Worried about our little mountain trout

jigman29 · Feb 27, 2017

I fished several hours today and for the first time in a long time I was skunked. I fished three different creeks and rode for miles hitting culverts with no luck at all! If we don't get a decent amount of rain i'm really worried about the state of our fisheries up here.

Killer Kyle · Feb 28, 2017

Hey jigman. The water is low without doubt, but I think the fish in my neck of the woods are doing OK still. I fished a stream Saturday that was literally 2' wide in some places. I managed two specks and 6-7 missed fish in a couple hours. The hardest part was actually finding a pool I could cast to. Sunday, I fished another blueline. I only hit maybe 6-7 pools on the speck stretch, but managed a few bites. Went down to the rainbow stretch below the falls and did good there. Caught probably the prettiest wild rainbow I have ever caught. About 7". It was so colored up from the spawn, I couldn't believe it. Instead of it's belly being off white, it was almost pure purple. I have never seen a rainbow so deeply colored before. I had a friend with me and she got to see the pretty little gem too. Kicking myself for not taking a picture!! I was in the White Co/Townes Co area. I am going to hit another one on Sunday in Townes Co to see how it is doing. We are scheduled for some rain the next couple days I think. I'd love to see a week long deluge hit us up here. I hope things start looking up in your neck of the woods!!

jigman29 · Feb 28, 2017

We have had ups and downs all my life. But the downs coupled with the influx of fishermen in the last few years I am really wishing the dnr would start putting the recources into the cold water fisheries. I hardly keep trout anymore out of concern for it. I just hope the kids and someday grandkids will enjoy it.

dtala · Mar 1, 2017

I have fished a bunch of small mountain streams in north Ga, NC, and Tn. I am constantly surprised at the number of, mostly local, fishermen that keep a limit of 7" fish everytime they go. It has to put a strain on the local trout populations, esp specks.

ripplerider · Mar 1, 2017

Things arent looking so well over my way either (Union Co. based). I've caught several but not like I usually do in winter. The upper Toccoa River has a lot of silt in it that needs flushing down with some big rainfall.

lampern · Mar 1, 2017

dtala said:
I have fished a bunch of small mountain streams in north Ga, NC, and Tn. I am constantly surprised at the number of, mostly local, fishermen that keep a limit of 7" fish everytime they go. It has to put a strain on the local trout populations, esp specks.

There are no size limits on GA speck streams.

Meriwether Mike · Mar 1, 2017

Me and a group fished Dukes Creek on Saturday. Water was low in December; it is even lower now. Fish were grouped up in the deep holes as opposed to spread out. I felt like it may have been spawning behavior that I witnessed since rainbows spawn in the Spring. Hoping we get some rain before the Summer drought.

jigman29 · Mar 1, 2017

Normally this time of year I find them ganged up in the deeper pools. But I am not finding any to speak of in the normal places. It's scary but maybe just an isolated instance.

Killer Kyle · Mar 1, 2017

Meriwether Mike said:
Me and a group fished Dukes Creek on Saturday. Water was low in December; it is even lower now. Fish were grouped up in the deep holes as opposed to spread out. I felt like it may have been spawning behavior that I witnessed since rainbows spawn in the Spring. Hoping we get some rain before the Summer drought.

Dukes lost a lot of fish during last summer's heat and then with the final blow of the drought. A lot of fishermen are reporting that the creek is like a desert lately. Lots of fish stacked up in the deeper pools and nothing elsewhere. My best friend works at the visitor center and told me they had a lot of fish die off. Gonna take some time to rebuild their population of fish to what it was. Remember two or three summers ago when it rained like four or five days per week nearly every week of summer? I was cursing all that rain then, but would love to see one like it again to get some of our ground water stores back up!

dtala · Mar 2, 2017

lampern said:
There are no size limits on GA speck streams.

don't believe I said there was a size limit...... :whip:

deerpoacher1970 · Mar 2, 2017

Jacks River on Cohutta WMA is real bad a friend of mine went last week and caught no fish and saw none and he is a great fisherman and has fished this all his life I guess the drought really done some damage.

