Freshwater Fishing News

In June, 2011, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, in cooperation with the West Virginia Professional Outfitters Association (WVPRO), stocked 1,500 pounds of rainbow trout in the Summersville Dam Tailwater of the Gauley River.

The goal of the stocking is to enhance trout fishing opportunities in the Gauley River, especially in the remote canyon section of the Gauley River, according to Frank Jezioro, DNR Director.

“The trout stockings were conducted by helicopter and should provide good fishing in the summer and fall,” Jezioro said.  The program is supported by rafting fees to compensate for additional days of whitewater rafting flows on the Gauley River and reduced fishing opportunities during these high flows released from Summersville Dam.

source: West Virginia Division of Natural Resources

Bull trout will soon return to Oregon’s Clackamas River, one of their home waters from which they were completely wiped out nearly 50 years ago.

As part of an overall recovery strategy for this threatened species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will reintroduce the native fish to this major tributary of the Willamette River near Portland over the next month.

Reestablishing bull trout in this area of its former range also may lead to other bull trout reintroductions in the future to reconnect isolated populations.

Formally, the project involves a federal rule-making under the Endangered Species Act, to be published in the June 21, 2011 Federal Register, to restore a “non-essential experimental” population. While it is illegal to deliberately “take” (kill or harm) any listed species, this special classification under the act provides a less restrictive level of protection and precludes anyone who accidentally kills or harms the listed species from being in violation of the law.

Starting this summer, bull trout of different life stages will be reintroduced into historic bull trout habitat in the upper Clackamas River above the confluence with the Collawash River, within the Mt. Hood National Forest.

Donor stock comes from a healthy bull trout population in the Metolius River.  The project is expected to include additional fish transfers annually for at least seven and possibly up to 15 years.  The goal is to reestablish a self-sustaining population of 300-500 spawning adult bull trout within 20 years.

Prior to the bull trout’s listing under the Endangered Species Act in 1999, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Forest Service had been considering restoring bull trout to the Clackamas for several years.

The Service, ODFW, Forest Service, NOAA Fisheries, and other partners began considering the possibility in 2005.  They worked together to thoroughly evaluate the biological feasibility of a reintroduction effort, assess impacts to the broader ecosystem and especially other protected species, seek public input, and develop a plan for carrying it out.

This approach involved considering the interactions between different species, including the Clackamas populations of coho salmon, spring and fall Chinook salmon, and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act.  The Service, ODFW, and other partners developed a robust monitoring and adaptive management program for assessing the effectiveness of reintroduction and impacts to listed salmon and steelhead.

Although population level effects to salmon and steelhead are not expected to result from the bull trout reintroduction, the project will be modified, halted, or even reversed if impacts are greater than anticipated.

No otherwise lawful activities will be prohibited to protect the Clackamas River non-essential experimental population of bull trout.  Oregon’s sportfishing regulations would apply just like any other area of the state; under current fishing regulations any bull trout must be immediately released unharmed.  Federal projects would not be altered or stopped to protect the reintroduced population.

From a biological standpoint, the continued existence of the rangewide bull trout population is not conditioned upon a newly restored one in the Clackamas River. Restoring bull trout to areas they once ranged is an important means of recovering the species rangewide, however, and the Service expects the Clackamas River effort may serve as a model for other similar reintroductions in the future.

The area covered by the “non-essential experimental” population provisions is the entire Clackamas River, with the exception of the Oak Grove Fork above Timothy Lake Dam (which historically was not accessible by bull trout due to an impassable natural barrier).

In addition, it includes the Willamette River from Willamette Falls downstream to the confluence with the Columbia River, including the Multnomah Channel, because of the very low possibility of fish migrating downriver.  On the Clackamas, the size of the covered area is about 70 river miles, but the covered area also includes countless miles of its tributaries.

Other partners providing assistance are the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, which manage, along with ODFW, bull trout in the Metolius River; Portland General Electric, which owns and operates the Clackamas River Hydroelectric Project; NOAA Fisheries, which leads conservation efforts for listed salmon and steelhead in the region; and the U.S. Geological Survey, which is providing scientific support.

Bull trout are primarily threatened by habitat degradation and fragmentation, blockage of migratory corridors from hydroelectric and diversion dams, poor water quality, the effects of climate change, and past fisheries management practices, including targeted eradication through bounty fishing and the introduction of non-native species such as brown, lake, and brook trout.

Bull trout have been extirpated from four sub-basins in the Willamette River Basin, including the Clackamas River. Once widely distributed in the Clackamas River, the last known bull trout was documented there in 1963.  The species is highly unlikely to re-colonize the area naturally due to the geographic distance to existing bull trout populations.

The Clackamas River was chosen primarily because factors that caused bull trout to disappear there have been remedied.  There are currently no dams that would impede bull trout migration, since those that remain now have fish passage facilities.  A significant amount of spawning and rearing habitat exists in the upper Clackamas and tributaries.  In addition, much of the upper Clackamas is either part of the Federal Wild and Scenic Rivers System or part of the Oregon Scenic Waterway program.

Once plentiful throughout the coldwater rivers and lakes of the Northwest, bull trout populations in the U.S. are now scattered and patchy in portions of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada.  They occur in the Columbia and Snake River Basins, extending east to headwater streams in Montana and Idaho and north into Canada, and south into the Klamath River Basin in south-central Oregon.  Though still wide-ranging, many of the remaining populations are small and isolated from each other.

