The Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group has anchored nearly 160 logs along the Upper Washougal River this year in an effort to restore natural fish habitat. Inmate crews from Larch Corrections Center work above Dougan Creek Campground earlier this week.
GREG WAHL-STEPHENS
Logs have been fastened to the Upper Washougal River in recent years using a variety of methods, including bolts and chains and a binary glue.
GREG WAHL-STEPHENS
Glenn Saastad, a project coordinator with the Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group, says the third phase of the group’s Upper Washougal River restoration should wind down by fall.
Just below the popular swimming spot known as Naked Falls, the Upper Washougal River navigates an unusual landscape. About a dozen logs, bark mostly stripped, lie fastened to the river’s bare rocky bed in a seemingly random arrangement.
Glenn Saastad doesn’t see it that way.
Standing in the middle of the low-running river this week, Saastad looked into the future. He described a mix of natural gravel — perfect for salmon spawning grounds — among sediment gathered on each side. He saw slow-moving pools of water formed behind the logs. He saw riparian plants dotting the river’s path.
All of that could take five years or more to materialize. But it’s part of a carefully planned, fish-friendly vision that the Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group has worked from to transform the Upper Washougal since 2004. The third stage of the sweeping project — already starting to see results — is set to finish by this fall.
“We’re not doing anything that Mother Nature wouldn’t have done,” said Saastad, the project coordinator. “We’re just doing a sped-up version.”
Leading the effort is Tony Meyer, executive director of the group for the past 10 years. The $800,000 project has covered about five miles of the river so far, he said, mostly where impacts to roads and residents is minimal. Many other parts of the Upper Washougal could use some help as well, he said.
“The area we’re addressing is actually quite small,” Meyer said.
River ‘scoured out’
Logs are the main tool the project uses to restore complex natural habitat to the Washougal River. They’re also the main reason it was wiped out in the first place.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the logging industry functioned under a very different set of rules than it does today. Back then, loggers used “log drives” to move timber by building dams, then sending a torrent of water and felled trees down the river. The process also carved away many of the natural features fish depend on, Saastad said.
“All life is basically scoured out,” he said.
By putting fixed logs back in the river, the fish enhancement group is creating a system of anchors that collect gravel for spawning beds and add complexity to the flow of the river. In the high-flowing winter and spring months, the logs are submerged in water while that process takes place. Saastad hopes they’re eventually buried by natural ground cover in a new landscape.
Just as important are the changes in flow that result from the added terrain, Saastad said. Forming pools behind logs gives fish a respite from water current as they work their way upstream to spawn, he said.
“They need cover,” Saastad said. “They need those pools and those holes so they can make that trip. It’s a grueling trip.”
The goal of restoration remains the same, but the methods used in the project have evolved over the years. Crews have used everything from chains and bolts to a binary glue to attach logs to the river bed.
Not everything has worked. Smaller logs fastened early on have since begun to rot, Meyer said. The group even tried setting down boulders at first, he said. Turns out, they didn’t last very long.
“The river just pushed the boulders out,” Meyer said. “Just pushed them on down the river.”
Most of the logs used now measure more than 60 feet long, and at least a few feet in diameter. They’re fastened strongly enough to withstand a 300-year flood event, Saastad said. Actually attaching them are inmate crews from the Larch Corrections Center.
Bolting logs to a river bed isn’t a typical strategy for habitat restoration. Meyer said it started with his fish enhancement group before being tweaked in recent years.
“It’s a pretty new, innovative approach,” said Dave Howe, a regional habitat program manager with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The condition of the Upper Washougal leaves no other choice, Howe said. With the river bed scraped completely down to bare rock, bolting and attaching log jams is the only way to get the features to hold, he said.
The unique project navigated several layers of review from various jurisdictions before taking off. It wasn’t always an easy sell, Meyer said.
The group now works closely with those agencies, and has found favor as it works a wide variety of projects stretching from the Bonneville Dam to the Washington Coast.
“The Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group is really one of the key restoration entities here in Southwest Washington,” Howe said.
Seeing results
In just a few short years, the project has produced noticeable changes to the Upper Washougal River, but not always what Meyer and Saastad had envisioned.
Some spots haven’t replenished gravel cover as fast as anticipated. Other spots, like one log jam near Dougan Creek Campground, have piled up much more than expected at a narrower portion of the river. Crews are now working about 20 miles upstream from Washougal.
“You have to kind of picture it in your head,” Saastad said of the planning process. “You don’t always get the result you expect.”
The work is always at the mercy of the weather. Crews operate in a short time window that only lasts from about July until October, Saastad said. By then, the river level comes back up and makes work impossible.
