Monthly Archives: February 2016

Streambank Restoration on Private Land

Streambank Restoration on Private Land is Putting More Brookies in Your Favorite Fishing Hole

Today’s feature comes to us from the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

By Ariel Wiegard, TRCP
Why CRP works for trout and other freshwater fish
from The Fishing Wire

The national Conservation Reserve Program is 30! The CRP was signed into law by President Reagan as part of the Farm Bill on December 23, 1985, to help agricultural producers to voluntarily conserve soil, water, and wildlife. The TRCP and our partners are celebrating the 30th anniversary of CRP throughout 2016, by highlighting the successes of this popular bipartisan program—regarded by many as the greatest private lands conservation initiative in U.S. history. Here on our blog, we’re devoting a series of posts to the critters that have seen tremendous habitat benefits: upland birds, wild turkeys, waterfowl, and freshwater fish. CRP works for wildlife, and it works for sportsmen.

On this blog, we’ve written a lot about the Conservation Reserve Program and how it benefits wildlife. Because the program incentivizes landowners to use their land for conservation instead of for crops, it makes sense that a lot of the program’s results would visible on the landscape itself, where pheasants, turkeys, ducks, and the other wildlife benefit from upland and wetland cover. But CRP is also working beneath the surface, and improved water quality downstream is giving brookies and other fish a serious boost.

CRP enhances the watershed

In the Chesapeake Bay watershed, anglers are counting on a CRP initiative known as the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), which targets high priority conservation projects on a local, rather than a national, level. Federal resources for CREP are often augmented by the state where the project takes place, meaning more funding is available for landowners to implement conservation.

The various Chesapeake Bay watershed states each have their own version of CREP, but they share a goal of helping to “Save the Bay,” which has been degraded over time by runoff from agriculture, industry, and cities. All throughout the watershed, landowners are voluntarily enrolling thousands of acres along waterways large and small to help make the Bay fishable and swimmable.

When it comes to agricultural land, one of the most important things the CREP can do is keep cattle out of farm streams by paying farmers to build fences. When they wade around and into the water, cows eat the plants that shade banks and provide cover for critters and insects. Plus, cattle hooves quickly erode stream banks, allowing farm nutrients and sediment to flow into the water. Cows also defecate in the water, further affecting the biology of the stream.

Free Flowing Stream

Free Flowing Stream

Image courtesy Scott Robinson/Flickr.

The end result is terrible for native fish like brook trout. Lack of shade can dramatically raise the temperature of the water, which, aside from generally causing fish stress, lowers oxygen levels. Where trout spawn, heavy sediment and cow pies turn gravelly stream beds to muck, making it impossible for fish to lay their eggs. Brookies need consistently cold, clear water with a high level of dissolved oxygen to live, feed, and reproduce, but cow pasture streams tend to be hot, muddy, and suffocating.

That’s why groups like Trout Unlimited have rallied around a special CREP effort in the headwaters of the Potomac River, which flows into Chesapeake Bay. The resources that TU can deliver to farmers through CREP are often greater than what other state or federal conservation programs can offer, which means the infrastructure these projects create, like fences and bridges, is often higher quality and has a long shelf life—often as long as a 10- to 15-year CREP contract. And because CREP offers a rental payment for each acre of land taken out of agricultural production, farmers can afford to commit more acres of streamside land to the program and place cow fences further back from the stream bank—at least 35 feet, but sometimes as much as 300 feet on both sides. Given this room to breathe, floodplains can replenish the natural ecosystem over time.

Aside from fencing for cattle, TU’s dedication to this program has helped farmers to plant mature trees and native grasses along waterways, stabilizing the banks and providing the shade that is absolutely critical to regulating water temperature. Cooler streams are more fishable. And Chesapeake Bay farmers want that as much as anglers do.

Healthy Systems, Not Just Healthy Pools

Many farmers have inherited land from family, and they remember their grandfathers teaching them to fish on a particular bank—they want to be able to teach their grandchildren to do the same, and maybe reclaim a little bit of their own childhood in the process. To date, tens of thousands of acres of stream buffers have been applied throughout the watershed, and brookies are returning as a result. Of course, privately-owned stream banks, no matter how well restored, may not be accessible for most anglers in the region. But every step in conservation is incremental, and the impacts multiply both upstream and downstream.

Brook Trout

Brook Trout

Image courtesy USFWS.

