On the spawning grounds

I finished up the salmon season this year on Middle and Margaree Rivers in Cape Breton.

With all the rain we received the water was very high, and the salmon were scarce, but I had a great time anyway.

Fishing this time of year is a treat for all the senses. From wading in the river, where you can feel the power of the water against your legs, and the smell of the decaying vegetation on the river bank, to the hardwoods which are at the peak of their fall colours, it is a great time to be outdoors.

As I walked into a pool on Middle River I had to cross a small brook and saw a nice brook trout making its way upstream. I admired it for a moment. It was there, in a tiny brook you could jump across, driven by the urge to reproduce. The fish would soon pair up, male and female, and begin spawning.

Brook trout prefer to spawn in the riffle areas of pools where water running through the gravel will supply oxygen to the developing eggs. Before spawning, the female trout digs a shallow hole, called a redd, in the gravel by rapidly moving her tail. When the redd is completed the male moves beside her and, as she expels eggs into the depression in the gravel, the male releases a cloud of sperm into the water.

Spawning completed, the female covers the eggs by once more rapidly moving her tail and scattering gravel over the eggs. Usually she will not spawn all of her eggs at one time but spreads spawning over several days, digging a new redd each time.

Brook trout, along with Atlantic salmon and brown trout, generally spawn in late October and early November. Most rainbow trout also spawn this time of year but there are some populations which spawn in March.

The age when trout and salmon become sexually mature varies from species to species. Rainbow trout may become mature at one year of age and brown trout mature in the second or third year while brook trout are ready to spawn in one or two years. Since they migrate to sea for one or two years, Atlantic salmon females spawn for the first time at three or four years of age. Male trout and salmon often mature a year earlier than females.

The number of eggs produced by each female is generally dependent on body size with a 10-pound Atlantic salmon producing approximately 5,000 eggs. In contrast, a two-pound brook trout will spawn up to 2,000 eggs but they are much smaller in size. Declining daylight, along with dropping water temperature, triggers the onset of sexual maturity and the urge to spawn. It is at this time of year that, in my opinion, the male brook trout becomes our most beautiful trout. Their sides become dark red and they also develop a hook on their lower jaw called a kype.

While in the stream bed, the eggs can be damaged by mud and silt which may suffocate them and, if the water level is too low, they can freeze. If they aren’t damaged, the eggs will develop over the winter and hatch as stream temperatures rise in the spring. If you walk carefully along the edge of most brooks this time of year you may be able to see spawning brook trout, and possibly salmon in many pools.