Water quality and habitat are important to sustain wild trout populations and to keep stocked trout programs successful. These programs’ failure or success can hinge on a few degrees of temperature. Trout are stressed at 71 degrees, explains Emerson, and at 72 degrees, juvenile fish succumb to the heat.

Fisheries managers continue to monitor the temperature of stocked waters by deploying electronic devices that record the temperature and provide a thermal profile of the body of water.

State biologists also conduct in-stream habitat surveys on smaller streams and the larger rivers. Surveys of the northern and southern parts of the state have been completed, while the central area is still being studied.

The Granite State’s wild trout program has identified three trout ponds in the northeastern part of the state that no longer need stocking -- a feather in the cap of the state’s fisheries managers. These wild trout ponds are managed via special creel regulations. There are also 13 streams and brooks where wild trout are self-sustaining.

The state’s typical wild trout is 9 inches in length. Trout populations in most lakes are self-sustaining. Special regulations, such as an 18-inch minimum-length limit and a three-month closed season, allow the slower-growing lake fish to survive and thrive.

A program partnering Maine and New Hampshire involved an estuary-release project to see if the habitat was inviting and if the fish would return to spawn. The water temperature of the Dead Diamond River was perfect at 65 degrees and, as Emerson explained, that encourages the released fish to spread out. One radio- tagged trout traveled 23 miles from the stocking areas up through the tributaries.

The data collected from this program will be used to determine stocking frequencies and locations.

The state is also part of the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture. Though New Hampshire has not been chosen for one of the EBTJV’s initial projects, Emerson said that the program is a huge push in understanding the impacts of agriculture, acid rain, habitat encroachment, non-native species and more.

New Hampshire fisheries experts are assessing problems with a move to restoration and sustainability.

“By compiling data, we can understand what we can and what we can’t do,” Emerson said. “We also know what has historically worked.”

For more information, contact the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department at (603) 271-3361, or log onto www.Wildlife.State.NH.us.

MAINE
A $7 million bond offering was the push behind the Pine Tree State renovating its hatcheries, said Peter Bourque, Maine’s director of fisheries development. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife used the funds to increase the production area and convert from a raceway system to a round tank system. The refurbished hatcheries should produce more fish for anglers.

The funds will also bankroll a 30-year plan for improving and sustaining Maine’s many trout programs.

Next year, Bourque said, anglers should expect a combination of 1.25 million stocked fish composed of salmon, lake trout, splake, browns, brookies and rainbows. The largest number of stocked fish will be brookies, followed by browns.