Restored headwaters, even if they are private, serve as spawning grounds and nurseries for the entire river system. Work that has been done over the last twenty years has helped to restore large, healthy populations of native brook trout to the system, greatly reducing the need to stock the streams each spring. These native trout tend to grow larger, live longer, and travel farther than their stocked cousins. In fact, they have been tracked swimming from their West Virginia headwaters to popular public fishing areas like Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and the Potomac River flowing straight through Washington, D.C. Of course, each restored acre will ensure that those downstream waters will be cooler and cleaner, too, thanks to the fast-flowing, gravelly headwaters upstream.

Programs like CREP incentivize healthy systems, not just isolated healthy pools, and brook trout are an indicator of that health. If a headwater stream has brookies, the top-level native aquatic predator, its river banks will also have good habitat for a variety of wildlife and be full of fish food like frogs, mayflies, and crickets. There will be sufficient shade from mature trees, and the stream bed will be gravelly and have places for young fish to hide. The CRP, with its local habitat enhancement program, can’t accomplish this alone, but it is certainly an important tool for helping farmers and landowners to do the right thing for fish and sportsmen.

Ariel Wiegard

Ariel Wiegard joined the TRCP in November 2014. As Director of the Center for Agricultural Lands, she works with TRCP’s partners to enact policies that both balance the needs of production agriculture with the needs of fish and wildlife, and that sustain and enhance recreational access to wildlife habitat locked up in private lands. Outside of the office, you’ll find Ariel and her husband hiking, upland hunting, foraging, and cooking what they find in field and forest. She is usually accompanied by her German Shorthaired Pointer, Argos.

Largemouth at Lake Lanier

Last Sunday 12 members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our February tournament at Lake Lanier. After eight cold hours of casting we brought in 20 keeper bass longer than 14 inches that weighed 46 pounds. There was one five-fish limit and four members didn’t have a keeper.

Chuck Croft won with a nice limit of spots weighing 14.09 pounds and had a spot that weighed 4.46 pounds, a big one! My four weighing 10.95 was second and my 5.34 pound largemouth was big fish. Third was Don Gober with three weighing 6.39 pounds and Travis Weatherly, Chuck’s partner, came in fourth with two weighing 4.46 pounds.

I had heard a lot of big spots were being caught on a Fishhead Spin in the ditches at Lanier. But I have never been able to catch a fish on one even though I have been in the boat with guys catching them on it. So I have no confidence in it.

I started at daylight fishing that bait and others in ditches and on points. After almost three hours with no bites I went into Mud Creek to a deep brush pile I had been shown for a magazine article. It looked like fish were on it 35 feet deep on my depthfinder so I started jigging a spoon, and caught a 2.5 pound spot. That encouraged me!

Three hours and several brush piles later I had not had another bite. I decided to do something different the last two hours by going back in a creek and fishing the way I like to fish.

I was riding one last point looking for brush pile when Chuck pulled up to talk to me. He seemed surprised I had only one fish – he said they were hitting in the backs of the pockets on the Fishhead Spin. Of course I thought he meant in shallow water in the backs of the ditches but found out later he was catching them 30 feet deep!

I started to try that but went back in Flat Creek instead, going to my first idea. I smiled when I stopped on a rocky point and saw the water was a little stained and 52 degrees, several degrees warmer than the lake.

I quickly caught a keeper spot on a DT 6 crankbait, then missed a bite on a jig and pig in a shallow tree top. The next small pocket had a log in the back of it about two feet deep. I could see the whole thing, the water was not that stained. As soon as my jig and pig fell by the end of it the five pounder hit. It was great to catch a largemouth at Lake Lanier

The next small tree top about two feet deep produced another keeper spot, giving me my four. I am very glad I guessed right and went to shallow water and used baits I have confidence in!

Michigan’s Little Bay de Noc

Michigan’s Little Bay de Noc Scores as All-Around Fishery
from The Fishing Wire

Michigan's Little Bay de Noc

Michigan’s Little Bay de Noc

Little Bay de Noc’s fishery is gaining quite a reputation, even on a national scale. While initially thought of as strictly a walleye mecca, it’s hosting of the Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship in September 2014 has caused the conversation to start to change.

According to DNR fisheries research biologist Troy Zorn there are lots of different species to fish for on Little Bay de Noc, and he’s got data to back up that claim.

“We conduct an annual fish community survey,” he explained. “Perch are pretty good, walleye are pretty good, northern pike are pretty good, smallmouth bass are pretty good…you get the idea.”

