Here we will highlight and discuss products and services strictly made in America. Companies working hard to keep jobs here, making the highest quality goods available. Reasons why and the benefits to us all, to buy American made products.
The Sprocket Fish Spawning Rocket is the only, multi-species, artificial spawning structure, designed exclusively for nest protection and fry survival.
Self weighted and fully assembled, this 14 pound spawning rocket, can be installed directly from the box into shallow spawning water.
Three individual compartments provide fish a choice to bed in any direction with three sided protection, each measuring approx. 15″x72″ with an overall diameter of over seven feet!. More habitat models at fishiding.com
Silt and sedimentation are clogging our nation’s waterways and reservoirs. Years of fluctuating water levels, erosion, development, nutrient loading and decomposition of natural materials, have put these waters in dire need of improvements. Fish habitat, which includes habitat for countless other equally important aquatic organisms, lacks to the degree on many U.S, waters, that no amount of fish stocking can improve the fishery. Without adequate habitat, the fish simply cannot survive.
Sedimentation fills mouths of bays
I met Shane Titus, Seneca Nation of Indians Fishery manager over three years ago as we began to talk about fish stocking, fluctuating water levels and ways of improving overall fish habitat on the Allegany River/Reservoir. Shane contacted me directly to understand more about our artificial habitat products and working together with ways to improve his local conditions. Here is a man with a unique perspective on Tribal rights as well as American U.S./State policies. Proudly having an Indian mother and Italian father, his gentle blend of both “sides”, make it evident that he is a special and highly qualified man for this job. His utmost concern is for the land, waters and the creatures within, helping sustain this natural environment, which breathtakingly surrounds himself and his people in western New York.
Allegany River flowing into the Allegany Reservoir through western New York’s Seneca Nation of Indians Reservation land.
Shane understands the benefits of adding habitat. He has installed habitat structures in the reservoir for many years and has a quite impressive reputation as a fisherman. “Because the reservoir is so lacking of good habitat, almost anything you add will usually hold some fish.” Prime habitat for all animals, including fish, focuses around diversity. All of the same is rarely best, no different than we humans see things. A less stressful environment grows healthy beings and fish health also is directly related to the stress they encounter surviving from fry through adulthood.
Silt clogs Allegany Reservoir/ river shallows
To best understand a healthy fish habitat, imagine a large tract of mature hardwood forest, noticing the plants from tiny grasses and ferns, up to shrubs, bushes and trees. Countless shapes, textures, densities and elevations provide unlimited choices of surroundings, depending on creatures needs. Tiny bugs and insects, utilize the fine forest floor, hiding and grazing on the abundant food available. Birds eat berries and some of those bugs, from the lower branches of bushes and undergrowth, while they defensively watch for danger from above or below. Deer, rabbit, and other small game enjoy the shade from the undergrowth as they hunt or rest. The bigger the tract of forest, the more variety and abundance animals it can/will sustain. Fish habitat is no different than a mature and healthy forest, requiring infinite variety to support diversity and abundance.
Unlimited detail, textures, shapes and sizes of habitat within a forest setting.
Increasing fish habitat groupings on a large scale creates unique areas and corridors for fish to flourish and increase in numbers, not simply attracting a few fish to the area for potential fisherman/predator fish to enjoy. The surface area of the habitat grows the food (periphyton) with more area being best and essential to a healthy eco-system. Tight, dense shaded areas are essential for small fish to hide and graze within the protection the substrate offers. Dense, ultra-fine cover at the water’s edge restores the once healthy mass of roots and aquatic plants, grasses and invertebrates that young fish need. Natural weed beds and large rocks once provided this surface area for periphyton and algae to grow, but now they have been lost to sedimentation.
Fish congregate around artificial habitat with food source and cover.
Titus was instrumental in obtaining a grant to help construct a new fish hatchery on the Reservation a few years back, which is now pumping out walleye and smallmouth fry annually for the Allegany.
Seneca Nation Hatchery
His next goal was to get the financial help needed to begin to reclaim areas of the Allegany Reservoir that had been degraded. “We have almost no shallow cover left for the fry, due to erosion and siltation. Bays that lock in fish as they lower the water levels, killing everything left. We need to scoop that stuff out so they can navigate in and out like they used to be able to.”
Siltation causing trapped fish resulting in massive fish kills.
As Shane continued to follow up on applications for various grant opportunities, our plans to work together to improve conditions on the Reservoir within the Reservation began to take shape. In late summer of 2014, notification was received of a grant award to the SNI from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation being part of the Hurricane Sandy Coastal Resiliency grant funding. I got the call from Shane that his application was approved and how he was not only grateful, but quite humbled. “Our people could never have been able to afford and accomplish so much, so quickly, on a scale of this size. This will make a huge, positive impact on the fishery across miles.”
Siltation creating barren underwater landscape.
Plans were made to drive the 600 miles out to review the site, along with numerous models of our Fishiding artificial habitat. Decisions were to be made as to which artificial habitat models would be best, where the grouping would go and the overall quantities involved.
Fishiding.com produces artificial fish habitat from reclaimed PVC vinyl siding contained in a weighted base. Models from 18” tall up to 15 feet create unlimited variety, textures and densities of cover, creating a truly natural underwater landscape for aquatic life to thrive within. Over 2300 units consisting of five different models were selected totaling over 64,000 sq. ft. of surface area, ranging from 48”x84” to 18”x30” in size.
Means being used to document the habitats ability to provide sustainable habitat and deter erosion are by way of sonar equipment, water quality testing, underwater cameras and scuba certified staff. We (SNIFWD, USACE, USFS, and PAFBC) will be looking for signs of life such as invertebrates, algae growth, insect life, eggs of all life (insects, fish, amphibians, etc.) and any species of fish utilizing the habitat for shelter and food for research purposes and decision making for future habitat projects.
Fishiding habitat holding eggs
“It’s a no brainer as I see it,” said Titus. “Using this safe, durable, long-lasting material for fish habitat instead of buried in landfills, is a win for the people, fish and the environment. We can grow that stuff right into the shoreline, creating fry habitat and stabilizing the bank at the same time. We can plant them like balled bushes and watch them grow with life each year.”
Areas to be included in the Allegany Reservoir Restoration and Resiliency Project
I was welcomed by Shane and the team of conservation officers at the Fish and Wildlife Department who proudly work to sustain this pristine land they call home. A first-hand view of the Reservoir in November, Shane showed me the areas that we had talked about, in dire need of restoration.
We walked the river edge, casting jigs for some feisty walleye and smallmouth, catching a few and releasing them back to swim away. “ I keep a couple here and there, but they still feel like my babies” Shane explained, after raising and releasing hundreds of thousands of fry from the SNI Hatchery facility he operates on the Reservation, releasing them into the Reservoir. He showed me areas devoid of cover, after erosion and low water had worn away the plants, depositing sediment where rock/rubble once exposed. Huge bays landlocked, explaining how many fish die each year, being stuck with no way out as water levels drop, despite volunteers and staff netting and saving thousands of fish each season. Water marks so high, trees and plants were washed away, only to leave the water’s edge barren for fish to contend with in the spring as they attempt to successfully spawn.
Low water exposes a barren litoral zone along the Allegany River/Reservoir.
Needless to say, excitement grew with the dream of being able to work along the river on a very large scale. To install thousands of individual habitat units creating tens of thousands of square feet of surface area would boost the fishery measurably. Concentrating on shoreline stabilization and fry recruitment, all targeting depths from 6 feet of water and under for the little fish, bugs and plant growth. Another additional benefit of large groupings of habitat is the excrement discarded by the fish and creatures that inhabit it fertilizing plant growth. Clearly aquatic growth, grass and weeds take root in the surrounding lake floor, being fertilized by the fish from above. Another win-win for the fish and the environment.
