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[Descriptions
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in the Assabet Watershed
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Brown trout
Salmo trutta
Photo credit: Bill Byrne, MA
Division of Fisheries and Wildlife
Photo credit: Organization for
the Assabet River
Habitat requirements and life history:
The brown trout, native to Europe, northern Africa and western
Asia, was introduced to Massachusetts in the late 1880s. Brown
trout inhabit rivers, lakes and reservoirs and tolerates warmer
and siltier water than other trouts. It is widely stocked
and self-sustaining populations have been established in many
of the same waters as brook trout. As with brook trout, wild
browns in headwater streams average only 5-6 inches, whereas
stocked fish are usually twice as large. It can survive where
brook and rainbow trouts cannot. The brown trout often feed
at night on insects, other arthropods, frogs and fishes. In
the fall, brown trout move upstream to spawn. The female excavates
a nest (redd) in gravel on the stream bottom, where the eggs
are laid and fertilized. The embryos develop over the winter
under a layer of gravel. The fry hatch in the spring. (Sources:
Freshwater Fishes of the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland,
& Delaware, Massachusetts Wildlife, No. 2, 2000, Special Fishing
Issue and AMC Guide to Freshwater Fishing in New England)
Total length: 8
- 10 inches (up to 15 inches)
Pollution tolerance (US EPA): Intolerant
Classification:
Fluvial specialist
Number of fish found during 1954 &
2001 Fish Surveys*:
| Location |
No. of Fish 1954 |
No. of Fish 2001 |
| Assabet River |
12 |
20 |
| Danforth Brook |
|
3 |
| Great Brook |
|
2 |
| Guggins Brook |
|
1 |
| Hog Brook |
|
2 |
| Nashoba Brook |
26 |
|
| North Brook |
3 |
2 |
| Spencer Brook |
1 |
|
| Total |
42 |
30 |
*Sources:
Schlotterbeck, L.C. and W.A. Tompkins, 1954. "A
Fisheries Investigation of the Merrimack and Ipswich River Drainages."
Bureau of Wildlife Research and Management, Massachusetts Division
of Fisheries and Game.
DFW, 2001. Assabet Watershed Fish Survey. MA Department of
Fisheries and Wildlife, Westborough, MA.
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