The Fish Enhancement Group has put close to 160 logs into the Upper Washougal this year. Next year likely won’t be as ambitious, Saastad said, but the group hopes to get a couple more years’ work out of its grant from the state Salmon Recovery Funding Board, even as Phase 3 winds down this fall. For a group that relies heavily on state and federal grants, making dollars last is key, Meyer said.
The Upper Washougal work has produced results so far — Saastad and Meyer said they’ve already seen increased salmon activity that wasn’t there several years ago.
The project is also unquestionably aggressive, reshaping the river in a short time period. But Saastad shrugs at the notion that it’s too heavy-handed.
“I don’t think it’s heavy-handed enough,” Saastad said. “The salmon are basically going to die off unless we do something.”
Two weeks’ groceries: $300 GPS and walkie-talkies: $295 Gas $115
Polarized sunglasses: $90 Fish finder: $360 Boat winterization: $300
New rod and reel: $295 Flowers for my wife for letting me go fishing: $45
New rifle: $785 Cabin: $25,000 Property tax: $4,200 Hunting land : $115,000
Chain saw: $189 Trolling motor: $280 New boots and coat: $325
Taxidermy (with any luck): $450
A dollar here . A hundred dollars there . It adds up to more than you might think.
America’s 34 million hunters and anglers are an economic powerhouse , driving the economy. They’re passionate about their pastimes and they spend passionately too.
Multiply individual spending by those many millions of people , and you’re talking a major force in our economy, through booms as well as recessions . They directly support 1.6 million jobs . They spend more than a billion dollars just on licenses, stamps , tags and permits, and they generate $25 bi l l ion a year in federal , state and local taxes .
By any measure , hunters and anglers are among the most prominent and influential of all demographic groups. Hunters and anglers support twice as many jobs as the combined civillian payrolls of the Army, Marine Corps , Navy and Ai r Force .
$208 million a day. $1.5 billion per week. Annually hunters and anglers spend $9 billion to lease and purchase land for their sports . That’s enough to purchase 27,000 new homes or rural acreage larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined.
No mortgage crunch here. Without hunters and anglers, our economy would be a lot smaller. $76 billion smaller, in fact. That’s how much they spend each year on their pass ion for the outdoors. If a single corporation grossed as much as hunters and anglers spend, it would be among America’s 20 largest , ahead of Target , Costco and AT&T. Buthunters’ and anglers ’ influence goes even further. They create an economic “ r ipple effect “. They keep people working: not just in typical hunting and fishing jobs , but also in ga s stations, retail , restaurants and hotels throughout every state and congressional district of the USA.
There are other numbers , too. For instance , Americans spend more time hunting and fishing each year than days spent running the Federal government (737 mi l l ion days vs . 486 mi l l ion) . Together, hunters and anglers are a significant voting bloc. In fact, their voting potential was 31% of all votes cast in the 2004 presidential election. Eighty percent of sportsmen are “likely voters,” far more than the national average. They can change the tide of elections. And, as you might guess, they tend to favor pro-sporting candidates.
$8.6 million an hour. Spending by hunters and anglers is more than the revenues of Microsoft , Google, eBay and Yahoo—combined (76 billion vs . 73.6 billion)
Higher earnings than high-tech. (34 MILLION VS . 27 MILLION ) More people hunt and fish than watch the nightly newscasts of the three major networks—ABC, CBS, and NBC. Breaking news. Hunting and fishing Americans out number motor- sport fans by more than 2 to 1. In fact , they could fill every NASCAR track 13 t imes over.
Racing ahead. If the $76 billion that sportsmen spend on hunting and fishing were the Gross Domestic Product of a country, sportsmen as a nation would rank 57 out of 181 countries .
On lodging alone, hunters spend more than the annual revenues of Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality Inn, EconoLodge, Rodeway Inn and Sleep Inn combined. Sleep on it.
Page Last Updated: Wednesday April 20, 2011 10:40pm MDT
Idaho Fish and Game
Today at the old Cove Dam site Idaho Fish and Game along with dozens of volunteers released around 1000 Bonneville cutthroat trout into the wild as a final step in a project that began years ago. Joselin Matkins Director of Sagebrush Steppe Regional Land Trust explains why today was a great day for the partnership. Joselin Matkins, Director, “This is a great day for the partnership with PacifiCorp energy, Fish and Game, all the other partners at the Bear River Coordinating Committee because we released about 1000 Bonneville cutthroat trout into the stream today.”
David Teuscher, Regional Fisheries Manager for Idaho Fish and Game explains the vital role that the cutthroat trout have in the bear river ecosystem
David Teuscher, Regional Fisheries Manager, “The cutthroat trout play an important role, fish eating birds rely on fish resources so in the past native cutthroat trout filled all these streams and tributaries and they were food resources for other things like fish birds so the played an important role in a larger picture.”
