Welcome to Manuels River!

Manuels River Natural Heritage Society

The brook trout is a fish species native to Newfoundland and Labrador and can be found in every province in Canada.

Brook trout usually spawn from September to November and prefer spawning areas in cool, clear headwater streams with clean ventilated gravel. The eggs hatch in approximately 100 days and after emergence, the young brook trout prefer the quiet shallow edge areas of streams and small brooks. These areas are often referred to as nurseries. Sadly, many of these small nursery brooks can be destroyed by poor wood harvesting practices.

The brown trout was a fish species introduced to the St. John's region in 1884 from a hatchery in Scotland. In the 1930's the stocking was discontinued, but the brown trout continued to flourish and now encompasses the Avalon Peninsula and has expanded into the central region of Newfoundland.

Brown trout of over 2.5 kilograms have been taken in the ponds around St. John's, and fish of 1 kilogram and above are not uncommon. The provincial brown trout record of 13 kilograms was caught on a small black fly in 1968 and several fish over 9 kilograms have been caught since 1980.

Sticklebacks are small freshwater fish that can be found in almost all bodies of water in Newfoundland and Labrador. There are three different native species of stickleback in the province, the threespine, the fourspine, and the ninespine.

Despite their small size, sticklebacks are voracious predators and will eat any food that is available including worms, small insects, fish eggs and larvae.