Bass on fishiding habitat
Project Abstract
The goal of this funding through established partnerships with the PAFBC, USFS, ACE will be to restore the habitat within the reservoir and create an enhanced water system that can tolerate high water events with minimal loss to wildlife and habitat.
The Seneca Nation of Indians has a long history of struggling to maintain its land base and yet there remains a unique and harmonious relationship between indigenous people and the concept of environmental sustainability. The Seneca people believe fully in the tenet of their forefathers, that everyone must plan for the future generations, up to and beyond the seventh generation. The current conditions that exist within the Allegany Reservoir create an intolerable struggle within the people as they are forced each year after year to witness thousands of fish dying, species disappearing or become species of concerns, a vital wildlife habitat lost. Over the past 60 years this reservoir has had numerous high water systems into the reservoir, suffocating aquatic species. Each event results in species lost, habitat lost, channels filled and community flooding.
The people of the Seneca Nation live and work on the same lands today that the Seneca people have inhabited for over 1000 years. The Seneca Nation holds title to five distinct but non-contiguous territories located in western New York, an area of the state where communities are primarily rural in geographic location. The territories are unique in its economic, social and environmental profile. With 53,884 acres, the Seneca Nation controls and holds a significant land base in western New York.
“The Allegany River/Reservoir Restoration and Resiliency Project”
Objectives/Outputs/Outcomes:
Create a healthier habitat for aquatic species within the Allegany Reservoir
10 acres will receive in stream habitat restoration efforts.
50 acres will benefit from artificial and natural habitat structures.
Enhance the flood plain and habitat restoration of the Allegany Reservoir through riprarian buffer restoration.
18.94 miles will have large debris removed from shoreline area.
10 acres will receive indigenous plantings.
Restore hydrology to land locked areas of the Allegany Reservoir.
7 land locked areas will be reconnected to the Allegany Reservoir.
15 acres will be cleaned of sediment, silt and nutrients.
The habitat has been delivered and equipment is in place. Over the next two years, Shane and his team will work all year around, improving the many areas covered within the grant. A great deal of the work will be during the winter months, when water levels are down and lakebed areas exposed. The team will use an earth auger to drill/install the many pole clusters to be installed to regain a plant base in the many washes, streams and creeks flowing into the reservoir. These barriers will catch debris during runoff, creating a medium for plants to begin to take hold. Dozers, trucks along with a good amount of manpower will begin to remove the 1000’s of cubic yards of sediment from the bays and openings, allowing the fish to again, freely pass.
Habitat being loaded for Seneca Nation Allegany Reservoir Project
The artificial habitat units will be planted individually in shallow, drilled holes and backfilled like a balled bush. Planted in large clusters, these units will become exposed each year as the water levels drop in the fall, but take on new life each spring as water levels rise and fish move in to seek spawning protection. Not only will the shallowest models protect fish, but allow shoreline plants and their roots to attach and take hold, strengthening and buffering the eroded shallows. With this substrate in place, only good things follow.
Shallow Cradle model for fry and shoreline stabization
Late in 2014, the Seneca Nation hosted its third annual “Allegany Reservoir Management Meeting”. Agencies that are represented at these meetings are: SNI Fish and Wildlife, SNI Administration Representatives, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, New York State department of Environmental conservation, US Army Corp of Engineers, ( KInzua staff, Pittsburg District), US Fish and Wildlife Service (Tribal Liaison, Great lakes rep., Hatchery Lamar PA, and Hatchery Kinzua PA), US Forest Service and California University of Pennsylvania. Topics discussed at these meetings are all the topics mentioned in the grant, plus stocking strategies, fish sampling surveys, fish pathology and funding opportunities. These “first of their kind” meetings are a shared water body being managed as a single water body.
Aquatic species that will benefit from the habitat are: Walleye (tribally significant species to Seneca culture and heritage) Smallmouth Bass, Large Mouth Bass, Black Crappie, White Crappie, Paddlefish (endangered), Northern Pike, Muskellunge, White Bass, Yellow Perch, Bullhead, Channel Catfish, Sunfish, Rock Bass, Sucker, Emerald Shiner, Golden Shiner, Fathead minnows, Spot Tail Shiner and Bluegill, Fresh Water Jelly fish, Aquatic spiders and Macro invertebrates.
Wildlife also benefitting from the habitat: Bald eagle, Golden Eagle, Cormorants, Loons, Ducks (all species), Canadian Goose, Osprey, Green Heron, Blue Heron, Snapping Turtle, Painted Turtle, Leather Back Turtle, Hellbender (amphibian, species of concern) and River Otter (species of concern)
Increased stewardship among the Seneca community will be an immeasurable benefit of this project. The SNI Fish and Wildlife Staff provide educational programs directed at youth to teach them about the environment and its importance to the health of all fish and wildlife. The SNI Fish and Wildlife Department plans on using these projects to create a three year educational tool for the youth and general public. The Seneca nation newsletter will be doing periodic articles to keep the public informed and involved in all aspects of the projects, to include the purpose, reasons, and outcomes of the work.
For more information regarding Reservoir habitat restoration, funding and other projects taking place, visit Friends of Reservoirs, which SNI Fish and Wildlife and Fishiding strongly support. Friends of Reservoirs (FOR), is a tax-deductible non-profit foundation dedicated to protecting and/or restoring fisheries habitat in reservoir systems nationwide. FOR is the funding arm of the Reservoir Fisheries Habitat Partnership, an organization of natural resource professionals and industry representatives, associated with the National Fish Habitat Partnership. FOR is also a coalition of local citizen groups dedicated to improving fish habitat in reservoir systems. David Ewald/ Fishiding.com
Underwater photography by Eric Engbretson, all rights reserved. For a complete library of Fishiding habitat underwater in various locations and conditions see Eric’s work here. Watch for much more information, photos and reports as this project gains momentum. We will be making many trips back to see Shane and his crew improving conditions on the Reservation. Fishing poles and tackle must be present for “testing”.
Imagine a town consisting entirely of seniors. The town has no children, no teenagers, and no young adults. All the schools, playgrounds, and sports fields have closed. The town is eerily empty and still. And every year, as seniors pass on, the town’s population grows smaller and smaller. With no young people to replace the departed, the town will simply disappear from the map. A grim future indeed.
Until last year, this same sad demise seemed destined for Lake Ellwood in Florence County, WI. In its waters, bluegill and largemouth bass had grown old. For the better part of a decade, no young fish were surviving to replace them. But now it seems that a corner has been turned and the news is good. Today, Ellwood is a lake on the brink of recovery. The story of the lake’s resurrection is a tale that involves invasive plants, a dedicated fisheries biologist, and a host of scientists working against the clock to save a small but beloved piece of Florence County.
THE CRASH
A healthy lake gets a steady stream of newborn fish every year, and the newborns that survive to maturity constantly enlarge the adult population. Fish biologists call this process recruitment. Of all native fish, largemouth bass and bluegill are both extremely prolific and they have shown outstanding talent for recruitment. Unlike walleyes, which require very specific conditions to reproduce, largemouth bass and bluegills thrive even when conditions are far less than ideal. Typically, when two years pass without largemouth bass and bluegill recruitment, fish managers become concerned, and Lake Ellwood has now seen seven consecutive years with failed recruitment. Dr. Andrew Rypel is the state’s lead panfish researcher for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. “It’s an eyebrow-raiser to be sure. What’s happened on Lake Ellwood has gotten our attention. It’s very weird.”