Some bull trout populations are migratory, spending portions of their life cycle in larger rivers or lakes before returning to smaller streams to spawn, while others complete their entire life cycle in the same stream.  Some bull trout in the Coastal-Puget Sound population migrate between fresh- and saltwater.  Bull trout require extremely cold, clean water and specific habitat features, as well as connectivity from river, lake, and ocean habitats to headwater streams for annual spawning and feeding migrations.

source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

To make up for angling opportunities lost due to the Wallow Fire, Arizona Game and Fish Department recently announced that the agency is increasing rainbow trout stocking at select lakes and one stream in the Show Low and Pinetop-Lakeside areas.

“Over the next several weeks, our plan is to stock Scott Reservoir and Show Low Lake with more than 7,000 rainbow trout and to put more than 9,000 rainbows in Fool Hollow Lake,” said Mike Lopez, fisheries program manager in the department’s Pinetop regional office. “Included in the total for each lake will be at least 750 fat rainbows measuring 12 inches or more.”

In addition to these lakes, Silver Creek will begin receiving more than 3,800 catchable-sized Apache trout each week through much of the summer.

source: Arizona Game and Fish Department

Indiana DNR Fish & Wildlife will stock trout in Pigeon River in Steuben and LaGrange counties, Turkey Creek in LaGrange County, Little Elkhart River in Elkhart County, Little Kankakee River in LaPorte County and Potato Creek in St. Joseph County.

DNR will stock Pigeon River at County Road 175 North and at County Line Road.  Turkey Creek will be stocked at County Road 150 North.  Both stream crossings are located on Pigeon River Fish & Wildlife Area.

The stocking scheduled for the Little Elkhart River will take place at the Bonneyville Mill County Park.

Little Kankakee River will be stocked with additional trout at County Road 100 South.

Potato Creek trout will be stocked within Potato Creek State Park near the paved bicycle trail creek crossing.  Parking is available at the West lot.

Anglers targeting these fish will have to hike or bike approximately one mile along the bicycle trail to get to the area but will be rewarded with unrestricted access along a naturally scenic stream.

Although these sites will be the only areas to receive additional trout in May, fish from the initial releases in late April are still available in most of northern Indiana’s trout streams, as high water during the opening weekend provided tough fishing conditions.

The DNR practice of making additional stockings at a few sites, which began in 1990, provides a bonus and extends trout fishing opportunities.

source: Indiana DNR Fish & Wildlife

Natural stream flow suits native trout populations best, according to a study that examines the impacts of dam operations on threatened freshwater trout. The study appears in River Research and Applications.

In a study to identify the potential impacts of Hungry Horse Dam (Montana) operations on declining native trout populations, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey, Miller Ecological Consultants, Inc., Spatial Sciences & Imaging and Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks examined how changes in river flow affect fish habitat on the upper Flathead River in Montana.

“Our research suggests past flow management practices created sporadic flow fluctuations that were likely detrimental to threatened bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout populations in the upper Columbia River Basin,” said Clint Muhlfeld, project leader and USGS scientist. “With Montana providing 40 percent of the U.S. water storage in the Columbia Basin Power and Flood Control system, water demands –and biological impacts—are significant.”

Populations of native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout have declined throughout ranges in western North America due to a many factors, including habitat destruction, fragmentation and non-native species. Dam operations in the Columbia River Basin have contributed to these declines by changing flow and habitat, and disrupting routes of fish migration.

Loss of habitat connectivity and habitat modification can be especially detrimental to native trout populations, the study found. These fish migrate to spawn and feed and prefer large, relatively pristine habitats that are connected without any barriers such as dams.  Although the upper Flathead River system in Montana and British Columbia, Canada, is considered a regional and range-wide stronghold for bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout these populations may be threatened by the effects of 55 years of altering flow downstream of the Hungry Horse Dam.

Results of the study further suggest that dam management strategies that are more similar to the natural flow of the river will likely improve the chances of protecting habitat and help to maintain and restore bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout populations.

“Analyses comparing the natural flow of the mainstem Flathead River (predam, 1929–1952) with five postdam flow management strategies (1953–2008) show that natural flow conditions optimize the threatened bull trout habitats and that the current management practices best resemble the natural flow conditions of all postdam periods,” Muhlfeld said.

One caveat to this observation, said Muhlfeld, is the practice of increasing flow in the late summer to help fish species such as salmon and steelhead, known as “anadromous” because they migrate from salt water to fresh water to breed.  According to the study, increasing flow to benefit one species is actually reducing the amount of suitable habitat for another – the bull trout, a species listed as a threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

“Several studies have shown that dam operations have profound effects on anadromous fishes, yet before ours, few studies have examined the impacts of flow management strategies on habitats of threatened, native trout species in the upper Columbia River Basin,” Muhlfeld said.

Results from the study are featured in the April 2011 early online edition of River Research and Applications.  The article is titled “Assessing the impacts of river regulation on native bull trout (salvelinus confluentus) and westslope cutthroat trout (oncorhynchus clarki lewisi) habitats in the Upper Flathead River, Montana, USA” and can be viewed online.

source: USGS