Columnist | Joe Mosby
Volunteer workers improve fish habitat in Lake Hamilton
Posted on 05 March 2011
By Joe Mosby
The old lament of “why don’t they do something about the fishing in this lake?” is getting an answer in several Arkansas bodies of water.
The “they” is a combination of federal agencies, state agencies and — the key ingredient — private citizens who volunteer their money and labor.
One strong example is Lake Hamilton, the heavily used impoundment on the Ouachita River at the doorstep of Hot Springs. Fish habitat structures are being fabricated and sunk in appropriate places in the lake.
“Build it, and they will come” has been proven any number of times in Arkansas waters. The Lake Hamilton project, which will go on for several years, is moving ahead under guidance of fishing veterans Ricky Green and Darryl Morris. They have a contingent of other volunteers working with them and with the help of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
Brett Hobbs, a fisheries biologist with the Game and Fish Commission, said volunteers are also doing much of the habitat work on DeGray Lake and Lake Greeson.
Green, formerly of nearby Arkadelphia, was one of the top professional bass tournament competitors in the 1970s and 1980s. Morris operates Family Fishing Trips, a guide service focusing on crappie fishing, on Lake Hamilton.
Morris said, “We are making two types of cover with bamboo. One is 10 to 12 feet tall that we call a ‘condo,’ and one is 5 to 6 feet tall that we call a ‘casa.’ There are other types available upon request by donors.”
The components are a plastic drain pipe with holes drilled in it, cane or bamboo and a 5-gallon bucket that is filled with concrete to hold the rig in place underwater.
Lake Hamilton is an old lake, built in the early 1930s by Arkansas Power & Light Co. for power generation. All of its natural cover is gone, Morris said, and the structures being installed will partly restore cover.
Morris said, “The fish structures benefit bass, crappie, bream and baitfish. They will support the entire life cycle of the fish. The density of these habitats provides ample protection for fish fry and bait fish. Algae growing on (the structures) provide food for fry and baitfish. This reduces the mortality rate and increases recruitment of the fry and baitfish which in term increases the number of catchable bass, crappie and bream.”
The structures are not marked, Morris said, “but are put in strategic locations like coves and points where they will be easy to find with a sonar unit” (depth finder).
The bamboo-and-bucket structure has been used for several years with success on Lake Greeson, where Morris worked with fellow crappie guide Jerry Blake in putting numerous structures into that lake. The encouraging crappie catches on Greeson have become known around Arkansas fishing circles.
Morris said about the Lake Hamilton project, “This will be an ongoing project. We hope to do 200 or more per year. After about five years it will become a maintenance program to keep the cover in the lake.
Help is needed.
Materials for the fish structures cost money even if the bamboo or cane is free except for the labor in cutting and transporting it. Green and Morris have several volunteer workers to assemble the structures and move them by boat to the desired locations. But they can use more willing hands.
Money donated by cash, check or credit card goes into a 3-to-1 match of federal and state funds for sport-fisheries restoration.
Morris can be contacted by e-mail at captdarryl@familyfishingtrips.com. A website, www.lakehamiltonhabitat.org, has more information.

Action Plan News Status of Fish Habitats Report Gives “Fish Eye View” of National Waters
Status of Fish Habitats Report Gives “Fish Eye View” of National Waters
THURSDAY, 14 APRIL 2011 15:13
The National Fish Habitat Board (www.fishhabitat.org) today released a first-of-its-kind status of fish habitats in the United States report as envisioned in the National Fish Habitat Action Plan, an effort to protect, restore and enhance our nation’s aquatic habitats. The report titled THROUGH A FISH’S EYE: The Status of Fish Habitats In The United States 2010 summarizes the results of an unprecedented, nationwide assessment of the human effects on fish habitat in the rivers and estuaries of the United States.

Through a Fish’s Eye, provides an important picture of the challenges and opportunities facing fish and those engaged in fish habitat conservation efforts. Urbanization, agriculture, dams, culverts, pollution and other human impacts have resulted in specific areas of degraded habitat where restoration is most likely needed to bring back the healthy habitats and fishing opportunities that once existed. Addressing degraded habitat also requires reducing or eliminating the sources of degradation mentioned in this report, through best management practices, land use planning, and engaging landowners, businesses, and local communities in the effort.

