Persistence of rainbow trout stocked into the Bluestone River, West Virginia

In an effort to increase angler-related tourism at Pipestem State Park rainbow trout were stocked during fall and spring into the Bluestone River between fall 2007 and fall 2008.  Because trout are not already present we sought to learn more about how stocked trout behave and how they return to the creel in support of aquaculture-derived fishing packages.  Some of the questions we had were: Do stocked fish move outside of the stocked areas?  Where are these fish located in the river?  How well do they survive? To address these questions we monitored trout location and persistence using radio telemetry.  A concurrent study evaluated angler success and attitudes. Fish were tracked on over 40 dates.  Fish generally stayed within the stocking area regardless of season or year.  Overwinter survival of fall-stocked trout was good (> 60%), but few trout survived past mid-June due to high water temperatures.  Angler harvest was a problem in the first year, but currently special regulations have been passed to protect fish from fall through spring, then permit harvest.  Results of this study suggest it is feasible to stock trout into the Bluestone River to improve angling and tourism packages at the park.