Today is the culmination of years of hard work Fish and Game and volunteers have put in to restore the habitat of these fish.
But converting this once dam site to a useable habitat for the fish takes time and effort. Teuscher says many of these fish and game projects like this one would not be possible without the help of volunteers.
Teuscher, “So volunteers play a huge role in the amount of work we’re able to do because as you know labor and things are very expensive and we’re limited by how much we can do on an annual basis on budgets, the more volunteers we get the more work we can do.”
All the hard work and effort does pay off as an important investment in Idaho fisheries for the future.
Teuscher, “In two years when these fish come back upstream to spawn they’ll have that good spawning habitat.”
Those interested in volunteering for Idaho Fish and Game can find more information on their website.
PFBC Cooperative Fish Habitat Management Programs for Lakes
What You Need to Know
The Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission’s Cooperative Lake Habitat Improvement Program has been in existence for over twenty years. With the foundation of the Division of Habitat Management, Lake Habitat Cooperators have more options than in the past. Currently two Commission programs exist solely for the purpose of working with individuals, organizations and other state and federal agencies to manage habitat improvement projects in commonwealth lakes and impoundments. The Cooperative Habitat Improvement Program (CHIP) and the Technical Assistance Program (TAP) are cooperative programs that are managed by staff within the Division of Habitat Management’s Lake Section that is part of the Commission’s Bureau of Fisheries, located in Bellefonte, PA.The Lake Section’s CHIP program is for long term fish habitat enhancement projects with cooperators that are able to partially fund projects with the Commission. The lake or impoundment to be improved must be state or federally owned or open to the public through an easement or management agreement. Trained Commission staff may provide technical assistance in design, in permitting, in artificial habitat construction and placement oversight. The trained Commission staff may also use specialized equipment and operators to construct artificial fish habitat structures. The Commission can provide matching material funding for Active CHIP Lake Projects.
The Division of Habitat Management’s TAP program is aimed at short term projects that require only technical assistance. This technical assistance comes in the form of project design. Like the CHIP program, habitat managers will conduct habitat assessments and inventories of the individual lakes or impoundments and provide a CAD-drawn plan map showing depths and waypoint locations of specific artificial fish habitat structure proposed for the lake. The cooperator will receive this plan map and the associated plan narrative as a management plan for the waterway. Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission funding is not available to TAP cooperators, but lakes not open to the public may receive technical support through TAP. Both the CHIP program and the TAP program have been created to manage the design, the construction and the placement of artificial fish habitat in Pennsylvania lakes and impoundments.
Questions and answers about Lake Habitat Management in Pennsylvania Lakes
What is artificial fish habitat? Artificial habitat is fish structure designed to provide habitat features that allow fish (vertebrate and invertebrate animals) and reptiles to accomplish their daily and seasonal performance tasks with greater efficiency. Man-made habitat is considered artificial because it does not occur naturally. For the most part, the man-made habitat is used in man-made lakes (reservoirs & impoundments) which are artificial aquatic environments.Does the Commission have to get permits to place fish habitat in Lakes? The Commission’s Division of Habitat Management assists CHIP cooperators in their request to receive state and federal encroachment permits for fish habitat enhancement structure placement. TAP cooperators may use the Lake Section Designed Plan in a permit request to Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection.
What does Fish Habitat Improvement accomplish? Artificial fish habitat may provide opportunities for angers to have greater success if the artificial habitat is accessible. But the main objective, is to increase the abundance of submerged native habitat materials, primarily, wood and rock rubble, through engineered structure design, that mimics native or natural habitat found in Pennsylvania impoundments. Wood and rock rubble are the key habitat elements that invertebrate and vertebrate animals use in lakes and impoundments. When the utilization aspect of fish habitat improvement increases the anglers’ success and provides opportunities for aquatic animals to increase in abundance and in efficiency, it is a win-win lake management tool.
How expensive is Fish Habitat Improvement? Artificial fish habitat structure varies in cost due to the type, to the dimensions, to the materials used and to the regional values. An average cost of a typical, volunteer built, Pennsylvania style artificial habitat structure is $50.00. Add the cost of Commission staff time to design and to oversee project implantation, plus fuel and transportation costs, the estimated value of a typical submerged Pennsylvania style artificial habitat structure equals approximately $100. Considering that 90% of all Pennsylvania style artificial habitat structures constructed and placed in the last two decades are still submerged and functional, it is a pretty good value.
