The Baldwin DNR Fisheries crew surveyed a total of 64 trout stream sites this year on streams in Pierce, St. Croix and western Dunn counties. The surveys went well with the weather cooperating and very few large runoff events.
Overall, trout densities in most streams are very stable compared to long term averages. Total trout densities were lower relative to last year, due in large part to the high natural reproduction in 2020 and 2021 making total trout numbers extremely high in 2021.
In most streams, natural reproduction was low this year compared to long term averages but adult trout numbers were high in part due to the 2 large year classes of trout from the large hatches in 2020 and 2021.
The drop in trout densities experienced this year is likely a good thing and nothing to be concerned about as trout densities in 2021 were likely higher than carrying capacity for most of these streams and competition for resources was high. With relatively lower trout densities and low natural reproduction this year, we should likely see a jump in size structure in the near future.
Some additional trends resulting from our survey work this year were drops in brook trout densities in streams where both brook and brown trout occur. In many brook trout dominant streams, however, densities and natural reproduction are up from previous years. There is also promising news from the Cady Creek brook trout restoration project which shows brook trout densities higher than in previous years and densities that are finally higher than brown trout densities.
The Willow River Race Branch looked better than ever with good numbers of adult brown and rainbow trout. This year seemed to be the year of large brook trout in our surveys with a few fish larger than 13 inches captured in several streams.
We surveyed 11 trout habitat improvement projects for post-habitat evaluations and all of them look great as far as trout densities and natural reproduction with densities higher than prior to project completion in all projects. Overall, the trout populations are in great shape with many aspects to look forward to in the near future.
