Wiscoy Creek Angler Diary

2006 Results

In 2006, the NYS-DEC Region 9 Fisheries Office conducted an angler diary program for Wiscoy Creek, one of the best wild trout streams in New York State. The entire section covered by the diary program in 2006 is regulated with a 10" minimum size limit/ three trout per day creel limit, except for a one mile long catch and release section where no trout may be kept. In addition, the entire section covered in the diary program is open to fishing from October 16 - March 31 under catch and release, artificial lures only regulations. The 2006 program attempted to duplicate studies done in 1997 and 2001 and can be used for purposes of comparison.

Wiscoy Creek Brown Trout Anglers who regularly fish Wiscoy Creek were asked to keep diaries of their angling trips during the 2006 trout season. One hundred seventeen diaries were sent out, of which 56 were returned with usable information (48% return rate). Angler effort and catch is summarized in Table 1. Diarists reported making a total of 391 trips accounting for 1030.75 hours of angling. April, May and June together accounted for 63% of the total trips. Anglers reported a total catch of 1381 brown trout, of which 1318 (95%) were released. The total catch rate for brown trout caught by diarists was 1.34 trout/hour. This is very close to the brown trout catch rates for diarists in 1997 (1.27 trout/hour) and 2001 (1.20 trout/hour) (Table 2). Of the 1318 brown trout released, 34% (444) of those were greater than 10" and could legally have been creeled. The sizes of wild brown trout caught and released by diarists ranged from 3" to 16.5" and averaged 8.6". The average size of brown trout creeled was 12.9" (range: 10"-17").

Diarist catch per hour was highest in Section 1 (upstream of the catch and release section) at 2.45 trout/hour and in Section 3 (catch and release section to Albro Road) at 2.30 trout/hour and then declined steadily in each succeeding reach downstream, reaching a low in Section 6 (Allegany County Section) of 0.44 trout/hour (Table 2). A similar pattern was seen in catch rates in the 2001 and 1997 angler diary programs, however the catch rate in Section 3 was considerably higher this year than in 2001 or 1997 (Table 2 ). Diarists fishing with flies accounted for 77% (248) of the total trips while bait was used on 5% (16) of the trips and lures were used on 18% of the trips (57).

Angler diary catch rate in 2006 was above the objective of 1.0 trout/hour set for high quality wild trout streams in New York. The 2006 angler catch rate for wild brown trout of 1.34 trout/hour is much higher than those found in 2000 for angler diarists on Clear Creek (0.49/hour), Lime Lake Outlet (0.95/hour) or Hosmer Brook (0.62/hour). However, because those three streams also contain highly catchable wild rainbow trout, their total catch per hour for both brown and rainbow trout combined exceeded that for Wiscoy Creek brown trout.

Table 1. Effort in trips and hours; catch and catch rate (trout/hour) of brown trout (BT) from Wiscoy Creek angler diaries in 2006, by month.
Month	Trips	Hours Fished	BT Caught	BT Released	BT Creeled	Catch Rate	Release Rate	Creel Rate
March*	11	29	48	48	0	1.66	1.66	---
April	106	320	323	285	37	1.01	0.89	0.12
May	67	163	221	214	7	1.36	1.31	0.04
June	73	172.75	287	283	4	1.66	1.64	0.02
July	35	123.25	120	115	5	0.97	0.93	0.04
August	49	100	157	154	3	1.57	1.54	0.03
Sept.	30	77.75	145	143	2	1.86	1.84	0.03
Oct.*	18	41	79	76	3	1.93	1.85	0.07
Nov.*	2	4	1	0	1	0.25	---	0.25
Total	391	1030.75	1381	1318	63	1.34	1.28	0.06

*Catch and release only regulations in effect for March, November and October after the 15^th.

Table 2. Catch rate (trout/hour) of brown trout (BT) from Wiscoy Creek angler diaries in 2006, 2001, and 1997 by section.
Section	Catch Rate 2006	Catch Rate 2001	Catch Rate 1997
1	2.45	2.31	2.96
2	1.71	1.87	1.49
3	2.30	1.20	1.36
4	1.41	1.03	1.08
5	1.08	0.92	1.11
6	0.44	Not Covered	Not Covered
Total	1.34	1.20	1.27

Section:
1 - upstream of the catch and release section
2 - the catch and release section
3 - Albro Road bridge to the catch and release section
4 - Route 19 bridge in Pike to Albro Road
5 - Route 19 bridge in Pike to Allegany County line
6 - Allegany County line to mouth