The assessment detailed in the report assigns watersheds and estuaries a risk of current habitat degradation ranging from very low to very high. These results allow comparisons of aquatic habitats across the nation and within 14 sub-regions. The results also identify some of the major sources of habitat degradation that plague waterways across the nation.

Overall, 27 percent of the miles of stream in the lower 48 states are at high or very high risk of current habitat degradation and 44 percent are at low or very low risk. Twenty-nine percent of stream miles in the lower 48 states are at moderate risk of current habitat degradation.

Fifty-three percent of estuaries (by area) are at high or very high risk of current habitat degradation, while 23 percent of estuaries are at low or very low risk of current habitat degradation. Marine habitats of the United States tend to be most degraded near the coast, where they are most affected by human activity.

The goal of the national assessment was to estimate disturbance levels to fish habitats in rivers and estuaries from information about human activities occurring in the watersheds and the local areas affecting each aquatic habitat. This approach is supported by a large body of scientific research showing that human disturbances to the land transfer to receiving waters and contribute to disturbance in downstream fish habitats in rivers, estuaries, and the ocean.

While the specific analytical approaches used to assess habitats in the lower-48 states, Alaska, Hawaii and U.S. estuaries differed slightly, the end product of each analysis was similar—an estimate of the risk that discrete habitat units will be degraded due to current human activities on the landscape.

“This report identifies areas where those efforts are most needed and points to areas where fish habitat is most likely still intact and should be protected to maintain its value for fish and other aquatic organisms. Resources for fish habitat conservation are limited, especially for the next few years,” said Kelly Hepler, Chairman of the National Fish Habitat Board.

“Fish Habitat partnerships ensure coordinated work around specific habitat challenges,” said Eric Schwaab, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries. ”This information will help bring strategic focus to conservation efforts and allow rigorous measurement of results.”

“This report clearly illustrates the need for strategic use of existing resources through partnerships that can identify the most effective use of funds and help the nation as a whole make progress in fish habitat conservation,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Acting Director Rowan Gould. “There are many major threats to the health of fish habitat and the National Fish Habitat Action plan helps to focus and leverage available funds, pool technical expertise, and enlist new partners to address the challenges to fish habitat.”

Key findings from the “Through a Fish’s Eye: Status of Fish Habitats” report include:

Habitats with a very high risk of current habitat degradation include those in or near urban development, livestock grazing, agriculture, point source pollution or areas with high numbers of active mines and dams. Specific locations that stand out as regions at high risk of current habitat degradation include: the urban corridor between Boston and Atlanta; the Central Midwestern states of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio; the Mississippi River Basin, including habitats adjacent to the lower Mississippi River in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana; habitats in eastern Texas; and habitats in Central California and along the Columbia River in Oregon and Washington.

Areas that stand out as being at very low risk of current habitat degradation include rural areas in New England and the Great Lakes states; many habitats throughout the Mountain, Southwest and Pacific Coast states; and most of Alaska. It should be noted that not all water and land management issues could be addressed in the assessment, so some of the areas mapped as at low risk of current habitat degradation actually may be at higher risk due to disturbance factors not assessed. For example, most arid regions of the western United States were found to be at low risk of current habitat degradation.

Estuaries in the mid-Atlantic have a very high risk of habitat degradation related to polluted run-off and other effects of the intense urbanization and agriculture in this area. The estuaries of southern California also have a high risk of current habitat degradation for similar reasons. Estuaries in the north Pacific and downeast Maine have a low risk of current habitat degradation.

The release of this report is also accompanied with the release of a map viewer, which offers the maps that are in the report in greater detail. The National Fish Habitat Action Plan map and data web tool (www.nbii.gov/far/nfhap) was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Biological Informatics Program under guidance of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan Science and Data Committee. This tool not only enables users to see multiple views depicting the condition of stream and coastal habitats across the country, but also means that users can access more detailed information at finer scales, as well as the option to download data files and map services.

