The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission will not stock fingerling brown trout in the Little Juniata River this year, because something has killed most of the stream's aquatic insects. Without the insects, the fish would not have enough to eat, Commission biologists say. The Little Juniata has a brown-trout population that is maintained through a fingerling stocking program.
Reports indicate that the section of stream from Tyrone downstream for several miles has few fish.
A cause for the situation has not been identified. In May of this year Commission biologists found few brown trout in an area that normally held good numbers of fish. This year biologists with electrofishing equipment had trouble finding 10 fish in 30 meters, according to Larry Jackson, a Commission area fisheries manager. There was no evident fish kill. Commission biologists believe the fish may have migrated downstream or into tributaries as a result of the lack of food.