Hooking and Handling Mortality of Trout Captured in the Bald Eagle Creek Tournament

In April 2014 and 2015, we quantified hooking and handling mortality of stocked trout caught with a variety of terminal tackle during a 2-d, tournament on Bald Eagle Creek, central Pennsylvania.   Each year we affixed Floy tags to 760 trout and stocked them in an 11-km stream reach.  All tagged trout that were alive when checked in were eligible for cash prizes.   After processing, trout were monitored for 10 d in a hatchery.  Anglers brought in 490 tagged trout in 2014 and 423 in 2015. Trout were caught on natural baits and Power baits (87.6%), artificial lures (11.8%) and flies (<1%). Mortality was 5% in 2014 and 4% in 2015.  In both years, 78% of the mortalities occurred on the day of capture.  Trout that were brought in with hooks embedded in them had a higher mortality (15%) than did those without hooks (3%).  This study demonstrated low mortality of trout that were caught primarily with bait and subjected to more handling stress than they would normally experience in catch-and-release waters.  We suggest that these results support the notion that bait fishing is compatible with the intended goals of special regulation waters such as catch-and-release and delayed harvest.