Project Brown Trout - Volume 2

The Gateway chapter of Trout Unlimited, based in St. Louis Missouri, took to the river on December 12th with a group of volunteers from around the state at Westover Farms near Steelville. GTU is leading a 3-5 year study on the effectiveness of Whitlock-Vibert Boxes as a method for stocking Brown Trout in Missouri rivers.

Missouri has had difficulty with survival rates of Brown Trout in our fisheries and the hope is that this system could help bolster our brown populations.

We gathered at 9:00am in front of the main barn and eager volunteers began shaping chicken wire crates, forming the egg boxes and preparing the eggs themselves for placing.

Three teams, scattered around the farm, planting 100,000+ wild brown trout eggs in several locations. Combining observations and input from the success of others, we chose to use existing substrate that could be found in the stream, rather that supplying clean gravel. We also chose to use a larger substrate this time around the boxes themselves, hoping to reduce any silt build up that can cause harm to the hatching eggs.

Working