Most news surrounding Little Bay de Noc has always been about walleye – in fact in 2012 the DNR released a walleye management plan for the water, and in 2013, the department shared information about a long-term study to determine the contributions of hatchery-reared walleyes versus naturally-reproducing fish.

But following those management directions and the stocking evaluation the dialogue has shifted to recognize the fishery’s diversity and what that means for anglers.

“We’re still involved with local clubs to stock walleye, but there’s so much more to Little Bay de Noc than that,” said Zorn.

One of those things – as evidenced by the previously mentioned Bassmaster tournament – is smallmouth bass. According to Darren Kramer, manager of the Northern Lake Michigan Unit for the DNR, gravel shoals off the mouth of various rivers that enter the north end of Little Bay de Noc (Days, Tacoosh, Rapid, Whitefish), allow anglers to concentrate on smallmouth bass, especially early in the fishing season. Meanwhile, deeper 12 to 18-foot flats (near Kipling, Hunter’s and Saunders points) attract fish later in the summer.

Greg Sanville, a DNR creel clerk who surveys Little Bay de Noc, knows first-hand how much bass anglers have enjoyed fishing the area.

“The Ford River area is highly fished and the hottest spot on the bay in spring and early summer,” he said. “Typically this is a spawning area and fish are being caught many miles up the river as well.”

Other opportunities are coming courtesy of stocking as the DNR started stocking muskellunge in Little Bay de Noc with 5,000 fish in October 2014 that average a little over eight inches each. Troy Zorn estimates those fish would be approaching 20 inches now – and well on their way to providing great angling opportunities.

Zorn also shares that, based on recent survey data, northern pike fishing was especially hot in 2015, and yellow perch populations were holding on pretty well also.

“Anglers are also starting to see lake sturgeon that are being stocked by the department,” Zorn said. “There were more than 1,000 lake sturgeon stocked in the Whitefish River, which empties directly into the northern end of Little Bay de Noc, in 2015.”

With all of these opportunities available anglers should consider planning a trip to the U.P. to experience yet another destination that provides access to Michigan’s world-class fisheries.

Find O2 To Find Fish Under the Ice

Aim for the O2 to find fish under the ice

Move regularly, change offerings often: you’ll crack midwinter’s code

By Mitch Eeagan

locate and lands fish in the dead of winter.

locate and lands fish in the dead of winter.

Bro doesn’t save lives or build rockets, but it’s his own brand of deep-thinking that locates and lands fish in the dead of winter. Photo by Bill Lindner

Imagine your home growing darker by the day, to the point you haven’t seen sunlight in over a month. Moreover, your surroundings are growing colder by the day. In fact, it’s so frigid that your muscles have become rigid; to the point it’s all you can do to muster moving a few feet…even to eat. And you’re hungry.

Oxygen is diminishing, too. Some areas are completely void of oxygen, while other pockets have just enough to sustain life. So you migrate to where respiration is still an option.

To say life’s registering a zero on the fun-o-meter is an understatement.

And with that lowly scenario in place, you now know what it’s like to be a fish living in the Ice Belt during the dead of winter. It’s been a long time since light penetrated the surface and temperatures are at the coldest they will be all year. To boot, the lack of vegetation, rain and wave action have oxygen levels dwindling rapidly.

And it’s this combination of factors that make midwinter a difficult time to catch fish. But if you’re game to put in the time, find those oxygenated zones, rewards are paid in bites and fillets.

Heavy breathers

if oxygen levels are critical, crappies, bluegills and perch could be right under the ice

if oxygen levels are critical, crappies, bluegills and perch could be right under the ice

The safest place to avoid suffocation is sometimes right under the ice. In the bowels of winter, if oxygen levels are critical, crappies, bluegills and perch could be hanging right under your feet. Photo by Bill Lindner

Minnesota Ice-Fishing Guide Brian “Bro” Brosdahl is no stranger to fishing shallow, heavily snow-covered lakes. The Grand Rapids, Minnesota resident moves around a lot. And uses specialized electronics to find panfish other anglers often overlook.

“I drill a lot of holes and check every one for any signs of life,” said Bro. “If fish are right under me I’ll see ’em on the ‘Bird, and, because of the ultra-sensitivity settings on the Humminbird ICE HELIX 5, I can put my jig right in their faces.

“But I’ll also lower my Aqua-Vu Micro DT down every hole, as well; especially if I am not marking anything. Fish might be just inches under the ice during the heart of winter, following the oxygen. The camera is able to spy those fish.”

