Do you support replacing wild rainbow trout with wild native brook trout?

[lampern]

Here is a poll.

Do you support attempts to replace a perfectly good wild rainbow trout population in a stream with native brook trout?

If brook trout were the original native species to that stream

 

[huntfish]

Nope. Some of the native waters have been changed so much that brookies wouldn't survive.

 

[Woodshound]

Depends on the circumstances and the scale - seems like a bad idea to kill wild rainbows that have survived some hard stretches w brookies that may or may not have survived the same.

Although there are plenty of quiet high-up and far-back creek stretches above a falls where I'd be willing to try in a limited fashion - spots where the natives would potentially survive sustainably. Most of these prob don't have wild bows now.

 

[NCHillbilly]

If it's a place where it can be successfully done and the habitat is suitable, yes, certainly. You can catch a rainbow anywhere. I have fished a few creeks around here that have been restored successfully.

 

[tad1]

Absolutely if it were that simple?

 

[jrickman]

I voted unsure because there is a lot to it that I don't understand. I think maybe the native habitat ain't what it used to be in most cases except for some parts of extreme NE Georgia, so trying to do this would be a waste of time.

I know that just in my short 48 years the summer fishing has moved WAY north (and uphill) from where it used to be, even for stocked rainbows. We do most of our fishing on Middle Broad until about the end of May and then we start to head to the Soque and creeks up in Rabun more and more. Nowadays, by the time mid-July rolls around, we're getting skunked fairly often on the upper Talullah and over at West Fork unless the stocking truck just left, and seeing dead fish on the Soque, Middle Broad, Panther Creek, and Wildcat Creek.

 

[Nicodemus]

If I have to choose between native and intrusive, I choose native, every time and always.

 

[NCHillbilly]

I voted unsure because there is a lot to it that I don't understand. I think maybe the native habitat ain't what it used to be in most cases except for some parts of extreme NE Georgia, so trying to do this would be a waste of time.

I know that just in my short 48 years the summer fishing has moved WAY north (and uphill) from where it used to be, even for stocked rainbows. We do most of our fishing on Middle Broad until about the end of May and then we start to head to the Soque and creeks up in Rabun more and more. Nowadays, by the time mid-July rolls around, we're getting skunked fairly often on the upper Talullah and over at West Fork unless the stocking truck just left, and seeing dead fish on the Soque, Middle Broad, Panther Creek, and Wildcat Creek.

Here in the Smokies, native mountain specks are coming back downstream more and more every year after a hundred years of forest regrowth in the park. The only thing holding them back are the rainbows and browns. I'd love to be able to catch those 14"-16" specks that grandpa and the old folks used to talk about when they were still in the main creekstems instead of the headwaters.

The only problem is that you have to have a significant barrier on the stream that the rainbows and browns can't get over. Which is not common. They have done a couple creeks in my county in the last decade, and it's working pretty good so far.

 

[jrickman]

The only problem is that you have to have a significant barrier on the stream that the rainbows and browns can't get over.

There is one up on Coleman River, but I've not been up above it to fish. Planning to try that this fall. That might as well be NC anyway.

 

[Woodshound]

Getting to and then over the Coleman barrier is a trip in and of itself... beautiful creek.

There are plenty of remote, infrequently-visited falls that would support natives above them. The trick is surviving periodic drought years when these tiny creeks dwindle to trickles... that said, I'll carry a bucket if the DNR's looking for volunteers.

 

[NCMTNHunter]

If it's a place where it can be successfully done and the habitat is suitable, yes, certainly. You can catch a rainbow anywhere. I have fished a few creeks around here that have been restored successfully.

This^