Greg Matzke is the DNR’s senior fish biologist for Florence and Forest Counties. When I visited him in his office at the Florence Resources Center a year ago, he was eager to discuss Lake Ellwood. “The fisheries biologist position for Florence was vacant for three years prior to my arrival,” he told me. “By the time I got here in year 2010, many of our lakes hadn’t been surveyed in a while. When we got around to looking at Lake Ellwood in 2012, the fish population hadn’t been surveyed for a decade. What we found was a lake with few young fish. By the end of our spring survey it was clear to me that something was wrong with some of the major fish populations in Lake Ellwood.” What Matzke documented in 2012 was an almost total collapse of the fish community. In Wisconsin, a failure of this magnitude in largemouth bass and bluegill recruitment is utterly unprecedented.
Matzke typed excitedly on his keyboard as a graph flashed onto the screen. Compiled from the data he had collected, the graph showed a sudden drop in northern pike recruitment after 2004, followed by bluegill and largemouth bass recruitment failures after 2006. Northern pike and largemouth bass recruitment had not occurred at all since 2004 and 2008 respectively, while bluegill recruitment fell off and became insignificant after 2006. “We surveyed that lake extensively, with 44 fyke net lifts and 7 complete electrofishing surveys totaling 20.22 miles (on a lake with 2.8 miles of shoreline) and couldn’t find a single fish younger than five, six and eight years of age, for largemouth, black crappie and northern pike. Not one.” said Matzke. “Nobody has ever seen anything like it.” In total Matzke spent 19 days surveying the fishery in one small lake, which is a great deal of time and effort, and I wondered how many lakes earn such scrutiny. “Not many,” said Matzke. I asked the big question: “What happened to the fish?” He paused and exhaled. In a reflective mood, he lowered his voice: “At first I had no idea, but after gathering and analyzing all the data it’s quite clear…. I believe it has to do with the milfoil treatments out there.”
THE MILFOIL CONNECTION
In the bars of Spread Eagle, fishing is a hot topic among the locals. It fills the air in the summer months, when local businesses are booming and lakefront owners are spending more time on the water. Between rounds, someone mentions the fish crash in Lake Ellwood, and explanations flow like beer from a freshly-tapped keg. On a steamy night last July at the Chuck Wagon Restaurant, the fate of the lake engaged almost every person in the room. Barroom biologists blamed culprits ranging from low water levels to fish cribs and even invasive Eurasian watermilfoil (EWM) sucking the oxygen out of the lake.
Back in their offices, Matzke and his colleagues considered these possibilities and decided none of them were credible because these same conditions exist on hundreds of lakes throughout Northern Wisconsin, and none of the lakes has shown collapses in fish as was documented in Lake Ellwood. In their opinion, the crash stemmed from chemical herbicides applied to control the invasive plant Eurasian watermilfoil.
Eurasian watermilfoil (EWM) was discovered in Lake Ellwood in 2002. Treatments started during the next spring. The Lake Ellwood Association contracted with a lake management firm to monitor and treat the lake every spring thereafter with very good success. As chemical treatments continued, invasive plants began to subside. Encouraged by their success, the lake association continued treatments in the hope of eradicating small but persistent areas that would materialize. An unintended consequence was that native plants were also being killed by the herbicide.
Once considered the most crucial problem facing the Lake Ellwood Association, milfoil has now taken a back-seat to the lake’s most urgent issue: The fish crash. It was a shift in priorities that took time to embrace. Matzke recalls that “when it came to Lake Ellwood, too many people were focusing on the wrong thing. In the beginning, when I told them about the fish crash, they listened, but still seemed more concerned about the milfoil. I explained that milfoil was not the biggest problem. A milfoil-free lake is worthless as a fishery if it can’t sustain healthy fish populations.” Many people were still talking about invasive species ruining the lake when it was losing its fish at an alarming rate. “We needed to do something to encourage fish recruitment before it was too late.” Despite being alerted to the collapse of the lake’s fishery and a hypothesis that linked the crash to the milfoil treatments, in the spring of 2013, the Lake Ellwood Association applied for their annual permit to continue chemical treatments. The news of the disappearance of what was once a balanced, self-sustaining, and vibrant fish community had seemingly fallen on deaf ears. Matzke, along with WDNR water regs staff, denied the permit application. He defended what was an unpopular decision at the time by saying, “We need to take a time-out and find out what’s going on in this lake. It’s not a stretch to suggest that the milfoil treatments may be doing more harm than good.” At first, many were unconvinced that any connection existed, but since then, those who have studied the data compiled by Matzke admit that the evidence is hard to ignore.
So how could treatments aimed at invasive plants be hurting Lake Ellwood’s fish? The exact pathways behind the crash are still being investigated, but two plausible reasons might explain why multiple fish species have failed to recruit. One is that the chemicals disturb the aquatic insect community that young fish need for survival, and the fish literally starve to death in their first few months of life. Another theory that holds more water is that the chemical herbicides have depleted too much of the lake’s native plant community that young fish need for refuge. Without dense plant beds to hide in, young fish may be preyed upon by larger fish, and by the fall, entire year classes of fish are gone with no survivors to contribute to the lake’s fish community. It could also be a combination of both of these scenarios. While it’s unknown exactly how the fish crash happened, it’s clear that the chemicals played a key role. Native vegetation is critical to fish. There are many examples illustrating this important connection. On other Wisconsin Lakes, the loss of native vegetation has proven to be the cause behind similar crashes of largemouth bass and bluegill populations. In those lakes, rusty crayfish or common carp were responsible for removing too much native vegetation, causing largemouth bass and bluegill populations to collapse. On Lake Ellwood, the same thing has happened. But on this lake, humans, using herbicides, are behind the loss of native plants fish need.
Dr. Andrew Rypel, Wisconsin’s leading panfish researcher, says that the complex relationship bluegills have with plants are just beginning to be understood by fish scientists. “We’re trying to understand how this occurred and we’re looking at other water systems with aquatic plant management programs around the state to see if this is an anomaly.” He added, “With bluegills, we know habitat is important. In fact, for the first time, we’re really starting to study how plants affect fish quality”.
Is there a way to save the fish, preserve native plants and still limit invasive milfoil? “Yes,” says Greg Matzke, “But not with continual use of chemical herbicides.” Denied permits to use any further chemical herbicides, the Lake Ellwood Lake Association cleverly looked to alternative methods of milfoil removal. Last summer, they contracted with an Iron River company, Many Waters LLC, to use Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting (DASH) as an alternative to herbicides. The DASH system features a giant vacuum cleaner atop a pontoon. At the bottom of the lake, scuba divers use their hands to pull out invasive milfoil (and avoid native plants) and then feed it into a tube that takes it to the surface for collection and removal. Unlike chemical treatments, DASH acts selectively by focusing only on milfoil and leaving other plants generally undisturbed. Matzke gave his warm approval to DASH: “We need to preserve and expand native plants in Lake Ellwood for fish to have a chance at survival. The DASH system removes milfoil without harming the native vegetation essential to fish.” Early results appear encouraging: In the summer of 2013, DASH took more than two thousand pounds of milfoil out of Lake Ellwood.
HOW BAD ARE INVASIVE PLANTS?
