Trout Status March 2005
It's been a busy first three
months with a lot of ups and downs concerning the state's future stocking of
trout at Lake Hopatcong. We are happy that we were able to convince the Fish
& Game Council to continue stocking trout at the lake next year and in the
future. But, we are also confused and disappointed by the Division's decision
to reduce our annual allotment of trout by nearly 2,000 fish. They asked for
input from the public and the public responded overwhelmingly in support of future
trout stockings at the lake. Where the reduction option came from I couldn't
tell you, but I'm glad the issue is resolved because it has been very
disruptive for the club.
I would like to thank all of
those who lent their support and especially those members that attended the
Forum at the Pequest Hatchery. That is when it seemed the tide had really
turned in our favor. It was hard for anyone to deny the passion in our
arguments when each person spoke on behalf of the lake and the assembled people
burst into applause. I feel that there were people that entered that room
clearly on the other side of the issue and when they left they were in support
of us.
While this was very
disruptive, as it interfered with the daily business of running an organization
this large, some good may ultimately come from this. On the Division's side,
they will be stocking their trout earlier and will increase the amount of brown
trout that the lake usually gets. These were both recommendations that we had
made to the Division. Also, we are being told that we will receive about 150
large brood stock trout each year. On our side, I was proud to be the leader of
an organization that is so dedicated to the well being of "OUR" lake.
I think the entire state witnessed what a passionate and determined group we
are. I'm sure the founding fathers of the club are all looking down and are
very proud of us all.
The most important outcome
was that in order to present our case we learned a lot about trout that we
didn't know before and are implementing a new trout stocking program this year
that we hope will be another chapter in the club's "Exciting Future".
Please read the following article by past club President Tim Clancy that
explains the new stocking program, how we determined that this was the way to
go and what we are very optimistic will be the end result. Thanks again for all
of your support.
Laura Morris
--NEW Trout Stocking Program—
by Tim Clancy
The
Knee Deep Club of Lake Hopatcong is pleased to announce a new exciting trout
stocking plan for Lake Hopatcong.
Ironically the decision to drastically alter the club’s annual trout
stockings is the direct result from the recent debate with the Division of Fish
& Wildlife where the Division was recommending eliminating trout stocking
at the lake by the state.
The club, which has been in existence at the lake since
1946, is optimistic that by making these changes to their trout stockings they
will be able to reestablish the holdover trout fishery that the lake was once
famous for. The 1,200 member club
which has been stocking over $15,000 worth of trout each spring with their
private money in the state’s largest public lake is launching the program this
spring.
The
Division had recommended eliminating Lake Hopatcong along with six other larger
lakes from their annual trout stockings.
After a major and successful lobbying effort by the club the state
ultimately decided to continue stocking Lake Hopatcong, but in 2006 will stop
stocking the other six lakes. The state
did decide to reduce the fish that Lake Hopatcong receives each year by 20%
which amounts to about 2,000 less trout for the lake beginning in 2006. The club is very disappointed in the state’s
decision because the public was asked to weigh in on the issue, whether to
continue or eliminate trout stocking at the lake, and the public overwhelmingly
supported continued stocking at the lake.
There was never any recommendation, or discussion of a reduction of
trout for the lake presented to the public.
The club feels that the reduction of trout at the lake is an unjustified
action taken by the Division because the club did such a good in contesting
some of the evidence presented by the Division.
The club presented evidence of holdover trout at the lake
and improving water quality as the result of over $100 million invested at the
lake on water quality initiatives by the lake community. They showed that eliminating spring trout
stocking at the lake would have a detrimental impact on the local economy and
the Division’s own finances from losses of future license and trout stamps
sales. But it was the research that the
club did to justify future stockings that led to a clearer understanding of
what led to the dramatic decline in holdover trout that was witnessed at the
lake in the mid 1980’s. Prior to that
hundreds of large holdover trout were caught at the lake each year. Then suddenly they dropped off to just dozens
or even handfuls reported each year.
Like many others the Knee Deep Club thought this sudden
decline was the direct result of declining water quality because of the
environmental impact from the changes that had occurred in the watershed. But still every year several holdover trout
were caught. The club cannot verify
every holdover caught, which are relatively easily to identify because the
distinct colorings of the brown trout when stocked change to silver once they
live in the lake for a year and feed on the natural forage of herring. However when significantly large trout in
the 6-10 pound range were weighed in they were easily identified as
holdovers. Also any trout caught
through the ice would represent holdovers, like the several that were verified
this year. Also for public relations
purposes the club often tagged their fish and every year trout bearing previous
years’ tags were caught.