How much does a typical Fish Habitat Improvement Project cost? Due to regional variations in material, transportation costs and inflation, project costs may vary. However, an average small scale fish habitat annual project may cost between $750 and $1,500. Normally, the Commission’s material costs are $500 to $1000 and the cooperator’s material costs are $250 to $500. The cooperator’s 50% cost match also includes, the value of the volunteer time. Typically speaking, between volunteer time and cooperator material and equipment continuations, the CHIP cooperator exceeds the 50% value of the project cost. Large-scale projects are far more expensive, averaging $10,000 to $50,000 depending upon the size and structure of the Large Scale Fish Habitat Project.
What is the difference between large-scale and small-scale projects? Small Scale Lake Fish Habitat Projects have been part of habitat management for over 20 years and continue to be the mainstay of CHIP. Small scale projects normally have a 3 to 9 year life span, but a few have been ongoing for 20 years. Typically, a small scale project is conducted annually. Using adult and/or youth volunteer labor along with lake section staff and equipment, it is possible to construct and place 10 to 100 Pennsylvania style wooded artificial fish habitat structures in a single day.
Large Scale Fish Habitat Projects are created by one of two basic elements in impoundments that have a dire need for habitat. One basic element is the impoundment in a condition where a large amount of habitat can be placed in a short period of time, such as a dam breach, a lake reclamation or a maintenance water drawdown. The other basic element is when funding becomes available, through a grant or a donation that provides the cooperator and the Commission an opportunity to accomplish a large-scale habitat project. Large scale projects may provide opportunities for volunteer involvement, but are typically accomplished using specialized aquatic and land-based equipment to construct and place hundreds of artificial habitats in a single day. Large scale projects may last a couple of weeks to a month.
Who does the Commission work with to accomplish Lake Habitat Projects? The Commission’s CHIP program works with numerous organizations and agencies to cooperatively conduct small and large scale fish habitat projects. State agencies like, Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation & Natural Resources’, Bureau of State Parks and the Pennsylvania Game Commission have been long time partners and cooperators. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the U. S. Forest Service continue to be valuable partners in the CHIP program. Numerous County Conservation Districts and County Park and recreation agencies have been long time cooperators, along with organizations like the Pennsylvania Bass Federation, the individual bass and fishing clubs, and the lake associations across the Commonwealth.
This does not include the hundreds of youth and adult volunteers that work with cooperators annually, to provide the muscle to accomplish the 50 plus small scale projects that occur every year. Other state’s agencies are also involved in Pennsylvania’s cooperative fish habitat program. Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources’, Division of Wildlife, and Ohio State Parks both are involved in the annual habitat management project at Pymatuning Reservoir, since a portion of Pymatuning Reservoir is in Ohio.
How do you determine if Artificial Habitat is beneficial? Scientifically speaking, determining the fishery population value of artificial fish habitat in a large impoundment may be close to impossible. An impoundment is an incredibly complex aquatic ecosystem and fish populations and natural habitat abundance vary greatly from day to day, season to season and year to year, due primarily to regional environmental conditions. The fish use of artificial habitat can be documented through various sampling methods. The night electro-fishing is the method most often used to sample habitat in depths of 5’ or less.
Deep water habitat has been evaluated using submersible cameras and scuba diving. All of these are intrusive methods that can be used to study fish use of artificial habitat. A less intrusive method, but also less effective, is sonar sampling of habitat sites. Sonar can be used to determine if fish are relating to the artificial fish habitat structures, but sonar is not as effective to determine the abundance or the species richness as the other methods. Angling and angling satisfaction are another means to determine the value of a fish habitat improvement project.
The Commission uses all of these methods in regimented studies, in passive sampling and in undocumented discussions with anglers and facilities managers. The Division of Habitat Management is increasing the amount of sampling and monitoring to try and learn more about fish and reptile use of artificial lake habitat structures. This comes at a good time, since in the near future we will be accomplishing more habitat projects than ever before.
How many Lake Habitat Projects will the Commission be involved in by December 2009? It is estimated that the Lake Section will be involved with and conduct over 100 Small Scale Fish Habitat Projects and 6 Large Scale Fish Habitat Projects by 12/30/09. An estimated 3000 artificial habitat structures will be placed in Commonwealth lakes with the Commission spending an estimated $25,000. The cooperator and grant estimated contributions to total $125,000. Between grants, Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission project funding and cooperator contributions; the 4 person Lake Section is preparing to accomplish 100 lake habitat projects with an estimated materials cost of $150,000 in the next two years. This is an average cost of $50 per fish structure. This artificial habitat should last at least another two decades into the future.
