Re: [VFB] Environmentalist/Conservation - Coasters

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Jerry: Thanks.. I guess the eggs would be safer in creeks and streams than open water...Or is it just instincts like the salmon going upstream to spawn??? I mean they would in the past naturally come in the open water, but stopped cause of the pollution???  I sure wish there were trout closer to Me so I could see these things, like the trout "rising" etc..... Seems to me that on one hand the trout in very fragile, but on the other hand it must be a tough species to go through what they do and survive. We too, had the PCB's here and the ONLY river in Bama , is thankfully just 7 miles from my door step (Tallapoosa River). All the others had sooo many PCB's , Lead, Mercury and all kinds of mostly paper mill run offs straight into the rivers that they still tell you to only eat catfish and bass that are 2 pounders or less, and bream that are 6 ounces or less, cause they say the fish would be still young enough to (supposedly) not have absorbed enough of these chemicals to affect humans who eat the fish....I understand that the Great Lakes, and I have heard stories of the Hudson river especially that it got sooo polluted that it would "catch fire" from all the debris, and other pollutants. And that there was sooo much trash in the water, that you could almost walk on the water. This true???? I also understand (hopefully correctly) that is has been cleaned up a LOT. I saw John Stosel on 20/20 do a piece on the Hudson, and he showed some before and after pics.... Like has been said before, if we don't start taking better care of our forests and waters, we won't have to worry about fishing cause there won't be any fish TO catch... Hopefully we have learned our lessons in the last half century or so. I hope so, Thanks again, Chuck   ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: vfb@troutnet.com Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 9:21 PM Subject: Re: [VFB] Environmentalist/Conservation - Coasters Chuck:  This is a simplified explanation, and I'm by no means an expert. They are fish that migrate out of what we would consider "normal" habitat, a stream, and spend a good portion of their lives in open water, like a lake or an ocean.  Steelhead would be a prime example.  Coasters, the name applied to brook trout probably originated in New England where many streams fed into the Atlantic, and some of the brook trout native to them would migrate out into the ocean, and they would return to their streams of origin to spawn, sometimes they stayed other times they returned to the sea, or in the case of what DonO mentioned the Great Lakes.  There are also sea-run brown trout.  New Jersey for the past few years has been trying to reestablish a sea-run population of browns.  I believe there are still a few small populations of "coasters" left on the East Coast.  I'm not sure any effort is being made to reestablish the populations.  The same is true for the Great Lakes. As the Lakes clean up "Coaster" populations are coming back, I'm sure with some help of the stocking truck. The trout are not andromonous(sp?)like American Shad, Striped Bass or Herring which spend most of their lives in salt water and only enter fresh water to spawn.     We have a creek not to far from here where 20 or so years ago, the state quit stocking the stream because a superfund site had contaminated it with PCB's.  Other than the PCB's the stream had the qualities of a Class A trout stream.  The rainbows didn't survive but the browns did and thrived so we have a wild trout stream within a short drive of a major city. The creek runs into a larger river, and every year rumors abound of 30 inch brown trout that have spent most of their time out in the river but make there way up the creek in the spring and also in the fall to spawn. You may consider this a fractured fairy tale   Jerry C "All things considered, I'd rather be in Philadelphia."   In a message dated 2/14/2006 18:40:33 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: What are "coasters" as compared to reg fish????? Chuck ----- Original Message ----- From: "DonO" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <vfb@troutnet.com> Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 10:11 AM Subject: Re: [VFB] Environmentalist/Conservation - Coasters > I saw a TV show on 'Coasters', large brookies that roam the shores of the > Great Lakes.  Seems like management failure again. > > Anyone familiar with this? > > DonO >   Jerry C "All things considered, I'd rather be in Philadelphia."