Yet the Division’s biologists insisted that their studies
showed that the lake no longer had habitat that would support trout year
round. As a matter of fact they used
that position to justify the reduction in trout for the lake when the decided
to change the lake’s classification from trout maintenance to non-trout. But every year the scientist that do water
quality monitoring for the Lake Hopatcong Commission verify suitable summer
brown trout habitat exists. That contradiction led the club, through extensive
research, to the determination that the decline of holdover trout at the lake
was more the result of the state’s changes to it’s own stocking policies that
were in effect from 1960-1983 than from any decline water quality. During that period the state had developed
stocking policies at Lake Hopatcong based on six years of studies conducted
under the leadership of former Fisheries Biologist Dick Gross between 1953 and
1959. The studies conducted then were
absolutely extraordinary in that in cooperation with the Knee Deep Club trout
were tagged and stocked and data collected over several years. After analyzing all the data it was
determined that Lake Hopatcong should be stocked with primarily brown trout,
that they should be stocked early in the year and that they must be a minimum
of at least 11” to survive year round in the lake. Any of the fish that were stocked outside of those guide lines
rarely held over.
These policies were determined after reviewing data
showing which fish stocked resulted in the highest numbers of holdover
trout. And they made sense in that it
was understood that brown trout were the most tolerant of the warmer
temperatures that occur in marginal trout lakes like Hopatcong. Stocking early made sense because it gave
these hatchery-reared fish more time to acclimate to a wild environment and
learn to feed on the native forage. And
it was felt that the larger, 11 inch plus trout, did better holding over
because they could avoid being eaten by the other large predators in the lake
and being larger were better able to take advantage of the lake’s primary
forage, herring.
That policy is what the club will return to with its own
stocking beginning this spring. But
what Dick Gross’s studies proved back in the fifties is further backed up by
modern studies and literature published on brown trout. The biggest disagreement that the club has
with the Division on the issue of suitable trout habitat is the temperatures
that trout, and specifically brown trout, can tolerate. They claim that trout cannot survive above
21 degrees C. (69.8 F.) yet we could not find that in any of the literature we
reviewed. Every expert in the world we
could find info from said brown trout could live in temperature of a minimum of
24 C. (75.2 F.) and some suggest even higher temperatures. The E.P.A. uses 26 C.. But after reading “Quantitative Ecology and
the Brown Trout” by. Dr. J.M. Elliot of Oxford University it became clear that
there is a lot more involved in understanding temperature tolerances of trout
than simply the temperature. We were first led down this path and to Elliot’s
book by Dr. Robert Benke Professor Emeritus from Colorado State University who
is one of the most renowned experts on trout in the world. As Dr. Behnke explained and then we
confirmed in Elliot’s book temperature in and of themselves are generally not
lethal to trout unless they go over 80 F.
There are other important factors that come into play, mainly the
duration of the higher temperatures and then the general health of the
fish. Specifically do the fish have
adequate energy reserves to withstand less than ideal condition? Ideally brown trout thrive in temperatures
less 68 F. (let’s just stay with Fahrenheit for now on). That is the perfect
world for brown trout and they will experience maximum growth in that
zone. Above those temperature they will
continue to feed and act like trout but may burn more energy then they are able
to consume and may actually lose weight.
They will continue feeding right up to 77 F. But if exposed to those higher temperatures for too long they
could eventually die. Trout could not live in a lake that had temperatures that
high all year long, because they’d have to depend on their energy reserves
which would run out over time. But if
they are forced out of that ideal temperature zone for a short duration but
have good energy reserves (body mass) they will bounce back and start putting
on weight once the optimal conditions return.
At Lake Hopatcong every year for about 4-6 weeks in July and August
trout are forced into a zone of water of between 72-74 F. If the fish are well nourished with good
energy reserves this presents no problem because they will continue to feed and
burn some fat, but once the lake turns over in Sept. they have ideal conditions
throughout the entire water column and will bounce right back. This is just part of the life cycle of trout
in what are considered marginal lakes.
But if the fish are small and poorly nourished they are more likely to
succumb in these less then ideal conditions because they’ll have insufficient reserves
to sustain themselves.
From 1960-1983 the stocking policies of the Division
involved stocking the proper species, at the right time of year and of adequate
size to survive in the lake. Over time
they have gotten away from all three of these practices. We don’t know when they changed from
stocking the trout early but under the direction of Dick Gross they were to be
stocked no later then April. And
remember we’re talking only brown trout here.
