Re: searun browns: Mike, I agree that salters should have complete priority. However, there are many coastal streams from CT to MA that are too degraded to support a population of wild salters -- generally from non-point source pollution (houses, roads, shopping centers) that cannot readily be removed. Many of these streams that cannot support brookies can provide good put/grow/catch fishing for searun browns, thereby filling a currently vacant niche. As a kid growing up in CT (1970's) I remember hearing of great searun brown fishing in coastal streams such as the lower Housatonic, Latimers brook and the Mystic river. CT DNR even raised a strain of searun browns from England that had a higher propensity to head for the salt than other strains. I think much of the current disillusionment with searun browns expressed on this board is due to their overall scarcity today. As in salmon restoration, many of the coastal streams have very limited habitat to raise juvenile trout. This
keeps overall populations (and catch rates) of adults quite low. Stocking fingerlings (as they do in Maine) in a few of the larger coastal streams that cannot support brook trout can provide a quality winter fishery at relatively low cost. I don't see how this in anyway takes away from salter restoration if streams that can support brook trout are managed only for this species.
Re: Salmon spawning in the Westfield river: Capn' Crunch, you jostled my memory and I now recall reading about a pair of salmon sighted spawning in that river. I'm not real familiar with this stream, but I recall that it is one of the more promising for successful reintroduction.
Regards,
Eric