To read the report in its entirety or download a PDF, visit www.fishhabitat.org or go to http://fishhabitat.org/images/documents/fishhabitatreport_012611.pdf to view the PDF.

DAWN OF A NEW SEASON. POND MANAGEMENT IS ABOUT TIMING – BY BOB LUSK
Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 5:27pm
Water temps, not dates, the real key

Remember Forrest Gump? He was running along a lonely stretch of highway, minding his own business, when he steps in a pile of nature’s fertilizer. Forrest looks down, then back at the front guy in the crowd behind him, and says, “It happens.”

In the world of pond management, “it” sure does. Let’s examine “it.”

Beginning late each winter, extending into spring, then deep into summer, I get the same questions, from different people, sometimes in different states, but roughly the same questions about their fishing ponds.

Example: “I fertilized my lake, and nothing happened. The water is just as clear as ever.”

Or, maybe this one: “I followed label directions, fertilized the right amount for my pond, and bottom weeds have taken over.”

No pretty green water, no plankton bloom in their fishing ponds.

What happened? “It” didn’t work.

What gives? Is “it” the fertilizer? Or, maybe the water? Was “it” applied correctly? Was the compound properly distributed throughout the pond, then allowed to fully dissolve into the water column, the way Pond Boss says to do “it”?

There’s an old adage for real estate people that relates to the three basic principles of the property — location, location, location. In pond management, “it” is “timing, timing, timing.”

You can add fertilizer to your water, applying at the proper rates, the proper N-P-K (nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium) mix, until you are blue in the face, and never get a bloom. This is especially 1 if you were to fertilize during the coldest spell of the winter. Timing. The right pond management technique, perhaps, but it was used at the wrong moment.

As you plan for the New Year for your favorite fishing pond, the new growing season, start putting together your basic pond management strategy for the next 12 months. In Texas, the Agriculture Extension Service provides excellent information in the form of a calendar. Trouble is, on any given spring day, the temperature at the southern tip of the Lone Star state may hit 85 degrees, while the folks in Amarillo, located in the middle of the Texas Panhandle, may be shoveling snow off the sidewalk. So much for a pond management schedule dictated by pages on a calendar.

Instead, let water temperature be your guide. Check the Pond Boss display ads for catalog distributors and buy a good thermometer. Then use it to check water temperatures on a regular basis.

Don’t get too concerned about the mechanics of this, whether you take the temperature six inches below the surface or 3 feet deep, just make sure to place the thermometer in approximately the same place each time in your fishing pond.

If you can’t be at your pond all the time, check temps as often as possible. Write your findings in a notebook. Watch your pond temperature patterns, and keep notes. Two or three years of sound temperature record keeping will put you in the pond management driver’s seat.

Here’s how: Let’s say, for instance, that at 45 degrees, you start noticing the onset of filamentous algae growth in your fishing pond. Write that in your notebook. At 55-60, fish began coming to your feeder. Make a note. At 62-68, bass went on their spawning nests. Two weeks later, baby bass are seen in schools, around the edge of your fishing pond. Write it down. All of it.

Those little facts will help you achieve pond management goals next year, and the year after, beginning with the first hint of filamentous algae, which tends to get worse as water temperatures rise. With all biological activity that occurs in your fishing pond, there is a direct relation to water temperature.

Take plankton for an example. Desirable plankton blooms, adequately fed, will not thrive until water temps in your fishing pond are consistently above 60 degrees. That’s not to say you can’t find plankton in winter. You can.

But, to properly feed baby fish in your pond, 60 degrees is “it.” Sixty is the trigger point.

What about feeding pelleted fish food like Purina Aqua Max, you might ask? Different fish respond to different temperatures. When your temps hit 50-55 last Fall, channel cat eased away from the fish feeder, into the murky depths of your fishing pond to hunker down in a big school. But, your feisty bluegill probably came to the fish feeder even as temps dropped into the lower 40’s.

I often get asked about stocking fingerlings in a new fishing pond. When should you introduce fingerlings to a new environment?

