The good news for fishermen doesn’t end with brook trout in the Smokies….turns out that new fishing opportunities have arisen in New Mexico, for the Gila Trout.  The Gila trout is native to the Southwestern U.S. and has experienced declines due mainly to habitat loss and the presence of nonnative rainbow and brown trout………(kind of a recurring theme for imperiled fish species).  Since being listed as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildife Service in 1966, Gila populations have finally recovered to the point where the species has been downlisted to threatened.  

This opened the door for Gila trout fishing opportunities for the first time in decades.  The season starts July 1, and regulations will be different among the waters opened to fishing.  See the New Mexico Game and Fish Department website for more details.  

Officials say that recovery efforts do not stop with the species’ downlisting, and they plan to take strides to ensure that Gila populations continue to grow.

See the whole story here

After seeing and hearing countless depressing stories about how irrigation canals lead to declines in fish populations, I’ll admit I started to doubt the possibility of successful agriculture interests and fish conservation working hand in hand.  But I like to see the glass half full, and have a goal of eventually working to promote cooperation between state agencies and the farming/ranching/logging community.  I think that it can work in more cases than we might think, if each side takes a common sense approach to mangement.  So when I read the story of cooperation between the Los Molinos Mutual Water Company and the California Dept. of Fish and Game to promote salmon migration in Mill Creek, I was really encouraged.

See the story here 

After a 30 year ban on fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, anglers will soon be able to try their luck pursuing the beautiful speckled trout once again.  Brook trout populations, once prevalent in the area, have declined from historic levels, apparently due to a combination of habitat degradation and introductions of nonnative species……an unfortunate but common theme in fisheries biology.  However, restoration efforts have been ongoing, and research has shown that environmental effects, not fishing, are the driving force behind the area’s brook trout population fluctuations.  And since fishing pressure has minimal effect in the big picture, there’s no point in restricting it any longer.

Read the whole story here 

I finally got out in the field today, a welcome break from office work.  I went on a mini backpack electrofishing trip to collect fish for part of my research on a local stream. 

Because the area I work in contains an important Bonneville cutthroat trout metapopulation, the presence of brown trout and their role in the system is a major concern.  We’re trying to figure out whether or not brown trout are piscivorous (eat fish), and more specifically, if they’re eating cutthroat trout. 

While brown trout are known to be piscivorous in many other systems, our data thus far has not shown that they eat other trout.  Basically, they seem to eat what is most available.  Since the water is so incredibly productive here, most of the food items we find in fish stomachs are aquatic insects such as caddisflies, mayflies and stoneflies.  However, there seems to be a fairly strong shift in diet composition that is directly tied to seasonality.  In late summer, aquatic and terrestrial insects are the main diet staple.  In late fall and early winter, when these insects are less prevalent in the drift, they feed on fewer insects and more sculpins, which are a small minnow-like fish species (Cottidae) that live near the stream bottoms. 

We hypothesize that if brown trout are feeding on cutthroat trout, they’re most likely to do it when cutthroats are most available, in areas where the two species co-exist.  This could very well happen in mid-summer, when juvenile cutthroat trout are first emerging from their redds in the gravel.  Many of these fish emerge and drift downstream, if they aren’t strong enough to swim to more suitable areas.  This is when I suspect that the browns may be feeding on cutthroat trout, which is why I’ll conduct most of my sampling the second half of July. 

Sampling includes collecting fish via electrofishing, measuring and weighing them, collecting scales for aging, and pumping stomachs to extract gut contents.  We pump stomachs by placing a small hose, which is attached to a pump, into the fish’s stomach and pumping water into the stomach to flush out all of its contents.  Some fish will be sacrificed (killed and opened up) to validate the stomach pumping technique.  

Out of the 60 fish collected today, I found no fish in stomach contents.  Most of the items collected were aquatic and terrestrial insects such as caddisfly larvae, mayfly larvae, stonefly larvae, cicadas, wasps, and ants.        