Structure Fishing 101 By Paul Crawford If there has been any real revolution in fishing over the last 20 years, it’s been “structure fishing”. Bass fishing as a sport, depended on shallow water “bank beating” since it’s inception. Over the last 20 years, it has become fashionable to wander off shore in search of more and bigger fish. Much has been written and discussed, but there still seems to be some confusion over structure fishing, even among the pros, and the majority of the fishermen have just become off shore fishermen, not structure fishermen. Let’s look at what we mean by structure fishing, and some of the tricks of the trade. The definition of structure is a change in bottom contour, (I.e. depth), which results in an irregular feature on the bottom of the lake. Now just about any quick change in depth results in some type of structure, a hump, point, ledge, or something. The biggest misunderstanding seems to be the definition of “quick”. Quick is a relative term. In a traditional reservoir, this could be anything from a vertical drop to a gentle slope dropping 5 feet over a 30 yard distance. In a natural Florida lake, where it may normally take 1/4 mile to change depth by 1 foot, it may be a 6″ deep channel running through a 5 foot deep flat, or a two foot drop over 30 yards. Where ever you find it, structure is another edge in the underwater world, and we all agree that fish just love edges.
Let’s spend just a minute talking about what structure isn’t. Structure isn’t a weed bed on a flat, or an isolated stump, or a brush pile. All of these things are “cover”. A weed bed may constitute a different type of edge, both of the weeds and of the bottom composition, but not structure. Wood, whether natural or man made, is just some place to hide. Likewise, a feeding flat is a place, not a structure. We all have seen times when fish are on the flats and relating to cover. Even during those times, there will still be some fish around the surrounding structure. Even on days when the fish are straying away from structure, they generally won’t go that far if they don’t have to. Learn to recognize structure and it can narrow your search for fish dramatically.
Now that we can agree on what is structure and what is cover, we can also agree there are times when one or the other seems most important. Deep structure without cover can and does normally hold a few fish, but generally not a great concentration, at least of bass, (catfish and crappie are another story). And we blow by miles of shoreline or shallow water cover every trip that doesn’t have a concentration of bass. But put the two together, and you generally will find the fish stacked at least some of the time. The trick then is to know the other variables and be there at the right time. And every once in a great while we can find that honey hole with both structure and cover that have fish all the time, at least until we fish it out and have to find another one.
Types of Structure
We can define structure types by the relationship to the surrounding depths. The basic component of structure is the ledge. A ledge is simply a distinct change in depth. In a southern reservoir, this might be a drop of 5 feet over a twenty foot slope. In Florida, it is most times a drop of 6 inches to 1 foot over the same twenty foot slope. A ledge, by our definition, is a fairly straight line of depth change. Start putting some noticeable curves along the lip of a ledge, and you get other structure. A point is a protrusion of shallower water along a ledge. Surrounded by deeper water on three sides, it is the most recognizable and often the most productive type of structure. The opposite of a ledge is a cut. A cut is an indention in the line of a ledge with deeper water surrounded by shallow water on 3 sides. A hump is nothing more than a ledge that wraps around on itself, or an underwater island of sorts. A hump has deeper water on all sides. The opposite of a hump is simply a hole, literally deep water with shallow water on all sides. There are several other types we can talk about, but these are the basic types.
We now have our basic definitions, but we need to put some size restrictions on them, else everything is some type of structure. For instance, the main lake body could be seen as a hole, or simply a round set of ledges. We need to decide which one because we’d like to fish the structure differently depending on which type of structure we call it. As a reasonable guide, let’s look for just a second on how fish use structure. Structure, what ever it’s form, is a type of underwater transportation system. Fish generally follow a narrow depth getting from one place to another. The advantage of using structure edges is the deeper water provides an immediate escape route if you happen onto something much bigger than you. Now just like any road, fish rarely live right in the center lane. More likely, they will be just off one side or the other, which is were the cover part comes in. In any event, for our purposes, the extent or limit of a useful definition for a structure is the depth change itself and the reasonable area adjacent to the drop where fish will wander off to feed. In the case of our hole, a fish might reasonably wander out, say 100 feet into the hole without loosing the advantage of the edge for chasing shad. So, if we assume both sides of hole are good for 100 feet, then anything that is over 200 feet wide, at it’s narrowest part, isn’t a hole, just two separate ledges. Similarly, if a hole is too small to make use of each side, you have a ditch or a depression, not a hole. Each of these other cases may be useful, but for our discussion, they aren’t holes. Apply all of the same comments to the other structures: points, humps, cuts, etc.
Cover and Structures
Even with our size restrictions, we still have a tremendous area to work. But we can narrow the odds by putting one additional restriction on our prime structure. We already said we’d like structure with cover, but let’s now say we want the cover to end along the edge of our structure. A point with a grass bed is good. But if the grass bed happens to end right at the edge of the point, then the point is great!