Custom Jigs & Spins' new Rotating Power Minnow (RPM)

Custom Jigs & Spins’ new Rotating Power Minnow (RPM)

Custom Jigs & Spins’ new Rotating Power Minnow (RPM) has been fully weaponized. In the dead of winter, the ballistic-bait is best aimed at active fish, especially ones in well oxygenated waters. Photo by Bill Lindner

Paying close attention to the underwater viewing system’s screen the moment its camera hits the water, Bro starts spinning the lens right the bottom of the hole. Oftentimes, panfish will be literally inches away, curiously inspecting the corded device. Once fish are revealed, Bro removes the camera, strips off a couple feet of line and lowers his jig—tipped with either spikes, wax worms or mousies.

“A lot of anglers have no idea those fish are even there,” Bro added. “These suspended fish get totally overlooked this time of year. It’s cool when you can see your jig and watch a fish swim over and gobble it up.”

If there are a lot of fish just under the surface, Bro will operate out of his Frabill flip-over. The darkness not only allows Bro to see the fish better, but also camouflages the fact he’s above by muting his silhouetted movements.

When oxygen levels are low, and fish lethargic, Bro uses tiny jigs with a slow fall. His preferences are Northland’s new Impulse Helium Mayfly, Stonefly and Waxyfly. Custom Jigs & Spins’ Nuclear Ant, Ratso and Shrimpo are another trio of lifelike lures that sink slowly.

Goin’ with the flow

Walleye Pro Mark Brumbaugh

Walleye Pro Mark Brumbaugh

Walleye Pro Mark Brumbaugh holds a hefty perch taken on a Custom Jigs & Spins’ Lightnin’ VertiGlo Spoon late in the winter season. Photo by the author

When Walleye Tournament Pro Mark Brumbaugh targets pike, walleye and jumbo perch late in the season, he searches out river and creek mouths.

“Anywhere water’s flowing into a lake there will be more dissolved oxygen,” the Brownstown, Ohio, resident said. “And because fish spawn in these same rivers, they’ll be here staging to reproduce, too.”

Because there’s more dissolved oxygen near inlets, fish will be spread throughout the water column. Subsequently, Brumbaugh likes larger, heavier jigs that can move up and down quickly.

Bladebaits are one of Brumbaugh’s go-to lures in stained water as they produce a lot of vibration. Reef Runner’s Cicada is one of his favorites. He also employs Custom Jigs & Spins’ B3 Blade Bait and new Rotating Power Minnow (RPM) swimming bait.

Take a deep breath

Aqua-Vu optics and fishes in real-time with an AV Micro DT in a Micro-Mobile Pro-Vu Case.

Aqua-Vu optics and fishes in real-time with an AV Micro DT in a Micro-Mobile Pro-Vu Case.

When fish are tucked tight to the ice, Bro employs Aqua-Vu optics and fishes in real-time with an AV Micro DT in a Micro-Mobile Pro-Vu Case. Photo by Bill Lindner

As avid anglers will tell you, late winter can be one of the toughest times of the year. But maybe that’s because they weren’t looking in the right places.

Some fish might be right under foot; literally, mere inches under the ice. If this is the case, use light lures with a slow flutter and fall. In waterways with inlets, search out the entire water column with lures that sink fast so you can get the lure to fish before they turn tail.

Mitch Eeagan is a writer and photographer who not only lives, but survives off the land and water in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Best Beer Battered Fish Recipe Ever

Beer battered fish recipe

Ingredients
Fish filets – I like bass
Corn meal – gotta be White Lily!
oil
Beer – your favorite! Just have at least a case for this complicated recipe

Make sure beer is cold by drinking one. Then put fish filets in a big bowl and drink another beer to insure it is still cold.

Put some oil in a pan and turn it on not too hot

Pour cornmeal over fish filets – don’t really matter how much. Drink another beer to insure quality is not deteriorating!

Pour half or less of a beer into bowl, drink the rset. Sturr the cornmeal and vbeer and fishes around and around.

Open a frash rebar and varry carefullily drop on drop of it into oil. If it explodes it is too hot so turn it down while drinking the reset of the reber.

While the erl cools, drink another bar and sturr the fish again to make suer the crnmoal is all over it.

Look at the arl – is it smaking? If it is it probably amks you swat a smoke, so get one shile drnking another reeeber.

