Q? Brown trout in the Ottawa River?

[John Bacon]

That area/type of fish is mostly unknown to me, sorry.

Are they actually spawning or just going through the motions in Lake O? If indeed they spawn, do they require a specific stocking method, i.e. imprinting at birth and other complicated breeding/stocking methods?

I was under the impression that many if not all stocked trout ( in inland lakes) are infertile, such as the stocked speck, laker, rainbow trout lakes. I'd expect that to be the same for a smaller stocking program such as the O. River, but I'd like to be told otherwise.

 

Edit: Either way you've given me the answer to Q#2. Thanks.

 

Hatchery fish are generally capable of spawning and establishing self sustaining populations. Brown trout are not native to North America, so any populations of brown trout on this side of the Atlantic are descended from hatchery fish. The same can be said for rainbows in eastern North America as they are a western fish.

 

The MNR does stock splake which are generally will not reproduce.

 

It is possible that a hatchery strain that it is not refreshed with wild stock every few generations will become domesticated and lose their instinct to spawn.

 

Many lakes that are stocked may not have suitable spawning habitat. The MNR may stock to create a put and take fishery. These fish may very well be capable of spawning but lack the right conditions.

 

A good strain of hatchery fish that is stocked into waters that facilitate spwning success are quite capable of reproducing on the their own.

[Rod Caster]

Hatchery fish are generally capable of spawning and establishing self sustaining populations. Brown trout are not native to North America, so any populations of brown trout on this side of the Atlantic are descended from hatchery fish. The same can be said for rainbows in eastern North America as they are a western fish.

 

The MNR does stock splake which are generally will not reproduce.

 

It is possible that a hatchery strain that it is not refreshed with wild stock every few generations will become domesticated and lose their instinct to spawn.

 

Many lakes that are stocked may not have suitable spawning habitat. The MNR may stock to create a put and take fishery. These fish may very well be capable of spawning but lack the right conditions.

 

A good strain of hatchery fish that is stocked into waters that facilitate spwning success are quite capable of reproducing on the their own.

 

Fantastic John. I wasn't sure if the MNR manipulated the reproductive ability of every fish right from the hatchery or if fish are just incapable of spawning due to "domesticated" traits or if the spawning quality of a waterbody made any difference. I've read some information on Splake and as you say they generally do not reproduce, although have been documented (rare) to have reproduced for several generations and produced spawn that were closer to either the Lake Trout or the Speckled, less of a mix.

 

It's good to know that when browns/rainbows are stocked and are not sterilized, that in the right conditions they have the potential to spawn future generations. Kind of like the Ouinaniche in Trout Lake I suppose. I'm sure Brown Trout in the Ottawa are considered put and take, but that there is also the (small) chance that they could have migrated and reproduced as far as Mattawa or Temiskaming.

 

I'll dig up this post if I ever catch one