Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - November/December 2013 - 18

Lake Erie
Steelhead:

A Hatchery Success Story
by Craig Vargason

Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission
Northern Production Manager
photos by Chad Foster
Northwest Regional Education Specialist

The Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission (PFBC) annually
stocks over one million steelhead into Lake Erie and its
tributaries. These stockings continue to support a world-class
fishery that attracts thousands of anglers from throughout
the United States and around the world. This fishery would
not be possible without the dedicated effort of PFBC
steelhead hatcheries and the Cooperative Nursery Program.
The steelhead caught in Lake Erie and its tributaries are
non-native to Lake Erie, and in Pennsylvania, the population
is maintained almost entirely by the rearing and stocking of
hatchery fish.
This extremely popular program had its humble
beginning in 1961 when PFBC introduced 15,000
steelhead fingerlings into Lake Erie. Steelhead stocking
was sporadic from 1961 to 1974 as PFBC was determining
if the fishery had the potential to become a valuable asset
to Pennsylvania anglers. The PFBC utilized steelhead eggs
from the West Coast from 1974 until 1980, but the numbers
available were inconsistent, and the potential to introduce
fish diseases was recognized. In 1979, PFBC decided to
increase steelhead stockings into Lake Erie as the popularity
of steelhead with anglers grew. Arrangements were made
to obtain eggs from the successful Michigan Steelhead
Program. The PFBC decided to develop a feral broodstock
capable of annually supplying 500,000 steelhead smolts
for Lake Erie in 1990. Smolts are juvenile steelhead that
are undergoing a developmental process of physiological
changes that enables and compels them to enter Lake Erie,
grow to maturity and return to the tributaries to spawn.

18

Godfrey
Run

Trout
Run

ERIE
Feral broodstock means that eggs are reared to smolts at
the hatchery, released into the wild and the returning adults
(feral brood) are captured and used as a source for the next
generation of hatchery eggs.
Once the decision to utilize a broodstock was made,
the program began to flourish. Currently, PFBC captures
about 2,000 adult steelhead annually from Trout Run
and Godfrey Run to be spawned for production. These
tributaries to Lake Erie are designated as nursery waters,
therefore, fishing is prohibited. Adult steelhead provide
PFBC with about 2.3 million eggs each year for hatchery
and cooperative nursery steelhead production. In the
Lake Erie Drainage Basin, 3C.U. Trout Association, Erie
County, under the guidance of PFBC's Cooperative Nursery
Unit, works in conjunction with PFBC hatcheries to raise
steelhead for introduction into Lake Erie and its tributaries.

Pennsylvania Angler & Boater * November/December 2013

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Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - November/December 2013

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