Phillip W. Bettoli, Tennessee Cooperative Fishery Research Unit, Tennessee Technological University, Box 5114, Cookeville, TN 38505

Fishing pressure and rates of return of stocked trout were estimated using a roving creel survey on a 20-km reach of the Clinch River. Survival, growth, and standing crop of overwintering trout were estimated by stocking cohorts of microtagged trout and electrofishing fixed transects. Annual fishing pressure totaled 98,957 h and pressure during each two-week period was inversely related to turbine discharges (r = 0.76; P = 0.01). Rates of return for cohorts of catchable (>200 mm total length, TL) rainbow trout Oncorhyncus mykiss ranged from 1% to 45%. Microtagged rainbow trout stocked as fingerlings grew 0.7 mm and 1.0 g/day; brown trout Salmo trutta fingerlings grew 0.4 mm and 0.6 g/day. Annual survival rates for fingerling brown trout and rainbow trout were excellent (52% and 26%, respectively) compared to catchable rainbow trout (2%-6% survival). Change-in-ratio estimates of the number of trout >200 mm TL that overwintered in 1996-1997 were 44,355 (rainbows) and 11,404 (browns) and total standing crop was estimated at 112 kg/hectare. Natural mortality was more important than fishing mortality in regulating the abundance of most cohorts of catchable rainbow trout stocked in 1996, despite the fact that survival varied inversely with fishing pressure.