When most American anglers think Carp, ugly images come to mind.  Carp, the big, ugly looking members of the Cyprinid family of fishes are an imported fish courtesy of Europe.  In England, believe it or not, the ever-so-popular carp is a transplant as well….of Asian origin.  Carp are incredibly popular fish in Europe, targeted both for table fare as well as sport.  Many English fishermen bask in the idea of catching carp on the fly, and would never think but to release these ’beauties’ after the catch.  In fact, the fish are so dear to many of our European counterparts that repeatedly caught fish are often given names! 

Fast forward to the United States, where carp were introduced in 1877 in Maryland and D. C. in attempts to provide an easily reared food source.  In subsequent years they became widespread throughout the country, to the point where they now present a serious problem to many aquatic ecosystems.  When present in a water body, carp tend to frequent the shallows, and feed on aquatic vegetation, muddying the water and destroying habitat utilized by other fish for cover.        

Carp control has been attempted in many areas in an attempt to restore habitat for game fish, but can be fairly expensive if a market for the fish does not exist.  Most of the market for carp in the U.S. is limited to local food markets, with some large scale industrial applications such as dog food production.  In a nutshell, carp are here to stay, and most people, especially fisheries managers, are becoming increasingly frustrated with the pesky critters.

However, the news isn’t all bad.  The American Carp Society states that sport fishing for carp in the U.S. is growing at a fast pace.  Some new bowfishing opportunities have also arisen with the presence of carp.  Bowfishing is a sport by which fishermen stalk their quarry with bow and arrow.  The arrow is attached to a length of string, which is attached to a reel on the bow.  Fish are shot with the arrow, which has a protruding mechanism that prevents it from being pulled back through the fish, upon which the target fish can be pulled in.  Those European carp fishermen would be shocked.  In fact, they are…..almost as shocked as we are that they flyfish for such trash!!!  Regardless, we have plenty of great native sport fish in this country, as well as some successfull imports.  While the carp may never succeed as a major sport fish, and its introduction ultimately did more ‘bad’ than ‘good’, it does offer some promise in quite a unique niche.

Is it really possible that reducing prey numbers after their predator has been overfished might result in recovery of the predator population?  In some cases, yes.  Check out this interesting blog entry by Jeremy Cherfas where he points to Scandanavian research where biologists found the answer to recovering depleted brown trout stocks.

Updated: See the story here

Virgil Moore, director of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, resigned this week after less than a year on the job.  Moore will head back to Idaho Fish and Game, where he held his previous job before moving to Oregon.  Moore states that being closer to his family, who still live in Idaho, was his reason for resigning, but you can’t help but wonder if Oregon’s fierce political environment in the fish and wildlife world helped influence his decision.  Oregon and Washington seem to be in a constant political mess when it comes to fisheries and wildlife issues, where big city special interest groups and rural conservatives clash heads in a seemingly constant fashion.  I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Moore at this years annual meeting of the Idaho Chapter of the American Fisheries Society.  Oregon’s loss will be Idaho’s gain, and I’m sure Idaho Fish and Game is glad to have him back.    

Local California salmon guides are outraged by the stocking practices of local Fish and Game officials, who stock truckloads of salmon smolts into the ocean weekly, which are eaten almost immediately by striped bass.  The guides contend that their resource is being wasted by essentially being converted into bass food.  These salmon represent a valuable resource for the guides, who are paid by clients to catch big salmon.  The guides suggest that Fish and Game think about alternative strategies for stocking these fish, such as rotating stocking times and locations in order to keep the bass from keying in on this easy food resource.  Sounds like a good idea!  Check out the local story.

Check out the latest Black Bear Blog post on the issue of politics and their role in wildlife management.  Tom brings up some excellent points and it’s a great read.

Think about those days where you just can’t seem to get the fish to bite.  Wouldn’t it be nice to send a good ol’ shock through the water and get ‘em.  That’s just what the Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife was doing recently on the Kennebec River.  Join writer Travis Barrett of Central Maine Newspapers as he experiences the rush of electrofishing first hand.