30 Conservation Department 



lakes, reservoirs or possibly rivers (Genesee) with, the probability 

 of catching not only some of the small ones but many of the large 

 sexually mature trout as they return for spawning. In the first 

 case heavy planting will be necessary every year with the prob- 

 ability of huge annual losses through migration. In the second 

 more and larger fish will be available, the plantings need not be so 

 heavy because some natural spawning will always take place, and 

 the losses from migration will be less. Money, space and time will 

 thus be saved in our hatcheries for the propagation of other species. 

 Because of our belief that the second plan is the better rainbow 

 trout are assigned to those streams only to which the adults are 

 likely to return. The writer is aware that in some parts of the 

 country east of the Rock}' Mountains the rainbow appears not to 

 be migratory. This circumstance might alter the policy for such 

 localities. What is said here applies only to the two watersheds 

 studied, the Genesee and the Oswego. 



Stream Mileage Suitable for Stocking. — The total stream 

 mileage in the Oswego watershed is roughly 7,000. Of this only about 

 1,688 miles are worthy of stocking. The remainder fall short in 

 one or more particulars — either dry, badly polluted, too warm for 

 trout, too small for bass and too rapid- for bluegills and bullheads, 

 or posted. In the last case they may not legally be stocked with 

 State fish. The dry streams appear to be the most numerous while 

 those too warm for trout and too small for bass seem to rank second 

 in numbers. Of the 1,688 miles worthy of stocking, 1,430 are suit- 

 able for trout, 133 for large-mouthed bass and 125 for small- 

 mouthed bass. It is well to note that one mile of bass stream 

 represents a greater area than one of trout stream because all bass 

 streams average more than 30 feet in width, while by far the 

 greater number of trout streams are well under this value. 



The most important small-mouthed bass streams are the Oswego 

 river (Map 3B), Oneida river, Fish creek, Clyde (Map 3A and 

 4A), lower Ganargua, Oneida creek, Canandaigua outlet and West 

 river (Map 4B). The better large-mouthed streams are the Oswego 

 river (Map 2), Caughdenoy creek from mouth to Crippen pond 

 (Map 2), parts of Fish creek (Map 2), Seneca river including the 

 barge canal, lower Clyde, Cowaselon and Flint creeks. 



The 1,427 miles of trout stream require a total annual plant 

 of about 1,031,461 fingerling trout distributed among the three 

 species as follows: — 



Brook trout 685 miles requiring 366,630 fish 

 Brown trout 642 '-' ' " 606,248 " 



Rainbow trout 103 " " 58,583 " 



The greater stocking requirements of brown trout as compared 

 with brook trout in view of a smaller stream mileage for the 

 former is explained by the fact that brown trout generally range 

 through the warmer waters lower downstream where the width is 

 greater. Consequently a greater area is involved which must be 

 supplied with a greater number of fish per mile. 