Go to fridgedator, get a beer, rutn off the fir on the awl and go watch tv. You weren’t hungry anyway

Ice Fishing Safety

Safety First on the Ice
Ice fishing safety is critical

Be Safe On the Ice

Be Safe On the Ice

Guide-tested tips for fishing smart and staying safe
from The Fishing Wire

Thanks to an extended stretch of unusually mild weather, anxious anglers across the Ice Belt are starting to venture out on winter’s magic carpet in force.

But even at this late date, ice conditions are far from perfect. In some areas, warm weather is weakening the fledgling icepack, while in others, fresh snow is cloaking it with an insulating blanket that puts the brakes on the formation of new ice.

“Safety is always a concern when ice fishing, but it’s more important now than ever,” reports veteran ice fishing guide Bernie Keefe of Granby, Colorado.

Keefe is quick to point out that weather changes can wreak havoc on a lake’s icy coating, which otherwise is some of winter’s strongest ice. “You can throw the ice thickness charts for new ice out the window once you get a prolonged thaw, rain or even thick, wet snow,” he says.

Indeed, above-freezing temperatures can greatly reduce the ice’s strength-to-thickness ratio. For example, while four inches of fresh, clear ice may support a person on foot, a foot or more of rotting, partially thawed ice may not.

That’s not to say all ice is unsafe right now. Keefe is out and about chasing lakers and other salmonids on his high-country home waters, and similar opportunities exist across the north. But he strongly advises taking ample precautions to help prevent accidental dunkings and avert tragedy if someone does fall through.

“Your first step in ice safety should be researching the conditions with local guides, bait shops and other reliable sources of information,” he says. “Facebook is a helpful tool, too, as are online forums.”

While such homework can steer you toward lakes with traversable ice, Keefe cautions that it’s just a starting point. “A smart plan of attack and the right safety gear are still critical,” he says.

For starters, Keefe never fishes alone on first ice. And he always lets someone back on shore know where he’s headed and when he plans to return.

A variety of safety gear including a spud bar, ice cleats, Nebulus floatation system and emergency rescue line can help avoid tragedy on ice.

He also arms himself with a variety of life-saving devices that starts with his wardrobe. “I always wear a Clam IceArmor LIFT Suit,” he says, explaining that the built-in Space Age lining boosts buoyancy without adding bulkiness. “You don’t even know you’re wearing a buoyant suit,” he adds.

Along with the suit, he slips heavy-duty yet lightweight Kahtoola ice cleats over his boots to assure traction on the treacherously slippery surface. “Cleats are a must, especially on slick new ice, or when you splash water onto the ice when drilling or landing fish,” he notes.

Keefe also slips the nylon tether linking a pair of Clam Floating Ice Picks around his neck, and stashes one of the company’s 50-foot Emergency Throw Rope rescue lines in his sled.

“The rescue line is easy to throw to someone in trouble,” he says. “I also pull my sled with a 50-foot rope, which provides added insurance. When walking out on the ice, I hold the line and my fishing partner stays next to the rope a safe distance away from me, so if either one of us goes in, the other one can haul him out.”

Unloaded, the sled also serves as a handy rescue device in its own right. “Just dump everything out and slide it over to a person who’s fallen through,” he adds.

As added insurance, Keefe also carries a Nebulus Emergency Flotation Device, which when inflated can support the weight of three adults plus a submerged snowmobile or ATV.

By doing his homework and gearing up with the right safety equipment, Keefe is safely enjoying the early winter bite, and so can you, provided you take similar precautions to ensure your well being on the ice as the unusual winter of 2015-’16 gets rolling.

Check out this video for more ice safety tips from Bernie.

CONTACT INFORMATION
For more information or to book a trip with Keefe, visit: www.fishingwithbernie.com
or call (970) 531-2318.

Gulf Red Snapper

Gulf Red Snapper Fishery Management

Red Snapper

Red Snapper

Editor’s Note: The following is an opinion piece by Louisiana Congressman Garrett Graves in response to a story that ran across the Gulf Coast recently (http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/01/kingpins_of_the_gulf_make_mill.html) . As you’ll read, Congressman Graves is among those quite unhappy with the way the Gulf of Mexico’s plentiful red snapper fishery is being managed.
from The Fishing Wire

How would you feel if the federal government took all of the gold in Fort Knox and gave it to a few dozen unelected, unaccountable people to decide how to manage it behind closed doors? How would you feel if that same small group unsurprisingly decided to split the country’s gold among themselves – each becoming multi-millionaires? If our government gave away the public’s property for free and allowed millionaires to be born overnight by diverting that public’s property to themselves, I’d be pretty upset – and I am.

