Page 8 



bottom organisms which were readily consumed by trout, even 

 when the water temperature was between 32 and 33 F (Needham 

 and Jones, 1959). Maciolek and Needham (1952) made a 

 similar observation, reporting that trout in Convict Creek, 

 California, fed regularly in the freezing water throughout 

 the winter. Reimers (1957) stated that reduced winter 

 feeding among healthy stream dwelling trout should be 

 attributed to the scarcity or unavailablity of food rather 

 than a lack of interest in food. He also found that 

 digestion proceeded slowly but steadily at temperatures 

 closely approaching the freezing point. 



Although trout will actively feed in winter and digest and 

 utilize this food, feeding does not appear to be an absolute 

 necessity for winter survival. Starvation experiments 

 conducted by Reimers (1957) indicated that healthy trout are 

 adapted to and are capable of surviving many months of 

 fasting, especially in cold water. While an abundant winter 

 food supply is obviously an asset to the well-being of 

 stream trout, the ability of healthy trout to survive long 

 periods of starvation relegates winter food conditions to a 

 secondary role in determining winter survival. However, 

 food scarcity can be a significant mortality factor in 

 severe winters when the physical environment is barely 

 tolerable to trout (Reimers, 1957). 



