Round valley trout association

[AndyS]

Need to update the website, the calendar of events is all 2018.

[hammer4reel]

Originally Posted by Mark B.

Fake News

wish it was.
But its not.

[Mark B.]

Originally Posted by hammer4reel

wish it was.
But its not.

I worked for the NJDF&W as fisheries worker, then as a fisheries biologist at the Lebanon FW Fisheries Lab, Lebanon from 1977 - 2018.

In the 1970's, Lake Trout were introduced in to RVR. The biologists never thought that the Lakers would reproduce. Unfortunately, they did reproduce. And, their increased numbers decimated the forage population of Alewife Herring. That's what caused the Brown Tout population to crash.

"They shocked those beautiful fish to get them out of there to promote the laker fishery . When they started stocking Lakers the fry were crushed by the big brown trout." = pure BS

"Can only wonder how good the trout fishery would have been if lakers had never been brought in." = true

[hammer4reel]

Originally Posted by Mark B.

I worked for the NJDF&W as fisheries worker, then as a fisheries biologist at the Lebanon FW Fisheries Lab, Lebanon from 1977 - 2018.

In the 1970's, Lake Trout were introduced in to RVR. The biologists never thought that the Lakers would reproduce. Unfortunately, they did reproduce. And, their increased numbers decimated the forage population of Alewife Herring. That's what caused the Brown Tout population to crash.

"They shocked those beautiful fish to get them out of there to promote the laker fishery . When they started stocking Lakers the fry were crushed by the big brown trout." = pure BS

"Can only wonder how good the trout fishery would have been if lakers had never been brought in." = true

Then why were we told by FG workers in 1978 that there was a significant number of large browns taken during the thermocline flip to allow some laker fry to have a better chance of survival.
The fishery I experienced as a kid in the mid 70's was over well before the lakers had a chance to hurt the herring population

was plenty of herring still in RV ten years after that.

.
second question is then its your belief that the demise of the herring is strictly from the lakers ?
Or is it a combination of lack of plankton for them to survive?

[Mark B.]

Here is a synopsis of the recollections of the former NJDF&W fisheries (trout) biologist 1977-1984:


Alewife herring were extremely abundant in RVR in the early seventies, in fact there were some die offs associated with overpopulation, as was common across their range and what also occurred in the Great Lakes as well as several of the NY Finger Lakes. The brown trout population while numerous, only occupied the area just in and below the thermocline with their preferred water temperature in the sixties, there was a large volume of water at greater depths (the hypolimnion) with adequate dissolved oxygen for trout survival, but too cold for brown trout. The thought was to stock lake trout to take advantage of this unoccupied habitat, and to utilize the over-abundant alewife, adding diversity to the fishery. There was concern that large brown trout would prey upon small lake trout fry, which lead to the initial stocking of lake trout as yearlings, probably closer to 8 inches in length. Subsequent sampling showed that survival of this stocking was excellent. After the first stocking of yearlings, subsequent stockings were made of fingerlings. At no time was any plan enacted or actions taken to remove brown trout to give laker fry a better chance of survival, I don’t know who told you that or why, perhaps they were pulling your leg.

The decline of the alewife (herring) population began, although not immediately noticed, nearly at the same time of the initial lake trout stocking. There are a number of causes that are suspected, however the natural system is complex and no one is absolutely certain. The fertility of RVR and subsequently phyto and zooplankton production began to decline around the same time. Although the initial stocking numbers of the lake trout were fairly small, perhaps just the added pressure on the alewife forage base was enough to start a population decline. Perhaps other fish species were consuming the zooplankton that the alewife depend on (maybe smaller lake trout were the culprit). There are unknown factors of diseases or other environmental (temperature, water chemistry, oxygen) conditions. What is known is that alewife herring population crashes have been documented in many lakes and reservoirs in the northern half of the country in the past decades, and no one cause has been identified. The bottom line is that now RVR supports less total biomass (lbs/acre) of salmonids (all trout species) than in the glory days, but lake trout makes up a significant percentage of that total, while prior to lake trout stocking, the brown trout did.

[hammer4reel]

Thanks for your reply Mark

[thmyorke1]

Great info once again, Mark.

[Dave B.]

Sheesh, you would think by now some guys would learn not to question it when one of our top freshwater fisheries biologists tells you something! Ya just had to go and make him lay out the entire condensed history. Go figure...

[reason162]

Originally Posted by Dave B.

Sheesh, you would think by now some guys would learn not to question it when one of our top freshwater fisheries biologists tells you something! Ya just had to go and make him lay out the entire condensed history. Go figure...

I take your point, but I'm glad Mark laid it out for me to read...fascinating and tragic history. Would've loved to see the brown trout fishery at RV during its heyday!

[Dave B.]

Originally Posted by reason162

I take your point, but I'm glad Mark laid it out for me to read...fascinating and tragic history. Would've loved to see the brown trout fishery at RV during its heyday!

Most definitely agree on the browns, awesome fish! I can't wait for the Div. to finally get the roofs and solar panels over the raceways at Pequest so we can get back to raising and stocking browns again!