Dr. Jennifer Hauxwell is chief of fisheries and aquatic sciences research at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Headquartered in Madison, her team of scientists have been studying Eurasian watermilfoil for ten years. What they’ve discovered so far is that EWM is tough to pin down. It doesn’t seem to behave in any two lakes quite the same way, and there’s no way to predict if it will peacefully co-exist with native plants as it does in most lakes or reach overabundance as it does in others. Hauxwell says, “In some lakes EWM never ‘takes off’ or expands to levels requiring any management. In some lakes EWM is a major component of the ecosystem and may provide structure/habitat complexity if native species diversity is low or absent. In some eutrophic to hyper-eutrophic lakes EWM may be the only species keeping the lake from turning to algae dominated.” Hauxwell says her team has found other cases where it’s proven beneficial. “Lake Wingra, once suffered from murky water due to algal blooms and lots of suspended sediment”, says Hauxwell. “When carp that root up sediment were removed from the lake, the water cleared, and light was available to support plant growth. EWM quickly expanded in the lake and helped further clear the water and keep algae and suspended sediment low. It’s now a recreational nuisance, but it’s definitely playing an important ecological role in the lake community.” Currently, EWM occurs in 4% of Wisconsin’s lakes mostly in small colonies that are not problematic. “Our researchers quantified the amount of EWM in approximately 100 EWM lakes to get a sense for how widespread it may be in any given lake and across different lakes.” Says Hauxwell. “We found that there was a wide range in abundance. In the majority of the lakes we studied, it was sparse and occurred in less than ten percent of the inhabitable zone.” When does it reach nuisance level, I wondered? “’Nuisance’ is very difficult to define, and it’s in the eye of the beholder”, says Hauxwell. Her team is excited about a plethora of research studies currently underway that will shed even more new light on this enigmatic species.
Mike Vogelsang is the DNR’s fisheries supervisor for the Woodruff area and oversees all fish management in six counties in Northern Wisconsin, including Florence. He’s more concerned with the chemicals used to control EWM than with the invasive plant itself. “There’s some real questions by our biologists, since they’re the ones required to review, and ultimately approve chemical application permits. What are the effects of chemical use going to be twenty years down the road? We’re already finding that in some cases they don’t break down as quickly as believed-they have toxicity long after the manufacturers say they do.”
Vogelsang also says that because it’s expensive to control and impossible to eradicate, learning to live with milfoil is inevitable. “Where are we really going with these treatments? When do they become excessive? What effects are they having on fish communities? These are some of the questions we’re talking about now.” Vogelsang isn’t satisfied that EWM is the destructive threat that’s worthy of all the resources directed to control it. “When EWM first came on the scene, there was a lot of fear associated with the plant, because it was a new potential threat, and the Department wasn’t sure if it would negatively impact our waters. To help stop its spread, there was a lot of gloom and doom talk with lake associations and the general public. We heard all these things about exotics and how bad they are, but it hasn’t been the end of the world. The sky didn’t fall. In many lakes, fishing got better with the invasives. I’m not saying exotics are a good thing – and we should do everything we can to prevent their spread – but EWM hasn’t impacted our fisheries.”
Is an unwarranted level of fear driving lake associations to respond too aggressively to milfoil? If so, it’s a fear that today feels like an over-reaction to a plant that now doesn’t seem to be capable of ruining lakes after all. Ironically, while EWM hasn’t harmed fisheries, the unintended consequences of using chemical herbicides to control it has, as it did on Lake Ellwood. Is what happened on Lake Ellwood an indictment of chemical herbicides? “When over-used, I think so.” Says Vogelsang. “It’s simple: No weeds equals no fish. If I had my own private lake and it got milfoil, would I attempt to control it with chemicals? No. I would leave it alone and know that eventually the plant would become naturalized with the native plant community – like it has on many lakes where no chemical treatments have been used.”
Steve Gilbert, another fish Biologist, echoes Vogelsang’s observations. He reports that for the past 22 years that he’s worked in Vilas County, the negative impacts of EWM on fish in Vilas County lakes has been zero.
While the DNR has consistently denounced EWM, new plant science and testimony from fisheries managers now seem to undercut the agency’s long-standing rhetoric. The days of demonizing Eurasian watermilfoil may be nearing an end. Stated simply, EWM is not be as bad as we formerly thought. It’s a tough bell to un-ring and DNR insiders are struggling to navigate the complicated path to this more moderate public position, without undermining their credibility.
THE FISH RETURN
May 2014. A year has passed since my last meeting with Greg Matzke and I’m back in his office to discover what has happened with Lake Ellwood since we last talked. The spring of 2013 was the first year in a decade when chemicals weren’t applied and the results were instant and dramatic. Grinning now, Matzke tells me that his fish surveys from the fall of 2013 show an astounding thirteen-thousand percent increase in young-of-the-year bluegill since 2012 (the last year of chemical treatment). The 2013 survey also found young-of-the-year largemouth bass, which makes the 2013 year class the first successful recruitment of this species in Lake Ellwood since 2008. In fact, largemouth bass recruitment in 2013 was measured at a rate more than double the recruitment level in 2002 (before chemical treatments began). This immediate rebound adds solid weight to the theory that herbicides did indeed cause the famous collapse in the fish community. A thirteen-thousand percent increase in bluegills sounds incredible and I asked Matzke to put the numbers into context. “We captured just over 97 age-0 bluegill per mile during our electrofishing survey; this is up from less than one age-0 bluegill per mile in 2012. The 2012 year class still looked poor with only 0.67 age-1 bluegill per mile during the 2013 survey. For the first time in a long time, conditions are acceptable for bluegill and largemouth bass to reproduce successfully. And they’re responding.” Putting the question as directly as possible, I asked if it was simplistic to think that “no plants equals no fish” and that “with plants, we have fish.” Matzke said, “That’s an interesting point. I mapped out the aquatic vegetation in Lake Ellwood during August 2013 with acoustic equipment to get a picture of the plants.” Showing me a multicolored map of the lake, he pointed to red-shaded areas that contained the most concentrated areas of plants. “We didn’t find a dense plant community by any means, but in certain near shore areas, there was dense plant cover where there hadn’t been any before.” Matzke draws an optimistic conclusion: “This suggests that for bluegill and largemouth bass recruitment, overall plant abundance may not be as important as these narrow strips of dense aquatic vegetation that are now found in Lake Ellwood after the herbicide treatments have stopped. These areas serve as great nurseries for young fish, offering preferred prey items and cover from predatory fish, giving bluegill and largemouth bass a fighting chance to recruit.”
When news of the Lake Ellwood fish crash started to spread, says Matzke, “I started getting calls. Other fish biologists from around Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota had heard about Lake Ellwood and they were looking for more information.” They were consulting Matzke to learn about signs of incipient problems in their own lakes. Matzke also took “calls from regular folks around the State” who lived on lakes with invasive milfoil and who worried that chemical treatments were hurting fish populations in their waters. Was the same thing happening to other lakes? Matzke shrugged: “It’s really hard to say. To know for sure, you need to steer your sampling efforts to target young-of-the-year panfish. That’s not something fish managers typically do in their ordinary work. Unless you’re specifically looking for it, it’s the kind of problem that could go undiscovered for a long time and may go unnoticed until the adult population begins to be effected, as it did on Lake Elwood”.
Now retired, fisheries biologist, Bob Young oversaw Florence County Lakes from 2000-2007. He fondly remembers Lake Ellwood as once being a high quality panfish lake. He’s been following the recent changes closely and feels another important lesson can be learned. “The invasive species folks should be working closer with fish managers so they can avoid situations like this. I’ve always been uneasy with the notion that total chemical war needs to be made on any and all invasive plant populations. Maybe it wasn’t the best thing for Lake Ellwood.”
