union County from Interstate Route 80 to the mouth.
• Lake Jean in Luzerne County.
• The lower two miles of Aquashicola Creek in Carbon County.
• The lower 1.1-mile section of the Little Schuylkill River in Schuylkill County.
• A one-mile section of Neshaminy Creek where it flows through Tyler State Park in Bucks County.
• A 3/4-mile section of the Little Juniata River in Blair County about eight miles upstream from the section which is stocked with fingerlings.
• In-season stockings will be added to Cool Lake in Bedford County.
• A preseason stocking at Upper Twin Lakes in Westmoreland County, which is already stocked during the fall.

Eggs, fry or fingerling trout are provided to the co-op nurseries by the Fish and Boat Commission, which also provides technical assistance and guidance.

"The co-ops are anticipating stocking 1 million trout on top of that (4.2 million)," Tredinnick said. "They typically do 250,000 trout pre-season, and 750,000 trout during the in-season stockings."

Co-ops raise the trout to catchable size and then stock them with some direction by the Fish and Boat Commission, but with some latitude.

"Many of the waters the co-ops stock wouldn't necessarily qualify for stocking under PFBC guidelines, but they don't have the same boundaries. As long as the fish go into waters that are open to public fishing, it's OK with us," Tredinnick said.

Pennsylvania's first cooperative nursery was initiated in 1932, but the current program began in 1965 when the position of Cooperative Nursery Coordinator was established. Today, there are 172 cooperative nurseries operating in all but 17 counties. Most of these cooperatives raise trout.

For more information about the Cooperative Nursery Program, contact the commission's coordinator Cecil Houser at chouser@state.pa.us or call him at (814) 359-5124.