By the mid-1800s, the brook trout populations native to the eastern streams of the United States were under duress from overfishing and heavy logging, which caused siltation, and with the removal of the forest canopy, allowed direct sunlight to warm the cool water that was vital to the survival of the fish.
Then, in 1883, under the authorization of the U.S Fish Commission, Fred Mather, a fisheries biologist, from Long Island, New York, fashioned a trade that would bolster the declining trout populations, and prove to be a bonanza for anglers.
During the International Fisheries Exposition held in Berlin, Germany, Mather met with German fish culturist Baron Lucius von Behr, and the pair worked a trade where Mather would send Whitefish eggs to Germany, and in exchange, von Behr would ship 80,000 brown trout eggs to America.
The eggs, taken from fish in the Black Forest area of Baden-Wurtemberg, arrived at Long Island aboard the steamship Werra. They were then allocated among the Cold Spring Hatchery, on Long Island, which Mather operated, the Caledonia Hatchery in upstate New York, operated by Seth Green, and the U.S. owned and operated Northville Hatchery in Michigan.
On April 11, 1884, America’s first Brown Stock stocking occurred when 9,700 fry from the Northville Hatchery were released into Michigan’s Baldwin River, a tributary of the Pere Marquette River.
The stocking proved a success, as the fish, considered an “invasive species” as they were not native to the stream, were able to adapt to the varying water temperatures, spreading the length of the river while moving into the Pere Marquette.
In 1885, brown trout eggs from Loch Leven, Scotland, arrived in-country and were dispersed among the same three hatcheries. Over the next several years, eggs from Germany, Scotland and England were shipped to the U.S. and distributed to Eastern hatcheries.
From 1884-1890 brown trout were raised and released into suitable habitat across the East, and by 1900, 38 states had brown trout stocking programs in place.
While early stocking records are scarce, it is known that the newly operational Western Hatchery, with William Buller superintendent, received the first brown trout eggs shipped to Pennsylvania, when 10,000 eggs from Germany arrived in 1886.
The hatchery would later be renamed Corry Hatchery, and Buller would go on to lobby for the purchase of a railcar to aid in the stocking of fish, his quest reaching fulfillment in 1891.
Given the optimal conditions of water temperature, forage and cover, brown trout can grow to gigantic proportions in some of the larger streams and lakes in which they are stocked.
The world record brown trout is a 40-pound, 4-ounce behemoth caught in the Little Red River in Arkansas by Rip Collins, on May 9, 1992. Pennsylvania’s state record is held by Fazle Buljubasic, of Erie, with a fish of 19 pounds, 10 ounces, pulled from Walnut Creek in Erie County back in 2000.
Considered by most anglers to be the smartest and toughest trout to catch, and with its ability to adapt to the surrounding habitat, the brown trout had filled a void, giving anglers the opportunity to catch fish from the cooler headwaters to the warmer tailwaters of the country’s waterways.
Today, brown trout can be caught in 45 of the 50 states and 34 of those states have reproduction in the wild, including Pennsylvania.
