BIOLOGIST REPORT
Monocacy Creek
Monocacy Creek, between Illicks Mill dam and the dam upstream of Belle Vista Drive in Bethlehem, Northampton County, was surveyed by Coimmission staff from July 26-27, 2000 to evaluate this fishery under Trophy Trout regulations. One historical site, beginning at Macada Road and extending approximately 480 yards upstream, is electrofished annually to document the fishery under a time-series basis. Brown trout abundance estimates since 1997 are summarized below.
| Brown Trout | ||||||||
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000 |
|||||
| Size | # per hectare | kilograms per hectare | # per hectare | kilograms per hectare | # per hectare | kilograms per hectare | # per hectare | kilograms per hectare |
| 2" | 54 | 0.16 | 47 | 0.14 | 113 | 0.30 | 51 | 0.10 |
| 3" | 537 | 3.23 | 721 | 4.32 | 712 | 2.78 | 1333 | 8.00 |
| 4" | 36 | 0.36 | 31 | 0.31 | 22 | 0.25 | 110 | 0.99 |
| 5" | 45 | 2.12 | 2 | 0.09 | 7 | 0.19 | ||
| 6" | 194 | 14.56 | 114 | 5.38 | 112 | 5.84 | 80 | 4.00 |
| 7" | 237 | 22.56 | 342 | 25.63 | 336 | 25.51 | 149 | 10.88 |
| 8" | 83 | 11.40 | 176 | 16.71 | 169 | 16.51 | 94 | 8.65 |
| 9" | 137 | 27.87 | 66 | 8.99 | 121 | 16.63 | 76 | 11.40 |
| 10" | 87 | 20.25 | 189 | 35.98 | 155 | 26.41 | 98 | 18.82 |
| 11" | 48 | 14.16 | 131 | 30.43 | 77 | 18.06 | 71 | 15.69 |
| 12" | 22 | 8.17 | 58 | 17.10 | 58 | 16.37 | 12 | 3.70 |
| 13" | 11 | 5.16 | 28 | 10.69 | 9 | 3.45 | 12 | 4.38 |
| 14" | 4 | 2.61 | 9 | 4.42 | 4 | 2.09 | ||
| 15" | 2 | 1.40 | 4 | 2.14 | ||||
| 16" | 2 | 1.86 | 4 | 3.18 | ||||
| 17" | ||||||||
| 18" | ||||||||
| 19" | ||||||||
| 20" | 2 | 1.25 | ||||||
| 2 | 2.80 | |||||||
| Totals | 1495 | 132.61 | 1918 | 163.45 | 1901 | 137.58 | 2094 | 92.80 |
Monocacy Creek continues to support an excellent wild brown trout population. Reduced biomass in 2000 may be attributed to low water conditions from the summer and fall of 1999. Good numbers of young-of-year size trout were found which is a good indication that this fishery should provide excellent angling opportunities for the future.
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