A PROMISING FUTURE
Events in Lake Ellwood have also drawn the attention of the Dr. Greg Sass. Sass is another member of the DNR’s elite Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences Research Section. As the agency’s equivalent of a CSI unit, these fish detectives answer calls to solve the most perplexing mysteries in the fisheries of the State. They’re the team whose groundbreaking scientific work in many areas over the years have directly led to major improvements in Wisconsin’s fishing. Sass visited Lake Ellwood in 2013 to investigate and define the forces behind the crash in the fish community. His ongoing study will gather more data not just from Lake Ellwood, but from two other lakes (Cosgrove, and Siedel) in Florence County. Sass is hopeful that eventually his team will be able to mechanistically explain the bluegill and largemouth bass recruitment failures observed in Lake Ellwood.
In Florence, meanwhile, Matzke says his office will continue fish surveys to monitor the recovery now underway. He remains optimistic about the future (which doesn’t include any further chemical treatments for Eurasian watermilfoil.) “It’s my hope that we can come to a clear understanding of the things that drive natural reproduction of the fish in Lake Ellwood.” Turning to the crash in the fish community, Matzke expressed his hope that “we can plausibly explain how the fish community crashed. So far the signs are quite clear; it was the treatments to eradicate milfoil—not the milfoil itself—that have seemingly indirectly caused the collapse in fish recruitment.” Lake Ellwood still has a few acres of invasive milfoil and likely always will. But native plants as well as young bluegills and largemouth bass are beginning to return. For fishery managers, that makes for a tradeoff with the sweet taste of victory.
Let’s go back to that town you imagined, the place where every citizen was a senior. The place is turning robust, as a new cohort of kids has taken to the playgrounds, sports field, and schools. “That’s not the same as a town with a lot of young adults,” cautions Matzke, “but it makes for a promising start.” At this time, the Wisconsin DNR’s careful work seems to justify the same spirit of cautious optimism about the future of Lake Ellwood. More habitat articles at fishiding.com
(For further information, questions or comments about this article, please email Greg Matzke at Gregory.Matzke@Wisconsin.gov)
“Catch and Create” Habitat Improvement Tournaments by Fishiding.com
Can you compete and still be on the same team? We all want improved fishing and habitat is the key. Think of how many Bass, Crappie and Walleye Tournaments are held ………….more
Mike Cantrell, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission coordinator of Regional Maintenance, points to the North Fork River while standing on an overlook now under construction on a bluff above the river. The new overlook is near the city of Norfork. / Kevin Pieper/The Baxter Bulletin
NORFORK — The North Fork of the White River and the scenic valley that cradles it are expected to offer some new accommodations for fish and humans by the summer’s end.
An award-winning team of biologists is set to begin work in the riverbed, strategically placing a series of boulders and root wads in the stream for fish habitat and bank stabilization.
Meanwhile, an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission construction crew is building a new scenic overlook on the east side of AR Highway 5 to the north of Norfork.
Fish habitat
AGFC Biologist Tim Burnley told The Bulletin the river work is a second phase of the North Fork River Habitat Project that began in January 2012.
The work involves about 1.5 miles of riverbed and riverbanks from the head of Cooper’s Island downstream to waters fronting River Ridge Inn. Burnley said the stretch of river below Cooper’s Island — known to anglers and biologists as The Flats — hasn’t contained many objects to create holding places for fish, also known as “lunker bunkers.”
“We plan to come in with in-stream cover — mostly rocks and rootwads,” Burnley said. “With that and new water from minimum flow, we expect to have some good fishing in this area of the river.”
Burnley heads up the $100,000 project with AGFC biologists Tony Crouch and Eli Powers.
A series of large boulders is planned for placement at the head of Cooper Island to offer some floodwater protection for the natural island structure and, at the same time, create new holding places for fish.
A similar series of boulders was placed on Charlie’s Island in the first phase of the project.
Overlook project
Mike Cantrell, coordinator of AGFC’s Calico Rock Regional Maintenance, leads an AGFC team in construction of a new public overlook on the east side of Highway 5 just north of its intersection of AR Highway 341.
Cantrell said the overlook will offer a much broader view of the river valley than can been seen from an unmarked pull-off to the north of the new overlook site.
A platform is planned for sightseers with disabilities.
A second viewing site higher on the ridge is planned for hikers. Parking for up to eight passenger cars or trucks is planned, but not for buses due to a relatively steep grade to the parking area, Cantrell said.
The material cost for the overlook is about $27,000, Cantrell said.
Both projects are funded mostly through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Sport Fish Restoration Fund administered by AGFC. That fund matches $3-to-$1 a contribution of $25,000 for the fish habitat project from the the state’s Overlook Estates Settlement Fund held jointly by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and Trout Unlimited.
Award-winning work
Burnley‘s group and an array of contributors including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Explorer Scouts, Trout Unlimited, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Friends of the North Fork Fish Hatchery, are 2010 recipients of the American Fisheries Society’s Sport Fish Restoration Project of the Year Award.
The project included substantial stream-bed and bank stabilization for Dry Run Creek with major access for anglers with disabilities.
NEWS RELEASE — St. Paul, MN – Dirk Peterson won’t tell anglers where to catch a big fish, but he can tell them what’s needed to make sure there are big fish to catch when they get there.
More and more these days, he’s boiling it down to three words: good fish habitat. More habitat articles at fishiding.com
Peterson is in charge of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) fisheries section, which has just launched a new fisheries habitat plan. It outlines a strategic road map for making sure the state’s 10,000 lakes and hundreds of rivers and streams continue to provide the healthy aquatic habitat underpinning great fishing.
Pete Jacobson, a DNR fisheries research supervisor and one of the plan’s authors, makes it sound pretty simple. “The reason we have good fishing in Minnesota is because we have many lakes and streams with good water quality and habitat,” he said. “Healthy fish habitat is critical.”
But assuring the future of healthy aquatic habitat is anything but simple, because clean water depends on all that happens across a watershed, the hundreds or thousands of acres that drain into any particular lake or stream.
“When you lift a fish out of the water, that fish is a reflection of all that happens on the land,” Peterson said. “If we want to maintain great fishing, we need to focus more effort at the landscape and watershed scale.”
Peterson compares fisheries management to a three-legged stool: one leg is stocking fish, one leg is regulations that help control harvest, and one leg is habitat. Historically, the first two legs have been a little longer and more robust than the last one. The new plan aims to rectify that imbalance by directing staff and other resources to habitat protection and restoration.
While past fisheries habitat projects focused more on near-shore efforts such as protecting aquatic vegetation and stream channel improvements, the new approach seeks to move away from the water’s edge to encompass entire watersheds.
Because the DNR has little authority over land use – a chief determinant of water quality – working at the watershed level will rely more extensively on collaboration and coordination with other DNR divisions, local government, landowners, and other state and federal agencies.
Now there’s collaboration with DNR’s Forestry Division and local soil and water conservation districts to protect the watersheds of lakes with healthy populations of tullibee, a coldwater species sensitive to water quality, which provides important forage for game fish.
In the metro region, watershed scale collaborations with local government and other agencies have helped protect several trout streams, including Dakota County’s Vermillion River, a trophy brown trout stream just a half hour from downtown St. Paul.
