Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference 2018

AUTHORS. Christopher M. Kemp, Dillon Weik, Jeff Miner - Bowling Green State University

ABSTRACT. Salmonid stocking is a common practice in the Great Lake and returning adults contribute to a vibrant fishery.  Reproduction by these adults in most Lake Erie tributaries is unsuccessful because water temperatures reach lethal limits in summer.  However, in cool water first- and second-order streams, some YOY Steelhead Trout Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) have been observed into late summer and fall.  We sought to initiate an understanding of the interactions between these YOY  Steelhead Trout and coolwater native fishes in two tributaries of Lake Erie, Ohio. We quantified the densities of juvenile Steelhead Trout in two, first-order tributaries and the main channel of the Chagrin and Cuyahoga Rivers. We sampled fish communities monthly from May 2017 – October 2017 using backpack electrofishing along standardized transects. We also obtained diets of these juvenile Steelhead Trout and compared stomach contents with those taken from two native species: Redside dace (Clinostomus elongatus) and Creek Chub (Semotilus atromaculatus). We also measured the temperatures of both streams and the main channels throughout the study. We found that the temperatures in the main stem of each river were on average ~2.5 0C warmer than the smaller streams and that Steelhead Trout can survive in these areas throughout the summer. We also found that these juvenile trout had the greatest potential of overlap with Reside Dace, feeding primarily upon insects fallen from the forest canopy.