Well for quite awhile, we don’t know for certain but we think in 1983
when the Pequest Hatchery came on line, they started stocking all of their
brown trout the last week in May. So
these fish had little time to acclimate to a wild environment and fatten up for
the summer crunch when they would need energy reserves to survive. Also when the Pequest came on line they
stopped stocking 11 inch plus fish and the browns that they stocked late in May
averaged about 9 inches. Dick Gross’s
studies showed that these smaller fish never held over. It wasn’t just the predation by the other
fish or being too small to eat the lake’s herring alone but the fact that they
had no built in energy reserves to survive the summer weeks when they were
forced into 72+ F. water. Finally in
1995 the Division changed from stocking at least 50% brown trout to only 25% and
increased the brook trout to 50% and they are least tolerant of the conditions
at the lake and will never hold over.
The only trout that were likely to hold over after 1883
were those stocked by the Knee Deep Club because all of our fish met the size requirement. But we didn’t understand the science then
and we split our stocking into one preseason and one in May. So only 1/2 of
our fish were going in early enough to meet the requirements established by
Dick Gross. And those fish, because we
didn’t know any better were split up, between the different species with many
brook, rainbow and tiger trout being stocked during the first stocking. So if we were stocking 1,000 trout preseason
only 250 of our fish were ideally suited to holdover. Our May stockings included 40% browns but we don’t know if these
fish would have as much success holding over as the earlier stocked fish. Then you have to factor in losses like how
many fish were caught and kept, died from hook mortality and went over the dam
during high water conditions, which are prevalent during the spring. So we were basically down to dozens of fish
that were ideally suited to hold over.
And also it’s only been in the last ten years or so that the club has
had the resources to stock those kinds of numbers of fish. We remember back in the early 1990’s we were
lucky to have enough money to purchase 1,000 trout each year. 1999-2001 records showed we stocked 2,000
each year and the last two years we stocked 2,800 trout. But remember only 12.5% of those fish were
ideally suited to hold over and the Division’s fish didn’t stand a chance. So even in the best of years since 1983 only
around 350 trout were being stocked that were ideally suited to holdover. And in a 2,650-acre lake that’s not a lot of
fish, especially after anticipated losses.
So now we have completely adjusted our own stocking to
follow the guide lines set up by Dick Gross in 1960 and are excited because we
feel that in short order we will see dramatic improvement in the lake’s holdover
trout fishery. First we are increasing
our overall stocking by 1,000. We were
able to accomplish that at no additional cost by down sizing what we call our
production fish by one inch and applying the monies saved to purchase an
additional 1,000 11-12 inch fish. So
instead of purchasing 2,600 13-15 inch fish, we will be changing to 2,600 12-14
inch fish, still all respectable size fish.
Also we will be stocking 80% of our production fish preseason. They will break down as follows: 1,000 brown
trout 11-12, 1,000 70% browns & 30% rainbows 12-13 and 1,000 13-14 with a
70%/30% split. We will also stock 100
trophy trout between 16-21 inches and they will include all species. That first stocking will occur April 3 one
week prior to the season opener.
Rainbows were included because they are known to be tolerant of warmer
temperatures and are seen to hold over every year. Plus brown trout don’t go on a heavy feed until the water warms
up to about 55 F. and we want the public to enjoy early season angling success
and the rainbows will bite earlier. The
state’s first stocking of the year is exclusively brook trout so we feel that
thee will be good early season angling.
Our second socking of the year, which is primarily done
to promote our Annual Trout Contest, will occur on may 7 one week prior to our
contest and will consist of 600 trout 12-14 inches with a 70%-30% split of
brown and rainbows. And also another
100 trophies between 16 & 21 inches.
We're very excited and optimistic about this new program
and we feel that the science and the history of trout stocking at the lake
backs us up. But on the outside chance
that we are wrong and it is determined that Lake Hopatcong is ultimately a put
and take trout fishery with very few holdovers like more than 90% of the waters
stocked by the state this will still be a good program. While we don’t agree with all the results of
the tagging study conducted by the state because it was too small of a
sampling, some things that came out of it were accurate. It showed that those fish stocked earliest
and brown trout had the best overall returns.
So on the outside chance that this doesn’t play out like we hope, we
will see much better angler success by stocking early and mainly browns.
All of our fish that we are stocking for potential
holdovers we are marking with dorsal fin tags and we ask the public to help us
by releasing those trout this year so we can measure our success. The state fish which will number over 10,000
this year and our non-trophy fish will not be tagged so there will be plenty of
fish to keep for those who enjoy eating them. But PLEASE release all tagged
trout this first year and leave the tags in place. And remember between our fish and Fish & Wildlife’s there
will be more than 5,700 trout stocked for the season opener, which are more
trout stocked in the lake for Opening Day than in the history of the lake. So come on up and enjoy the best trout
fishing in the state this year. Boat
Rentals are available at Dow’s Boat Rental (973) 663-3826 and Lakes End Marina
(973) 398-5707. And if things go as we
plan we’ll be seeing another Knee Deep success story. You just can’t keep a good club down.