Weed beds in particular are excellent types of cover to either change types, or stop all together right at the lip of the structure. A ledge may have heavy grass in say 10 feet on the top edge, while have either a different type of grass or, even better, no grass at all at the bottom edge. If you work the outside of the weed bed, you actually are working three edges at the same time, the vertical edge of the grass, the edge of the weed bed, and the depth change of the structure. Add a small point or cut in the straight ledge, and you have 4 or 5 edges. This is the kind of high percentage spot worth spending hours to find.
Standing wood is another case of cover at a structure. When you are fishing an old road bed or creek channel and the wood suddenly stops at a particular depth, you get all the advantages of the structure and the cover. I have found it necessary to be careful with defining wood on a ledge. Where you have creeks or roads, you a likely to also have hills or mounds. In this case you need to find a structure on a structure. Just because to the bed runs at a consistent depth, the top edge will, more often than not, rise and fall over mounds or small hills. A gentle slope up an underwater hill may concentrate the fish at a single tree because the depth is 6 inches different than the surrounding trees. If you don’t know what depth, it can be frustrating. On the other hand, a slight mount in on one side of a bed can act as a magnet for every fish in the area not actively hunting. Find an area with several of these mounds and you’ve got your honey hole. Depending on the local botany before it was flooded, you may be able to spot these mounds by looking for a specific type of tree which grew only on a mound or down in a cut. A perfect example is willow trees that would tend to have grown lower and closer to the water level of an old creek than say the surrounding oak trees. Cypress trees are another sure tip off of a change in structure level. You’ll read many times about a tournament won fishing a specific type of tree. More than likely, it wasn’t the wood type that made the difference, it was depth that type of tree was growing in before the lake was built. For more habitat ideas look at fishiding.com. the industry leader in artificial fish habitat and fish attractors.
Water Temperature and Structure
We’ve now established looking for a structure with cover, it’s time to chose among all structures with cover that ends at the structure edge. This will depend on several variables, water clarity, weather, season, stratification, temperature, etc. We could try to consider everything, but for starters, there is an easier way. Most of the changes can be interpreted as water temperature. Like any other generalization, it doesn’t work all of the time, but for 80 – 90% of the cases, it works just fine.
The general rule of thumb: “The Colder the Water, The Steeper the Drop.” Pretty simple, and it works. During winter and early spring, look for the fish to relate to a steep drop into deep water. This might be from 5′ or from 20′ into a deep hole, but the fast drop is the key. The fish will move during warmer periods to the upper shelf to feed and may suspend over the hole during those blue bird cold fronts. During summer and well into fall, look for a gentle slope into deeper water. The fish may range a couple of hundred yards from the structure but at least some will be on slope for most of the year. The only tough part about this is they may actually move deeper to feed and return to the slope to rest. But again, for the most part they will move into the cover for feeding while the bait is on the bottom.
Everything else being equal, we still don’t know at what depth we should look for our structure. In the Florida Chain Lakes, with different water clarity in different lakes, you can still find structure, with cover, the correct type of slope, and the correct contour in just about any depth. The tie breaker is again water temperature, just not surface temperature anymore. The most productive structure, all things being equal, will be where the structure tops out at the same depth as the thermocline. A thermocline, for those not normally worrying about those things, is a physical layer between two different temperatures of water. This normally exists when the lake is “stratified”, or during the summer when there is little movement between the upper and lower water layers. In this case, the cooler water will remain below the warmer upper layers. In the fall, as the upper water cools, it will normally fall within the water column, causing a lake to “turn over”, normally tough days to be fishing. Anyway, a structure near the thermocline with appropriate cover, can be a gold mine for fishing.
There are several ways to find a thermocline if one exists. The most obvious, and the most trouble, is to lower a temperature probe and look for a dramatic, (3 – 6 degrees), change in temperature. An easier way is to use your depth finder. A thermocline will reflect sound waves if the temperature change is great enough. Move to deep water and place your unit in manual mode. Increase the gain, (sensitivity), until you see a solid or broken line in the middle of the water column. If your depth finder has the little fish symbols on it, this may take the form of a line of fish around a particular depth. As you move the boat, this line may move slightly up or down, (a foot or so), but should remain pretty close for a given area. Find structure at that depth, and you should find fish. By the way, during the dog days of summer, you may find 2 or 3 thermoclines at the same time. Generally, the fish won’t be below the lower one, (commonly about 25′ in Florida). If you have 3 or more thermoclines, (more common on reservoirs where water 50′ plus is the rule), fish the middle one.
Fishing Structure
The absolute most important thing for fishing structure is your depth finder. A depth finder which can mark in 1/10′ or in inches is ideal for this application. Also, you’ll find it more comfortable if your depth finder is mounted on the bow with the transducer attached to the foot of the trolling motor. If you have only one depth finder, mounted on your console, then keep in mind the depth being shown is for the stern of the boat, not directly under you and your trolling motor. Get to be best friends with your depth finder, for structure fishing, it’s the most important piece of gear you’ve got.
