Problems in Sampling Wild and Domestic Stocks of Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis)

Abstract

Abstract In the spring of 1959 two wild stocks and a domesticated stock of brook trout were planted as fingerlings in Bear Pond in the northern Adirondack Mountains of New York. A resident population of brook trout of domesticated parentage was also present. Differences in behavior between the four groups affected the catch by angling and trap-netting. During the summer of 1960, when all four groups were approximately the same length, over 30 percent of the domesticated stocks were taken by fly fishing, while during the same period only 12 percent of the two wild stocks were recovered. The stocked domestic group was found to be much more vulnerable to trap-netting than the other groups. During the first 24 hours of netting, 46 percent of the trout estimated at large from this stock were recovered. At the end of three weeks of trap-netting, 84 percent of the stocked domestic, 64 percent of the resident domestic, 66 percent of the Long Pond Stream wild, and 44 percent of the Honnedaga Lake wild brook trout ...