While DNR fisheries has undertaken a few larger scale habitat projects before, they tended to be few and far between because there was little funding for big-picture, long-term approaches. The passage in 2008 of a state constitutional amendment dedicating a portion of a sales tax hike to the outdoors and to clean water has changed that. Much of the new habitat plan, available on the DNR website athttp://www.files.dnr.state.mn.us/fish_wildlife/fisheries/habitat/2013_fishhabitatplan.pdf, is aimed at better coordination and focus of funding sources to achieve the most bang for the buck.
An increase in fishing license fees – approved by the Minnesota Legislature last year – also is helping to put more focus on fisheries habitat work.
“We’ve always talked about habitat, but there rarely was adequate funding to really attack it at the appropriate scale,” said Jacobson, the fisheries researcher. “The constitutional amendment changes that, and we need to take advantage of it. The amendment is a mandate from the people for us to take fish habitat conservation seriously. This plan helps us do that.”By Site Editor
Friday, March 8, 2013 at 9:21AM ActivistAngler.com
Fisheries in West Virginia and New Mexico are showcasing a new generation of manmade habitat, thanks to innovative state conservation directors in the B.A.S.S. Nation (BN).
Both Jerod Harman and Earl Conway saw the need for effective and long-lasting habitat in reservoirs that endure huge water fluctuations on a regular basis. More habitat articles at fishiding.com
“Climate change is already impacting the Southwest,” said New Mexico’s Conway. “Over-allocation of water rights and drought have drained many reservoirs in New Mexico and west Texas. Shoreline and aquatic vegetation is gone and replanting is futile when lake levels fluctuate 20 feet or so every year.
“That’s where floating islands come to the rescue.”
In West Virginia, meanwhile, the West Virginia BN has teamed with a company that makes fish habitat from recycled vinyl and reclaimed PVC to build an “oasis for bass” in Sutton Lake, according to Jerod Harman.
It consists of pea gravel, spider blocks, artificial structures fromFishiding, and vegetation growing in a 5,000-square-foot cage on a mud flat, with a creek channel nearby.
“The artificial structures attract the bass looking for a place to spawn,” Harman explained. “The pea gravel provides the correct bottom structure for bedding.
“When the young bass hatch, the artificial structures help provide a protective environment. The periphyton (mixture of algae, microbes, and bacteria that forms the base of food chain) will provide nutrients for growth, and, later on, the small bass fry can relocate to inside of the vegetation cage for protection from predators.
“This is something that I am really excited about!”
Harman added that he believes the habitat made by Dave Ewald’s Illinois company, which features vinyl strips attached to a heavy base, will greatly enhance periphyton growth, as well as provide better cover for survival of young bass than will the spider blocks alone.
“The structures are ready for installation right out of the box, and David was great to work with,” the conservation director said. “I would definitely recommend these, especially for a small group of volunteers who need to complete a larger-scale project in a limited amount of time.”
Conway and the New Mexico BN also are growing periphyton, but on floating islands instead of vinyl strips. One of those islands, complete with spawning platform, won the 2010 Berkley Conservation Award and was the first step in what the conservation director hopes will be a major habitat restoration project for Elephant Butte.
Bruce Kania’sFloating Island International, a Montana company, has provided the New Mexico BN with prototypes and expertise.
“Floating islands aren’t new,” Conway said. “They occur in nature and have a proven track record for improving water quality and enhancing fish production, but I think that we are just beginning to realize how they can add an entirely new dimension to habitat restoration options.
“My experience is that the shade and food they provide makes them better fish attractors than boat docks or tire water breaks. They are being used more often in public waters and it is just a matter of time until someone wins a major tournament or catches a monster bass off a floating island.”
Turn the T.V. off, let’s go fishing. That’s the rule Rosie DeAnnuntis stands by and school kids and the community are listening. Dozens of unique habitat models at fishiding.com
The first Annual North Augusta Border Bass Invitational set for March 2nd 2013 is well underway, and Rosie won’t sleep until it’s all over. She explains “We are a team of folks from North Augusta Middle and High Schools, who promote the sport of fishing and resource conservation through education.”
North Augusta Fishing Team (NAFT) goals are to promote environmental conservation & efforts including Tournament Fishing and getting kids off couches, away from TV and video games, and getting them outside to fish and enjoying the great outdoors! After all, our youth are our future!
When we heard about the tournament and what these kids find important, David Beasley and Matt Phillips from Solitude Lake Management and myself knew we could help. After numerous converations with Rosie, we found out that her group wants to get involved in giving back even more. Habitat projects involving youth are sprouting up all over the Nation and kids are learning the benefits that come with the hard work.
Corporate America is also involved in habitat restoration projects from Coast to Coast. Power companies, manufacturing and chemical firms are all taking proactive stands to improve our environment, learning from our mistakes of the past.
Solitude Lake Management’s David Beasley promotes habitat improvemnet with Fishiding habitat products
Solitude is no stranger to community involvement. Owner, Kevin Tucker runs a tight ship, providing lake,water quality, fisheries and pond management services throughout the south and Eastern seaboard. All of the employees at SOlitude get involved in giving back to the community and the environment on an annual basis. Check out their you tube page here about helping the SOlution.
Matt Phillips one of Solitude’s Fisheries Biologists, will be on hand to talk to the kids and answer questions related to fishing, habitat and pursueing and education in the field. Matt is just one of the many excited Biologists Solitude has available to discuss habitat projects with fishing groups, State and Federal agencies as well as private water owners.
Along with product displays, handouts and give away prizes, Fishiding will be on hand as well to discuss potential future habitat projects with the kids and major Corporate sponsors on hand. “I spoke to Potash yesterday afternoon & let me tell you they are extremely excited about working with Fishiding & SOLitude!”
Fishiding habitat installed before full pool
Support these kids and what they stand for. Preserving our waters and giving back for future generations. Being responsible for their own actions, utilizing the endless teenage energy to better themselves and the environment. Being aware of our environment, continued education and getting involved in your community sounds like a formula for success!
Official Tournament Rules:The following rules are designed to promote sportsmanship among the anglers and to provide a fair competition. Failure to comply with any rules may result in a weight penalty or disqualification from any tournament.
1. Inclement Weather Plan – In the event of unfavorable weather on the day of the event, the event will continue as scheduled during rain only. In the event of lightning or thunder, all boats will be secured and participants asked to return to the nearest, safest location. It is the responsibility of the Tournament Coordinator to determine whether or not the event should be called or wait until the weather clears. If the event is called, the winning weights will be determined by the fish that were caught up until that point in the day. Cancelling the event may occur if unforeseen dangerous natural events, low water levels, or unexpected problems occur that may impede the tournament.