NCHillbilly · Mar 3, 2017

dtala said:
I have fished a bunch of small mountain streams in north Ga, NC, and Tn. I am constantly surprised at the number of, mostly local, fishermen that keep a limit of 7" fish everytime they go. It has to put a strain on the local trout populations, esp specks.

Most of the studies done show that keeping trout has very little effect on the population most of the time. Sometimes it has a positive effect. A lot of those little creeks are slap full of little stunted fish and actually benefit from some thinning out, like crappie in a farm pond. I've fished creeks where you were driving a black herd of trout upstream as you fished, and not a one of them would be over 6" long.

In the GSMNP, during the projects to restore specks, they would find a creek with a natural barrier, then shock and move all the specks they could, then poison all the rainbows and browns and restock the specks. They opened some of these creeks to unlimited fishing for a couple years with mandatory keep of every fish caught to see what happened. They still had a lot of fish in them when they poisoned them. This is one reason that they lifted the long-standing moratorium on keeping specks in the park.

From what I've read, basically, one flood or drought will generally have more effect on a creek's fish than all the fishing pressure put together.

dtala · Mar 3, 2017

thanks Hillbilly. It just looked like unlimited keeping of fish combined with the drought might be bad for the populations of trout. Hope ya'll get some rain, been raining pretty good here.

NCHillbilly · Mar 3, 2017

dtala said:
thanks Hillbilly. It just looked like unlimited keeping of fish combined with the drought might be bad for the populations of trout. Hope ya'll get some rain, been raining pretty good here.

Fishing pressure does have some effect in some places, I'm sure-especially after a drought or flood year. But trout breed pretty fast. I'd say most folks are like me-turn loose most of the trout they catch, but keep a limit to eat a few times a year. I'm usually picky about which creeks I keep trout from, too.

Otters and herons are keeping a lot more than we are. I have seen a big decline, especially in bigger trout, in some streams where otter populations have rebounded in the last decade. They can't hide from otters.

Dialer · Apr 25, 2017

dtala said:
I have fished a bunch of small mountain streams in north Ga, NC, and Tn. I am constantly surprised at the number of, mostly local, fishermen that keep a limit of 7" fish everytime they go. It has to put a strain on the local trout populations, esp specks.

All the trout I've caught die almost immediately, as the hook removal process is too traumatic... they die anyway

j_seph · Apr 25, 2017

may wanna hook up with this fella
http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=878983

j_seph · Apr 25, 2017

https://americanexpedition.us/learn-about-wildlife/brook-trout-facts-and-info/
Seems that depending on water quality, and gravel egg hatch can be as low as 4% and as high as 80%

brown%20trout%20life%20cycle%20hi%202012.jpg

I know it says brown trout but also the brooks need to make it to adulthood as well to spawn and their lifespan is only like 5 years

redneck_billcollector · Jul 17, 2017

In many of the trout streams of the southeast the p.h. is so low that many aquatic insects have a hard go of it. I saw an interesting study done further north about using crushed limestone on forest service roads as opposed to crushed shale or other local rocks. It raised the p.h. rather quickly and in some cases almost one complete point over a few rain cycles. This encouraged insect populations, low p.h. effects an insects ability to form an exoskeleton.....as most know, the p.h. in our southeastern streams dropped with acid rain back in the 70s and 80s. More insects lead to healthier fish.....healthier fish can handle the stress of drought better...etc...etc...Y'all might do good getting your local T.U. chapters to work with the forestry service to see about getting them to use crushed limestone. Raise a little money to help defray the costs. My understanding is that there is a limestone quarry in N W GA that might be an available source.

b5fish · Jul 19, 2017

Happy to say after many miles and skunked trips I found some rainbows in Cohutta.

AustinB · Jul 24, 2017

I took a trip to Cohutta 2 weeks ago and was only able to catch one small rainbow. I am worried about the populations as well.

Worried about our little mountain trout

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