As Ben Raines’ weekend article in the Times Picayune and AL.com illuminated, the federal government has hand-picked dozens of multi-millionaire “Sea Lords” by allowing them to control the red snapper fishery in the Gulf of Mexico. While these select few “Sea Lords” are making millions from our fish, the season for recreational anglers – who used to be able to fish for red snapper all year long – has been absurdly diminished. In 2015, the recreational red snapper season was ten days.

The agency charged with managing our national fishery, the National Marine Fisheries Service, conducted a study on the health of red snapper fish stocks in the Gulf of Mexico. You’ll be shocked to learn that federal government’s methodology and results were grossly inadequate. Their analysis failed to include reef areas – the actual habitat of red snapper, a reef fish. Think about that. It’s like looking for polar bears in Louisiana, finding none, and declaring the population to be at risk of extinction.

Let me be clear, the sustainability of our fisheries is paramount. It is critical that we employ the best science to responsibly manage them and to support their long-term viability. It’s no secret that Louisiana is home to some of the nation’s top restaurants that rely on the supply of fresh, wild seafood to meet demand. Some argue that expanding recreational access would lead to overfishing and threaten commercial interests. This mentality has bred the current system of a government sanctioned oligarchy that monopolizes a public resource. And it has punished tens of thousands of families across the Gulf Coast that enjoy fishing in Sportsman’s Paradise. Luckily, there is another way.

In July of last year, I introduced HR 3094, the Gulf States Red Snapper Management Authority Act in the US House of Representatives. The bill simply gives the five Gulf States’ Wildlife Departments the authority to manage the red snapper that live offshore their coast. This approach favors local control and would transfer management decisions to the professionals who are closest to the fishery. In Louisiana for example, our Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has demonstrated a commitment to using the best science to sustainability manage our fisheries through efforts like the agency’s LA Creel program, which helps to provide an accurate count of red snapper fish stocks in our coastal waters. Today, HR 3094 has nearly 30 bipartisan sponsors from across the nation.

The fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico are public property and should be enjoyed by all – not managed like a long-abandoned “sharecropper” model that enriches a select few. Sometimes all it takes is a little sunshine on bad policy to fix things. To quote Herbert Hoover, “all men are equal before fish.” Let’s enact HR 3094 so we can ALL enjoy the Gulf’s bounty.

– Garret Graves, Member of Congress

Small Game Hunting

If you like deer hunting, the bad news is, “deer season is over.” If you like small game hunting, the good news is, “deer season is over.” For another month those of us that like to hunt squirrels, rabbits, quail and other game have the woods and fields to ourselves.

There is little danger from a deer hunter shooting someone in the woods hunting squirrels, but you still worry a little, even if you are wearing fluorescent orange. Even when on my own land I wear an orange vest when walking in the woods during deer season. Nobody else is supposed to be out there, and I try to be safe, but still feel a little uneasy.

During February there is little worry anyone will be in the woods deer hunting and you can enjoy trying to outwit a tree rat as it goes around a tree trunk to hide from you. With the leaves off the trees you can see them moving a long way off and stalk up to them. But the leaves off the trees also means they can see you coming so you have to be even stealthier.

Hunting rabbits without dogs is difficult but can be done. It is easier to find where they are feeding now that most plants are dead and kicking a brush pile near a green field might give you a shot. Quail hunting it just about useless without a dog, though.

Unfortunately, coyotes, fire ants and changing land use means rabbits and quail are much more rare than when I was growing up. So take up coyote hunting. There is no season on them and this time of year is tough on them, too, so they are more likely to come to a wounded rabbit call.

I have had the chance to shoot a coyote from my deer stand a few times but it is hard for me to pull the trigger, they just look too much like my pet dogs.
But if you concentrate on the damage they do to native wildlife, and the fact they are not native and should not live around here, it is easier.

Growing up I hunted squirrels as fanatically as I bass fish now. I often went in the mornings before school and almost every afternoon after school. And every Saturday in season I was in the woods at daylight and stayed till dark. Back then you could not hunt on Sunday so that was my only day off.

Squirrel hunting is a great way to train a kid on safe gun handling in the woods and how to stay quiet and learn the ways of nature. It is also a good way to teach them to use what they shoot since there are many ways to cook tree rats. If you have a kid that wants to hunt, take them squirrel hunting. They will be a better deer hunter in the future if you do.