2. All participants must be back at the boat landing no later than 3:00 pm. There will be a one pound deduction every minute a participants is late getting back to the landing up to 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, no weight will be allowed for that boat’s participants. Boat captains are responsible for making sure the boat is back to the dock by 3:00 pm and at the weigh-in no later than 3:00 PM EST. Boat captains are responsible for notifying the Tournament Coordinator in advance of the 3:00 pm closing time of any problems that may have occurred. 3. Each boat must have a bump board or way to measure the length of the fish. No fish fewer than 12 inches may be kept. Fish brought to the scales at weigh-in less than the 12 inches will not count toward the cumulative weight for a middle or high school club. There will be a five (5) fish black bass limit per individual. Black bass includes largemouth, smallmouth, spotted and/or redeye bass. Fish may be culled if an individual has 5 fish in the live well. No more than 5 fish can be in the live well at any one time individual. All fish must be kept alive. Penalty will be 1/2 pound per each dead fish. If an individual is caught with more than the 5 fish limit in their livewell by tournament officials, the fish will be culled starting with the largest fish until they are down to the stated limit of 5 fish. 4. Ties will be broken, if the poundage is equal, in the following manner: First criteria will be the largest fish; second criteria will be the number of fish. Any fish found to be altered or in poor condition (mashed, mangled or mauled) will not be counted at the discretion of tournament officials. 5. All student anglers and boat captains must wear a US Coast Guard approved Personal Floatation Device (PFD) while boat motor is engaged. Anglers will be disqualified if found to have removed their PFD. 6. Participants must only use the gear that is in the boat when the boat leaves the dock at the start of the day. Permitted methods of fishing will be the use of artificial lures only, no live bait of any sort. Each angler aboard shall have no more than 3 rods. Only one fishing rod may be in use at any one time by an angler. Bass may be landed by use of conventional hook and line. No snagging of fish allowed. In addition to tournament limits, all SC freshwater fishing laws must be adhered to. 7. Nets are allowed. 8. Every boat must have an adult captain, age 21 years old or older, for driving purposes and only that captain can drive when the outboard motor is in use. Student anglers may operate the trolling motor when the outboard motor is not in use. 9. No live bait or trolling is allowed. 10. Boats provided by volunteers must be a minimum of 16 feet in length, have front and rear casting decks, a front mounted trolling motor, an aerated live well capable of keeping alive the [two-man team’s or individual’s] five bass limit. Boats must also have console steering (no tiller), an ignition safety kill switch, and all safety equipment as required by the United States Coast Guard. Boats participating in this tournament must have current boat registration. All boats must be subject to a safety check prior to the blast off. 11. Anytime the gasoline engine is in use, boat captains must be seated in the driver’s seat and anglers should be seated in the appropriate locations aboard the vessel. 12. Boat captains must operate boats in a safe manner abiding all boating laws when carrying student anglers to fishing locations. Student anglers make the decisions on what areas to fish on the lake and what direction to go. Boat captains cannot make suggestions on areas to fish. 13. Boats shall not exceed the maximum horsepower capacity on the boat’s maximum horsepower rating affixed to the boat by the manufacturer or a maximum of 250 hp. The maximum capacity rating must be legible. 14. Use of cell phones by student anglers is prohibited during the tournament. Captains may use cell phones to communicate emergencies only. All boats are required to have a cell phone and must provide the Tournament Coordinator the number of that cell phone in case of an emergency or to notify of bad weather conditions. Any use of a cell phone or any other communication devices to exchange fishing information is prohibited and will result in immediate disqualification. In the event of an emergency, all boat captains should call 911 first and then notify tournament officials. 15. All participants 16 years of age and older must have a valid South Carolina or Georgia Recreational Freshwater Fishing License. 16. Anglers may assist one another in netting fish. Coaches may also assist in netting fish, but are not allowed to assist tying lures or handling fish or gear. 17. After the weigh-in, all fish must be released immediately. All fish that are put in the live well must be kept alive. Dead fish will have a 1/2 pound deduction and cannot count as the large fish for that angler. 18. Dead fish may not be culled. 19. Each school is responsible for bringing 1 boat per 2 anglers. Only two students in each boat. [The total weight of the 5 fish limited to that boat will count for the total weight of the 5 fish limited to each angler will count for the cumulative weight.] 20. The total weights for each of the 5 fish limited to an individual will count towards the overall team total for the tournament. Individual weights will be recorded for the top fish designated by each boat. The largest fish award and most weight boat captain award will be given at the tournament. 21. Participants must stay completely in the boat unless they are using an authorized restroom facility or due to some other emergency or malfunction. If an emergency or malfunction occurs, the boat must contact the Tournament Coordinator prior to leaving the boat. In the event of a needed restroom break, the boat captain needs to contact tournament officials. Student anglers may leave and return to the boat at the official checkpoint designated by tournament officials. 22. Any transfer of fish from one live well to a different live well in another boat due to malfunction must be made in the presence of the Tournament Coordinator or other adults as approved by tournament officials. 23. On the day of the tournament, teams will be limited to putting into the water the number of boats based on the number of participating anglers. No additional boats, contacting coaches or other competitors from a team can be put into the water unless approved by tournament officials. Contestants may not obtain fishing patterns or locations from non competitors, follow a non-competitor’s boat or participate in the practice of “hole-sitting,” a practice wherein a non-competitor sits on a fishing spot, holding it for a contestant. In addition, non-competitors may not place markers for contestants. All of these acts are prohibited and will result in the immediate disqualification of the boat. 24. Only the designated boat captain and the two anglers assigned to that boat may be aboard the boat during competition. 25. At the time of check-in, all student anglers and their boats must comply with all the rules applied by tournament officials. At check-in, boat captains shall report their tournament boat identification number and anglers must present their limit and report any dead fish. Once the individual’s catch has been verified, anglers will proceed to the weigh-in. Boat captains must check in even if they don’t have any fish. North Augusta Fishing Team North Augusta Fishing Team Booster Club Facebook Page Tournament : http://www.facebook.com/NaftBorderBassInvitationalTournament/events 26. At the weigh-in location, each individual must carry their limit to the scales. 27. In the event of a tie, the following will be used in order to break the tie: schools with all three of their two-man teams weighing in a full 5 bass limit will automatically place higher; schools weighing in with dead fish will be automatically placed lower; and taking the tied teams and seeing which school landed the larger fish will automatically be placed higher. 28. No livewell culling system may be used that pass through the fish’s operculum or gill flap. Culling systems that attach via the fish’s lip are allowed. 29. Student anglers are encouraged to wear school uniform shirts or jersey which may include outside sponsor logos. 30. At the discretion of tournament officials, any participant can be disqualified for any unethical or unsportsmanlike behavior. 31. All boat captains subject to polygraph.
Toys for the Tots
Annual NAFT/CHC Angler/Mentor Champion Tournament 1. NAFT host a NAFT/CHC Mentoring Championship Tournament e. Top 6 teams will consist i. 3 middle school teams ii. 3 high school teams f. See 2012 & 2013 NAFT Booster Club calendars 2. Championship a. At Clarks Hill Lake b. Open to all angler’s and their assigned boat captain c. June 2013, after State tournament d. Trophies/Prizes awarded to winning Champions i. middle school and high school age group champions and their boat captains i. 2nd and 3rd placed prizes for both age groups e. Massive potential bragging rights at stake! 3. Proposed pre-determined destinations and Championship Tournament Location: a. Wildwood Park Boat Landing b. With permission from Wildwood Park i. NAFT Booster Club will obtain all required permissions
The tournament is on March 2 at Wildwood Park Landing, Appling, GA. They have invited all TBF Georgia & South Carolina youth clubs/teams and have requested each participant complete an Angler Bio with their registration. The plan is to offer a packet of bios to each of the recruiters. Rosie’s personal goal of this tournament is two fold, “First is to show our anglers and the world what a college education can bring them, and second the various industries associated with fishing and the tournament environment”.
Please help us spread the word about our tournament to college recruiters & various fishing industries from all over the US. We would like to show our youth the endless opportunities available when one follows his dreams.
If you look through the ice on a winter day, or peer into the water during a rare summer moment when the wind is calm, you might glimpse the tips of the trees that make up Ocean Lake’s underwater forest.
Below the surface is a Christmas tree forest “planted” by sportsmen and Wyoming Game and Fish in an effort to enhance fish habitat. In more than two decades some 8,000 trees have been left on the ice of Ocean Lake, tied to cement blocks to sink to the bottom providing fish habitat. It is an effort that began in the early 1980s by four friends who loved to ice fish on the lake and noticed the fish population dwindling. It has grown into a Fremont County community event where more than 500 Christmas trees are donated to the project each year.
