Range, Activity, and Habitat of Large, Free-Ranging Brown Trout in a Michigan Stream

Abstract
Little is known about behavior patterns and habitat use of large (400+ mm total length) brown trout Salmo trutta. We used radio telemetry to monitor the movements of eight large (437–635 mm), free-ranging brown trout for up to 346 d. Total range of movement upstream and downstream varied from 370 m to 33,420 m. At some time during the year, six of the fish moved out of an area protected with no-kill fishing regulations, even though none of them were tagged and released closer than 2 km from its boundaries. However, four of five fish tracked during the height of the fishing season spent 87% of their time in the protected area. The fish appeared to have separate winter and summer ranges. Five of six fish tracked during autumn–winter moved upstream about 10 km to slower, deeper parts of the river between August and November, and remained there at least through the following April. The part of the river used as autumn–winter range was considered only marginal habitat for brown trout during summer due...

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