With our pond management clients, we urge fishing pond owners to avoid extremes. Both hot and cold can be stressful for handling fish. Oh yes, fish can certainly survive their extremes, once they arrive in the fishing pond. But getting them from the hatchery to your pond can be tricky during really hot or really cold. Transport fish during warm or cool times.

Here’s a simple temperature “calendar” to bring pond management techniques to a sharper focus:

Temps below 32 degrees

Ice. Aerate northern ponds, if possible, and keep snow cover off clear ice. This is a great opportunity to prepare brush piles, rocks, pipe, or other materials on top of ice, where they can sink, after thaw, for your fish cover.

32-42 degrees

Do not expect fish to feed. Warmwater fish are too sluggish, trout feeding is minimal.

42-48 degrees

Macrophytic aquatic plants are dead. Good time to install cover into barren areas. Be sure to put cover in mid-depth areas of your fishing pond, relatively near shore.

48-55 degrees

Bluegill will feed, especially if conditioned to fish food pellets. Filamentous algae begins to grow around fishing pond edges, especially during warm afternoons. Peak trout feeding temperatures.

55-58 degrees

Channel catfish come to life, and begin searching for food. Bluegill activity escalates, Bass begin moving from structure. Filamentous algae thickening. Trout active.

58-62 degrees

Fertilize fishing ponds with clear water! Do not dally. Bass begin showing signs of nesting, preparing crater-shaped spots, 4-6 feet deep, 18 inches in diameter, for spawning. Filamentous algae in full growth stage. Begin checking for plankton bloom 5 or 6 days after fertilizing, as temps continue their Spring rise. Time to begin stocking fingerling fish into new ponds, or adult fish for corrective stocking situations. Trout still active and growing. Crappie on nests.

62-68 degrees

Worldwide, this is prime spawning temperature range for largemouth bass in your fishing pond. Plankton blooms beginning to color the pond water. Measure pond water visibility, shooting for 18-24″. This is still a good time to fertilize your pond. Redear sunfish and bluegill begin preparing and sitting on nests. Trout active and growing. Cattails begin to grow, along with peripheral reeds. Watch for beginnings of rooted aquatic plants underwater in your pond.

68-72 degrees

The bass spawn wanes, with schools of baby bass beginning to appear. Bluegill are on nests. Plankton reach optimum growth. Measure visibility in the fishing pond. Rooted plants growing, cattails and reeds tall. All fish feeding well.

72-76 degrees

Keep measuring pond water visibility; maintain plankton blooms. Watch for plankton bloom beginning to darken from bright green to an olive green. Cattails and reeds reaching maturity. American lotus and select lily pads begin to show themselves. Peak operating temperatures for all warm water fish. Heavy feeding, both natural food and from your feeders. Young of the year bass, bluegill and redear can be observed. Channel catfish beginning their spawning rituals. Monitor plankton bloom, keep goals in sight. Trout tend to become sluggish.

76-80. degrees

Trout are dead. Warmwater fish on full feeding throttles, fish growth rates max. Rooted aquatic plants maturing, still rapidly growing. Filamentous algae beginning to disappear. Plankton, when fed properly, is thriving. Watch for plankton bloom color to shift from olive green to a greenish brown. Be careful when boosting your pond algae bloom with fertilizer. Use maintenance doses, only. Keep checking visibility; use maintenance doses of fertilizer as pond water visibility increases beyond 24-30 inches. Floating plants such as duckweed, azolla, become noticeable. Good time to begin treating unwanted vegetation. Be sure to have stocked fingerlings by now.

80-84 degrees

Warm water fish are active, and plankton tends to grow quite rapidly. Do not over-fertilize an overactive plankton bloom in your pond. Measure pond water visibility, watch as plankton bloom color changes. When plankton shifts to a brownish/ green color, it has shifted from mostly phytoplankton (plant plankton) to zooplankton (animal plankton). Zooplankton blooms rapidly deplete their food source, phytoplankton, and then the bloom will “crash”. Zooplankton run out of food, zooplankton die, and sink in your fishing pond. Pond water rapidly clears. Either feed the algae bloom, or let it crash, you choose, based on your pond management goals. By now, baby fish hatched in your fishing pond are reaching fingerling sizes, and clear pond water makes forage fish available to bigger predator fish. But, remember, clear water lets sun penetrate deeper in the pond water column, expanding rooted plant territory.