Atlantic Salmon

Atlantic Salmon: A Species in Need of a Spotlight

NOAA Fisheries
from The Fishing Wire

Atlantic Salmon

Atlantic Salmon

“The coincidence, at least, in the erection of the dams, and the enormous diminution in the number of the Alewives, and the decadence of the inshore cod fishery, is certainly very remarkable. It is probable, also, that the mackerel fisheries have suffered in the same way, as these fish find in the young Menhaden and Alewives an attractive bait. The same remarks as to the agency of the Alewives in attracting the deep-sea fishes to the shores and especially near the mouths of rivers, apply in a proportional degree to the Shad and salmon.”

-Marshall McDonald, 1884.

Atlantic salmon are an iconic New England species. In addition to the ecosystem role these fish play, they have been an important indicator of economic health in our region. Atlantic salmon once supported lucrative commercial and recreational fisheries, as well as the small bait shops, gear stores, and amenities for fishermen that contributed to the economy. Before this, Atlantic salmon were important to Native American tribes for historical and cultural reasons. Tribes relied on watersheds and their natural abundance of sea-run fish, including Atlantic salmon, for physical and spiritual sustenance.

In the 1900s Atlantic salmon from Maine were so highly valued that for more than 80 years, the first one caught in the Penobscot River each spring was presented to the U.S. President. The last Presidential salmon was caught in May 1992 by Claude Westfall, who presented a 9.5 pound Atlantic salmon to President George H.W. Bush. Westfall’s was the last presidential salmon because there are now too few adult salmon to sacrifice one even for the President.

Because of significant declines in returning Atlantic salmon, the Atlantic salmon commercial fishery closed in 1948, and the recreational fishery closed in all Maine waters in 2008. In 2000, NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed Gulf of Maine Atlantic salmon as “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act. The fish, which were historically native to almost every river north of the Hudson, had only remnant wild populations in 11 rivers, all of them in Maine. In the 15 years since their 2000 listing, Gulf of Maine Atlantic salmon have not shown signs of improvement.

To draw attention to this iconic species and our plan for saving it from extinction, NOAA Fisheries recently launched the “Species in the Spotlight—Survive to Thrive” initiative. Atlantic salmon are one of the eight highly at-risk species in the nation that we have identified as needing special attention. These endangered species have declining populations, but also have a high probability of survival if we can marshal the resources to turn their trajectories around.

As part of the Species in the Spotlight initiative, we developed a five-year roadmap to aid the recovery of Atlantic salmon. The plan, which will be released in early 2016, outlines specific actions to save this species and will involve our regional partners in conservation. The primary focus of the plan is to restore access and quality to river habitat in Maine and work to better understand and address threats in the marine environment.

SALMON IN RIVERS ARE LIKE CANARIES IN A COAL MINE

Atlantic Salmon at dam

Atlantic Salmon at dam


Atlantic salmon are anadromous fish which means they spend a portion of their lives in freshwater and a portion in the ocean. Anadromous fish are indicators that the links between freshwater, estuarine, and marine ecosystems are clean and well-connected. The connections within the ecosystem are so strong that many of the factors that are impacting salmon’s survival are also affecting other species such as American shad, alewives and even some marine fish stocks such as Atlantic cod. Healthy anadromous fish populations support important marine food webs, providing a forage base for commercially important species like striped bass, cod, and haddock. When river systems are blocked or are too polluted to support these fish populations, the effects are felt throughout the entire ecosystem. The return of Atlantic salmon, along with other anadromous fish, would indicate the return of a healthy and connected system.

FROM RIVER TO SEA: TOO MANY DAMS

“The principal decline in the New England salmon fishery considerably antedated 1880, however, and was coincident with the erection of dams or other barriers to the passage of fish” – C. Atkins (1894).

One complicating factor for Atlantic salmon is that they are anadromous fish. When they return from the seas between Northeastern Canada and Greenland to the rivers to spawn, hundreds of dams block or impair their ability to reach the critical freshwater habitats that are still capable of supporting spawning. As noted in the quote above, this problem was created over many, many years and so, it will take time to restore connectivity for this species.