Kelsey Dayton
The result? Healthier fish populations and happier fishermen.
Howard Johnson of Riverton, always loved ice fishing. It’s a sport that takes little gear as long as one person has an ice auger. No boat is needed to catch as many fish as you would in the summer. And the cold adds a challenge and bonding experience.
“You just have to weather the weather and that’s the fun part of it,” he said.
In the early 1980s he started ice fishing with Bob Wilczewski and Scott Stanley of Riverton, along with Bob Baumann of Shoshoni at Ocean Lake.
They’d gather with their families and campers, playing cards and games and baking biscuits to go with the fresh fish they’d catch on the ice.
After a few years of bountiful hauls they noticed their catches diminishing. They knew the history of the lake, and it didn’t seem right. Dozens of unique habitat models at fishiding.com
Christmas trees are left on the ice of Ocean Lake. Each year recycled Christmas trees are left on the ice to sink to the bottom of the lake where they provide fish habitat. (Photo courtesy Wyoming Game and Fish).
Until the 1930s, Ocean Lake was basically a pond, about 225 acres in size, known as Dry Lake and surrounded by sagebrush and rocks, said Nick Scribner, a habitat biologist with the Wyoming Game and Fish. The Riverton Reclamation Irrigation project started in 1922.When new irrigation systems were developed in the area, water started draining to the low spot in the area, where the pond sat, covering the weeds and willows with water and making the pond more of a lake. It kept rising until the Bureau of Reclamation built an outlet off the east side to drain to a creek, stabilizing the water level, Johnson said.
Fish stocking began in the 1930s, bringing black crappie, bluegill, burbot and largemouth bass to the lake, Scribner said. Walleye stocking began in 1954 and became an annual practice starting in 1972.
Old-timers told stories of the incredible fishing in the area, especially walleye and perch, Johnson said. As the plants on the bottom began to thin and decompose, the smaller fish had no place to hide, the bigger fish had easy feasts and thrived. Fishermen caught fish “by the washtub full,” Johnson said.
For several years Johnson and his friends found Ocean Lake’s fishing bountiful. Then a few years later the fish stopped biting.
On a particularly slow day, the four men lay on the ice, put their coats over their heads and peered down to the bottom. There was nothing but mud.
“It was just like a carpeted floor down there,” Johnson said.
Ocean Lake sits northwest of Riverton in an open area exposed to Wyoming’s wind. The gusts create waves, which stir up the silt in the bottom, Scribner said.
The silt makes it hard for plants to grow and there is little natural vegetation on the bottom of the lake, he said. Small fish have little cover to hide from predators.
With no place to hide, the small fish population was decimated by the larger fish, whose population then suffered because there wasn’t enough food.
Most of Johnson’s fishing group came originally from the Midwest, where using old Christmas trees for fish habitat is common. They decided to see if they could help the fish of Ocean Lake. That winter they wandered alleys and picked up about 50 Christmas trees they hauled to the lake, tying on cement blocks and letting them sink to the bottom. A strong believer in that anyone who fishes should donate at least one day a year to projects to that helps habitat, Johnson and the group continued to collect and “plant” Christmas trees each year.
The effort became an annual event and now, with the help of the Fremont County Solid Waste Disposal District, Wyoming Game and Fish and about 20 volunteers, about 500 trees are planted in Ocean Lake each year. Johnson estimates they’ve planted about 8,000 trees since they started the project. One year, when an area business sold trees where the needles fell off quickly, they received about 1,000 trees — too many for the small number of volunteers, Johnson said.
Volunteers bundle Christmas trees at Ocean Lake. Each year recycled trees are gathered and planted in the lake to help fish habitat. A date for this year’s event hasn’t been yet. (Photo courtesy Wyoming Game and Fish).
The trees are tied together in bunches and attached to concrete blocks and left on the ice. Eventually they drop through the ice, settling on the bottom- about 15 to 25-feet below the surface, where for three or four years they’ll provide fish habitat before decomposing. The trees provide cover for small fish and perch spawn in the branches, Scribner said. Other species, like tadpoles use the habitat as well, he said. The cement blocks are left on the lake bottom, but don’t cause any environmental harm, Scribner said.
The trees come in all shapes and sizes from small “Charlie Brown”-like ones to the full and tall that would dominate a room. All of the trees break down quickly once submerged, Scribner said.
While the practice of using Christmas trees isn’t common in Wyoming, similar efforts have been done elsewhere in the state, Scribner said. In Boysen Reservoir cottonwood and pine tree stumps are put in into the lake.
While Game and Fish monitors the area and knows the trees benefit fish habitat, it’s hard to quantify the impact of the project on fish populations, Scribner said.
Johnson doesn’t need numbers. He knows the fishing is better. They are seeing more age groups of walleye. The locations the trees are dropped are tracked by GPS and those areas have noticeably improved, if a fishermen knows the lake — when and how to fish it.
“It’s all how you do it, where you do it and when you do it,” he said.
And that information, he added like any good fishermen, is a secret.
Get involved:
A date hasn’t yet been set for this year’s tree “planting.”
To volunteer with the project, contact Howard Johnson at (307) 856-1145, or contact Wyoming Game and Fish Lander office at (307) 332-2688.
To donate your Christmas tree, recycle it at no cost at the Lander landfill, Riverton bale facility or the Dubois landfill.
— “Peaks to Plains” is a blog focusing on Wyoming’s outdoors and communities. Kelsey Dayton is a freelance writer based in Lander. She has been a journalist in Wyoming for seven years, reporting for the Jackson Hole News & Guide, Casper Star-Tribune and the Gillette News-Record. Contact Kelsey at kelsey.dayton@gmail.com.
Snowflakes painted a picturesque winter scene Thursday morning throughout Demopolis.
However, the cold weather didn’t stop eager Demopolis High students, along with the Army Corps of Engineers, from working to create fish habitats along the river.
“The snow is not going to stop us,” Anne Cross, ranger said. “We are excited to come together as a community to create fish habitat.”
The students and USACE workers bundled old Christmas trees that will soon be sunk in different areas along the river. The trees make great habitats for fish like crappie.
Pieces of iron will be tied to the trees that will sink them about 10 feet or so, according to Brandon Smith from USACE.
Various participants helped to band trees together to create fish habitats. Shown in the picture are Jason Cassity, Austin Thornbough, Brandon Smith, Marshall Thomas, Joy Snellgrove, Dakota Cunningham, Blake Bowden, Ben Sherrod and Anne Cross (kneeling).
Demopolis High school FFA club and agriculture department worked on the project.
Students in the high school FFA club and agriculture department worked on the project.
Teacher Joy Snellgrove said experience teaches students several valuable skills by granting them this hands-on experience.
“It teaches them more about conservation efforts,” she said. “Also they learn job skills and get to see other job opportunities out there.”
Students thought the project was very fun, despite Thursday’s cold weather.
“It’s fun to do something like this and help,” Dakota Cunningham, a junior said.
Cunningham said students have been learning more about reusing items in class and this project gave them a chance to get help in the community.
Later this month, there will be three boats that will go out on the river to drop the trees. The trees were all donated from people throughout Demopolis. Dozens of unique habitat models at fishiding.com
Also partnering with DHS and the USACE for the project is Alabama Power, the city of Demopolis, Tractor Supply, the U.S. Coast Guard and volunteers of Foscue Park.By Brittney Knox
Friday, March 8, 2013 at 9:21AM ActivistAngler.com
Kelsey Dayton
