Of the 2,875 rainbow trout registered at the creel checking station, 

 llj percent exceeded 10 inches in length. Two specimens were 15.5 inches 

 long, and these with 7 other fish over lit inches were through to be wild 

 fish, although there is a possibility that these included some carry-over 

 fish from previous plantings in the river. 



An unknown fraction of the 2,875 rainbows caught was contributed by 

 the 875 unmarked fish planted in the lower 3 miles of the Little Pigeon 

 River 1 month before the season opened. A recovery of 67 percent of marked 

 rainbow and brook t rout (King 19U2) and a return of 6l percent of marked 

 brook trout (King and Currier 1950) have been reported in t he Park on Little 

 River. These returns of hatchery reared fish were considered not unusual 

 for Southern Appalachian streams. If we assume that 65 percent of the rain- 

 bows planted in the Little Pigeon in 1953 were recovered, it follows that at 

 least 80 percent of the 2,875 rainbows registered during the season were 

 resident fish. 



Heavy fishing pressures were exerted and good catches of rainbow trout 

 were made on the Middle Prong and in Porters Creek, neither of which was 

 stocked with this species. There were uli8 rainbows captured per mile of 

 fishable water in the Mddle Prong and 229 per mile in Porters Creek. The 

 average number of trout creeled per mile of fishable water in the entire 

 Little Pigeon watershed was 169, whereas Little River produced a catch 

 of 1,010 trout per mile in 1950, at which time no minimum size restrictions 

 were in effect (King and Currier 1950) . 



On April 17, 1953, 875 brook trout were stocked in Porters Creek, 

 the largest tributary of the Little Pigeon in the Greenbrier area. A 

 number of them moved into connecting waters; some went into False Gap 

 Prong, others moved into the Middle Prong and the lower section of the 

 main stream. Some may have gone downstream beyond the Park boundary. 

 These stocked fish made a very temporary contribution to t he quality 

 of fishing; most of them were caught or had disappeared within a short 

 time after the season opened. It is interesting to note that 688 rain- 

 bow trout were caught in Porters Creek, as compared with [J.7 stocked 

 brook trout. 



The 568 brook trout caught during the 1953 season included 30 per- 

 cent which were 10 inches or more in length. None were over 13 inches 

 long. It is estimated that not more than 2 percent of the brook trout 

 captured were wild fish; the remainder were hatchery-reared, and their 

 survival to the creel was about 6Ii percent of the number planted. Post- 

 season population surveys at 11 sites have demonstrated the scarcity of 

 brook trout in the waters open to angling; no survivors of the stocked 

 trout were recovered; and no wild fish, either fingerling or adults were 

 taken. 



11 