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Most of the time, you’ll find the majority of the fish on the top lip of the structure. The rest of the time, you’ll find the fish suspended just past the lower edge at approximately the same depth as the upper edge. Boat position is the key to effectively fishing the structure. Run up and down your structure a time or two and get to know the rate of the slope and where it bottoms out at. Position the boat so at a full cast length, your lure is about 10 over the top edge while holding the boat in deeper water. Keep the boat at the same depth as you follow the contours of the structure. If you find a narrow cut, back off and fish the bottom of the cut as well as moving in and fishing the surrounding lip. If you move over a point, make sure to go back and fish the normal edge line across the top of the point as well as following the point out into deeper water.
While you’re fishing the top of the ledge, don’t forget the deeper side of the boat. Every 6 or 8 casts, turn around and heave one out into open water. Make sure you monitor your bait on the drop, that’s were the bite will be for suspended fish. Pay particular attention to suspended fish around the ends of points and at the corner of flats. More to see in the fishiding news page
After you’ve finished a run on a structure’s top edge, if it still looks promising, make another pass fishing the bottom edge. Position the boat as close as you can to the top edge, (where you’ve just fished), and use your bait to “feel” you way along the bottom edge. If the cover stops on the top edge, many times a different scattered grass, limbs, or simply trash will pile up on the bottom edge. If you can’t feel anything, and when all else fails, you can count down your lure and get a pretty consistent feel for the depth you’re fishing. This is also the pass you’d like to fish straight across points and cuts looking for fish suspended in the middle. In general, this deep water pass will also be your best bet of sticking that kicker you’re looking for.
If you think there are some suspended fish in the area, try a long Carolina rig. Instead of simply pulling the bait along the bottom, pop the bait up in the water. As the sinker drops, the bait will actually whip upwards and you can effectively cover 6 or 8 feet off the bottom. In these situations, expect a very light bite and give the bait plenty of time to float back to the bottom before the next jerk. It won’t be unusual to not feel anything and simply have a fish on when you raise your rod. You can increase your hook up ratio by gently raising the rod tip and feeling for pressure before jerking the bait off the bottom. This is a prime example of the wisdom of the adage, ” The Jerk’s Free”.
There are a hundred other ways to fish various structures, and there are many more variations of the structures themselves. We’ll look in future articles at the more specific structures and techniques, but this pretty much covers the basics. Give structure fishing a try and I think you’ll like the results. Like most other techniques, it more a matter of confidence than anything. Given the right situation, structure fishing can open up a whole new world of schools of fish and big bites! See you off shore.
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
CATCH AND RELEASE OR SELECTIVE HARVEST? – BY DR. RICHARD O ANDERSON Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 5:33pm Dr. Richard Anderson is a legendary fisheries biologist who helped develop relative weight tables of fish that today’s biologist use religiously. He resides near Houston, Texas.
Grandpa told me a long time ago. “If they’re big enough to bite, they’re big enough to keep.” I’ll always remember his philosophies. He grew up in an era where fish were for food more than fun.
I’ll also never forget the time my wife caught two bass on the same plug, undernourished fish chasing anything that hit the surface of the pond. Such fishing memories are priceless.
The philosophy and approaches to management of fish populations in ponds have changed a great deal since the good ole days. We have a much better understanding of fish population structure and dynamics because of research on fishing ponds in the Midwest.
Should I keep this fish or put it back? For some people, largemouth bass have become a sacred cow and the answer is obvious. Catch and release has been a benefit to the quality of fish and fishing in many larger and public lakes.
But, this is not so in most private lakes and ponds. In lightly fished lakes and fishing ponds there is often a surplus of eight to twelve inch bass.
It helps to make an educated decision about which fish to keep or release if you know the fish population structure: e.g. length-frequency distribution of bass and panfish. The index of size distribution is called “proportional size distribution” or simply “PSD.”
Specific lengths of fish define “stock,” “quality” and “preferred” sizes. For largemouth bass these total lengths are eight, twelve and fifteen inches: for bluegill these lengths are three, six and eight inches. The index is determined as a whole number as the proportion of fish longer than quality size in stock. If ten largemouth bass longer than eight inches are caught and two of those are longer than twelve inches the PSD is 20: if no fish are caught longer than 15.0 inches the PSD-P is 0. Angling is an excellent way to estimate population PSD of bass.
Tracking PSD is an excellent way to keep a running tabulation on the progress (or lack of) of your fish populations. PSD is a useful tool for a lake or pond manager to make decisions when (and which) fish to harvest.