Listing Atlantic salmon as endangered in 2000, and expanding the listing to include large rivers like the Penobscot and Kennebec in 2009, helped spur 35 fishway constructions and dam removal projects in Maine, including the removal of two major hydroelectic dams (Great Works and Veazie) as part of the Penobscot River Restoration Project. Since the Penobscot River is home to roughly 75 percent of the adult Atlantic salmon returns in the U.S., restoring access to this river is particularly important. In the Penobscot River basin alone, there are still more than 130 dams that block or impede access to approximately 90 percent of salmon’s historic spawning and nursery habitat. There is still much work to be done.

REMOVALS LEAD TO RETURNS

Dam removals can bring back fish to habitat that was previously inaccessible. After the removals of the Fort Halifax Dam (2008) and the Edwards Dam (1999) on the Kennebec River, alewife and blueback herring (collectively called river herring) returns increased from less than 100,000 in 2006 to more than 2,150,000 in 2015. Similarly, on the Penobscot River, after the Great Works (2012) and Veazie (2013) Dam removals, along with improved passage at other upstream dams, documented returns of river herring increased from 2,000 in 2011 to an estimated 585,000 in 2015. Roughly 1,800 American shad passed the Milford Dam (now the first dam on the Penobscot River) for the first time in 100 years. Additionally, in Fall 2015, researchers found three endangered shortnose sturgeon in habitat upstream of the Veazie Dam remnants for the first time in a century. In 2015, biologists counted 731 Atlantic salmon at the Milford fish lift. (See map of Penobscot River Restoration Project).

STEPS TO RECOVERY

Our five-year action plan outlines specific actions to stop the decline of this species and put it on a path towards recovery, including restoration of the ecological connections between the freshwater and marine environment and restoration of habitat quality. Among the pieces of the plan are to: review hydroelectric power plant dams up for licensing to ensure that they have effective fish passage; encourage removal of dams and other barriers to fish passage where possible; work with other countries to limit Atlantic salmon catch in the ocean; and, continue research and monitoring of Atlantic salmon.

You can help by encouraging or participating in programs to conserve and restore land and water resources that benefit migratory fish and promote abundant, suitable and accessible habitats for Atlantic salmon. This can include working with communities to remove or provide passage around blockages such as round culverts or dams that block or impair movement of Atlantic salmon, maintaining forested riparian areas around rivers and streams, and implementing land use practices that protect streams from pollution and excessive erosion.

For more information on this initiative and what you can do to help Atlantic salmon, please contact Kim Damon-Randall, Assistant Regional Administrator for Protected Resources at Kimberly.Damon-Randall@noaa.gov.

Lake Sinclair Bass

What a difference a week makes! After my best catch ever at Sinclair two weeks ago I could not wait to go to the Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament there last Sunday. And in it, after eight hours of casting, I had exactly one bite and caught one Lake Sinclair bass!

In our tournament ten members and two youth fished from 8:00 AM till 4:00 PM on a day that started very cold but warmed up a lot. We landed 11 keepers weighing about 25 pounds. There were no limits and six fishermen didn’t land a keeper.

Sam Smith won with four bass weighing 9.87 pounds and Niles Murray came in second with two at 5.54 pounds and his 4.34 pound largemouth won big fish, beating Sam’s 4.33 pounder by one one-hundredth of a pound! Robert Proctor had one keeper weighing 3.21 pounds for third, Raymond English finished fourth with two t 2.71 pounds, my 2.15 pounder was fifth and Russell Prevatt round out the folks catching fish with one at 1.68 pounds for sixth.

Sam said he caught his fish on a spinnerbait fished beside dock post first thing that morning. Robert said he caught his on a jig head worm. Raymond and Niles fished together and said they caught their fish on Carolina rigs.

I had my good catch the weekend before on a Rapala DT 6 crawfish colored crankbait and I made hundreds of casts with it, but got only one bite. Garrett Macyszyn fished with me on the youth side and cast a variety of baits but I just could not get us where the fish were feeding.

At Dennis Station at daylight the water was in the low 40s, about ten degrees cooler than the week before. But down the lake I saw water as warm as 52 degrees, only a few degrees cooler. But the sun was bright after the cold front that came through here after the snow, and I think bluebird skies and high pressure always hurts the fishing. Bass just don’t like those conditions and don’t feed much.

The water was still very muddy but that had not stopped the bass from feeding. The day before we fished, on Saturday, I heard there was a 12 team tournament in the high winds. Only five of the teams caught fish but two of them had limits, and there were three bass weighing over six pounds each weighed in.

As the water starts warming the end of February Sinclair should produce some outstanding catches since there seems to be a lot of four to six pound bass there this year.