"Yuji Sakuma" wrote:
Chas,

I don't know it for a fact but in presentations by biologists my is
impression that winter is indeed stressful for resident brown and brook
trout in my local streams. How stressful probably varies from year to
year
and from stream to stream. For example, intuitively I would think that
trout in spring creeks might withstand winter better than trout in
freestone
rivers because of the availability of food and more constant
temperatures.
I believe that very severe winters that result in anchor ice formation
are
deadly. A report that sticks in my mind was a radio-tracking
experiment on
brown trout in a local stream. The loss in body mass from fall to
spring
was very high, double digit percentages - don't quote me on this but it
might have been of the order of 20-30%. I am not sure of the
significance
of the result because the sample size was very small and it was only
for one
winter in one stream. I am not sure how fishing regulations were
developed
over the years but it seems to me that closed trout seasons, while
probably
intended primarily to protect spawning fish, probably also serve to
protect
them during a period when they are most highly vulnerable.

Yuji Sakuma

I know about that kind of stress, and I'm pretty sure it's no more of a
problem than an Atkins diet. The question is how the fish recover from
a fight when the water is very cold. Dolly Varden need very cold water
to spawn, 37 degrees if I remember correctly, so I suspect they're
little effected by the cold.

I agree about your later comment, we certainly need to be aware of
redds and avoid trampling them any time of year.

Thanks,

Chas
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