84-88 degrees

Be wary of fertilizing your fishing pond. Better to under-fertilize a lot than over-fertilize a little. Biological activity, especially microbes, in water, reaches most rapid life cycle movement in warmer water. Fish metabolism beginning to slow, growth rates reaching summer doldrums. Vegetation reaching maximum growth rates and penetration in your pond.

88-92 degrees

Even warmwater species begin to hunker down in their “survival” mode. Limited feeding times, fish get sluggish. Vegetation at maximum coverage. Watch pond water chemistry, especially plankton blooms more dense than 18 inches visibility.

Above 92 degrees

Check your pond’s plankton. Drink lots of fluids. Be wary of chemically treating excessive aquatic plants. Killing too much vegetation, too fast, can devastate your fishery. Oxygen depletions are most common.

Our friend Forrest would say, “Timing is as timing does.”

Humans seem to rely on a calendar, but nature doesn’t always oblige, and her “work schedule” varies greatly from region to region. Observe pond activity, and train yourself to rely on the thermometer.

Rethink your annual pond management schedule to coincide, not with readings on a watch or even a calendar, but with temperature levels. It’s nature’s way, and it should be yours.

POND BOSS Magazine is the world’s leading resource for fish, pond and fisheries management information including discussions on muddy water, raising trophy fish, fish feeding, building a pond, algae control and more. Check us out at www.pondboss.com or contact Bob Lusk, the Pond Boss himself, at 903-564-5372. His books, Basic Pond Management, Raising Trophy Bass and Perfect Pond, Want One, may be purchased by calling 800-687-6075 or ordering online at www.pondboss.com

We made it home safe from the 600 mile drive to Big Cedar Lodge for the Pond Boss convention this past week. Many new friends were made as well as building and improving business relationships. These folks are all about enjoying all aspects of the great outdoors.

Allen warren was on hand to talk about the growing concern for our kids, missing out on all that the outdoors have to offer. He is spearheading a national movement to get outdoor education to be offered to our kids at school. The important traditions of spending time outdoors, learning and applying the skills of woodsmanship,hunting,climbing,mountaineering,fishing and camping, are just some of the skills that are not getting passed down to the kids.

All the information is available at www.isupportoutdoored.com for everyone to get involved. Celebrities and folks from all over the nation are getting involved to help. Please look into this first of it’s kind movement to ensure our future generstions have the oppourtunity to enjoy all nature has to offer.

Brad Wiegmann was also on hand to cover the event. His unique style of writing comes from a strong love for all things fishy. Brad is a freelance outdoor writer from Sprindale, Arkansas, who adds his photography skills to his writing abilities. He also has been guiding professionally for years, adding to his experienced eye for a story when water is involved. Here is a link to his site and the story hot off press:

http://www.bradwiegmann.com/pond-fishing/pond-management/577-pond-boss-iv-conference-a-expo-2011-whats-it-all-about.html

The fishing is great on Tablerock and we were lucky enough to catch a few. The weather was pushing 80 degrees, a far cry from what we came home to. A fellow friend and crappie nut from www.crappie.com gave us some spots to fish and they were dead on. What a advantage to have friends with a common bond of the outdoors offering their help to make our trip the most enjoyable possible. 

We caught a number of smaller male bass, staging for the spawn as well as a bunch of crappie to pack on ice to enjoy with friends at home. New places and friends to return to the next time we head south into the great state of Missouri. Thanks to all.

The family at Pond Boss is truly a passionate group of folks who love to be outside, usually around water. Many of the attendees came from the south where heat is a constant issue raising fish and aquatic balance. I can’t imagine dealing with water temps over 90 degrees, when we come home to a 2″ snowfall. Spend some time looking through the pond boss site and you will find topics and answers to all water related things and beyond. Countless folks are always on hand to reply to a question or concern, often with humor but always with a sincere desire to help. www.pondboss.com