However, size of bluegill caught by angling does not reflect fish population PSD because few or no fish as small as three inches are caught. People just don’t fish for tiny bluegill. When six to eight out of ten bluegill caught are quality sizes the population PSD is probably between 20 and 60. Consider this a well-balanced population of those key panfish. When few or no bluegill longer than six inches are caught, the PSD is likely less than ten; fish are probably stunted with slow growth and high natural mortality. Only the smallest of age-4 survive to age-5.
The number 3.0 to 5.9 inches long can be in the thousands per acre. In several Midwest fishing ponds with a bluegill PSD less than 10, total weight of bluegill was three hundred or more pounds per acre i.e. carrying capacity for bluegill. With an increasing PSD there was a decline in bluegill standing crop such that when PSD was about 60 bluegill biomass was about 150 pounds per acre or 50% of carrying capacity.
With lower standing crop there is little competition for food in the fishing pond and individuals grow faster, live longer and some reach preferred size. Adequate predation by bass of quality size can reduce numbers of stock and quality size of the fishery down to hundreds per acre and a PSD of 60.
When the PSD of largemouth bass is less than 10 they may also be stunted and few survive to age 5. Their condition or index of well being called “relative weight” (Wr) is probably less than 90. This common fish population structure can result from a twelve-inch minimum size limit or a preference to keep bass of quality size. The PSD of such fish populations can be increased with selective harvest of bass less than twelve inches while releasing all bass of quality size. This process is called, “selective harvest.” Maintain that selective harvest until the proportion of fish eight to twelve inches long is equal to those twelve to fifteen inches long. With these proportions the Wr of both fish size groups should be about 100, or the optimum value for growth efficiency: i.e. about three pounds of gain for each pound of fish consumed. When competition for food is keen and Wr is low, fish may lose weight or it may take five to ten pounds of prey for a bass to gain one pound. When there is a surplus of prey and Wr is well over I(X), growth efficiency is lower because excess protein is converted to fat.
All pond owners should spend some time keeping track of numbers and sizes caught by angling in their fishing ponds. Set up a spreadsheet in your computer and track each year’s catch records by plotting bluegill PSD on the vertical axis and bass PSD on the horizontal axis. Both scales should be 0 to 100. Estimate bluegill PSD by subtracting 20 from angling PSD unless numbers are near O or 100. For the records just keep track of the numbers of bluegill shorter and longer than six inches total length. For example-if three bluegill less than six inches are caught from your fishing pond and seven longer than six are landed the angling PSD is 70 (7 divided by 10 x 100) and the estimated population PSD is 50. All fishing ponds with bluegill and largemouth bass will be plotted somewhere on this graph.
Decide your pond management objectives. If you prefer larger bluegill, protect more bass and be satisfied with a PSD less than 30. If you prefer to catch larger bass harvest those less than 15 inches long and catch and release those of preferred size.
When the PSD’s of bluegill and bass in your pond is around 60, you have reached the balance of nature, the way these fish populations have evolved. About 40% of bass will be 8.0 to 11.9 inches long, 40% 12.0 to 14.9 inches long and 20% longer than 15 inches. Your fish population will be near carrying capacity for bass and panfish populations will be near 50% of their carrying capacity. In a typical Midwest fishing pond this could be 150 pounds of bluegill and 40 to 50 pounds of bass. This structure can be sustained by catch and release of all bass and bluegill.
You are likely to be dissatisfied with low ecological efficiency of mediocre fish populations of PSD less than 10 of both bass and bluegill. But, such fishing ponds are ideal to introduce your children or grandchildren to fishing. These hungry fish are much easier to catch than fish in well balanced populations.
Some of my favorite fishing memories are from a 35 acre private fishing lake in Boone County. Missouri. It was opened to fishing with a twelve-inch minimum length limit to prevent initial overharvest of bass. After two seasons, it was obvious there was a surplus of eight to twelve inch bass in the fishing lake. The regulation was changed to protect bass twelve to fifteen inches long, the first ever application of a “slot limit” on bass. Gizzard shad were also stocked, to help forage fish production. After two years, the Wr of bass of all sizes was over l00. Over the next five years the angling PSD of bluegill ranges from 50-90 and bass PSD ranged from 20 to 60. The regulation was considered a success for the fishery.
But, for those few years with bass PSD of 10 and Wr near 90, this lake was unforgettable for my family. My daughters were about eight and ten years old at the time. They were more into “catching” than “fishing.” There was a hatch of black caddis flies (Trichoptera) and bass were behaving like trout. Any cast near a rise produced a strike. I didn’t catch any fish that day. Didn’t have time. Only had time to unhook and release what they caught. Those memories, too, are priceless.
Maybe we should have kept those fish?
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.
Big Cedar Lodge
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:
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
