Conservation September 2010

Housatonic River TMA

Thermal Refuge Enhancement Work

By Dan Kenny

Background  

In 2008, the CTDEP Fisheries rolled out a new fishery management plan after three years of studying the impact of the new run of river flows. The plan consisted of a few key components. The first was a doubling of annual stocked fish from 9,000 to 18,000. They reintroduced stocking adult and yearling rainbows. They stocked adult browns.  They continued the annual stocking of 9000 browns some of which are survivor strain.   They distributed the numbers of fish equally in the spring and fall in 2009. They also committed to assist volunteer groups to work on improvements to existing thermal refuges, to identify new refuges, and to help identify alternative methods to promote maximum trout survival through the summer months.

In 2007 and 2008 flows were much higher and air temps much lower than normal providing optimum river conditions for trout growth, survival, and holdover rates. The only negative was that because of higher flows we could not conduct as much in-river thermal refuge enhancements. The free flowing sections of the Housatonic River, unlike the Farmington River and the East and West branches of the Delaware River, do not benefit from deep impoundment releases of cold water in summer months. The Housy summer water temps are similar to other large un-impounded rivers like the Beaverkill – thus unless there is regulation to prohibit angling in thermal refuges areas (mouths of feeder brooks) and promoting maintenance  and enhancement of thermal refuges annually trout mortality increases in summer months. Trout survival in waters like these is dependent on cooler summer river/air temps, less angling/handling pressure, less predation, and greater access to thermal refuges for trout. Refuge work requires annual modifications due to winter ice jams.      

We also need to anticipate that mother nature will throw us a curve ball every 10-15 years with a very prolonged warm and dry period that may have greater than average impacts (fish kills) which was the case this year. We should not get discouraged as we have seen this in the past and the river has rebounded with good numbers of holdovers.

This year we had lower than average flows from March through May with some rain in early June so our refuge work was delayed until July. In June HFFA and the Ct Council of TU began an email campaign to assemble a team of volunteers to work on selected sites on days were flows were <500cfs.  

Our first 2010 project opportunity, based on flows, was at the Furnace Brook refuge and the Church Pool refuge on Tuesday, June 29, from 7 to noon so not to disturb any trout heading for refuge during the hottest time of the day. The day before, 30 trout were observed in the refuge, before any enhancement, during the hottest part of the afternoon. Mike Humphreys, CTDEP biologist provided a work plan and plenty of personal muscle. CTDEP had previously secured all necessary permits to allow for our work. Volunteers from HFFA were Dan Kenny, Glenn Fettes, Jr., Phil Maxwell and Tom Kelley. Also helping from TU were Mike Piquette, Ron Merly, Frank Plona and 1 other TU member.  As shown in the attached photos we nearly doubled the size of the Furnace refuge via rolling boulders and we also created good natural log canopy over a portion of the refuge to discourage animal and human predators. The trout really liked this cover. We then created a 4 foot wide channel directing cooler refuge water 100 feet down river to the Church Pool. The day was very hot. Later in the afternoon we observed hundreds of fish primarily large rainbows entering the refuge.   

Our second 2010 project was conducted at the Mill Brook refuge just upriver from the covered bridge on Sunday, July 11 @ 7 AM. As we arrived we observed several trout directly under the Mill River bridge and a couple dozen in the main stem below the confluence. Mike Humphreys was unable to attend but previously prescribed our work plan which was to direct all cooler water from the Mill down an 80 foot long, 4 foot wide and 2 feet deep culvert through the dried river bed to a lower area in the main stem directly under the Covered Bridge. We did that and also allowed some seepage to enter the mainstem in an oxygenated mainstem area slightly up river. In attendance were basically the same group of volunteers plus HFFA members Sam D’Ambrouso and Seamus Brown. We finished there around 10 and proceed to work on less significant refuge flows located at Pine Swamp and Carse Brooks. We conducted some cool water channelings at both sites and finished our work around noon. After lunch we watched dozens of large size rainbows enter both enhanced areas at the new Mill Brook refuges. 

Within about two weeks I had reports that the population mix in the Furnace and Mill refuges changed from primarily large rainbows to a couple hundred of trout, mostly browns, of all sizes. I personally witnessed this change is on July 31 and later had additional confirmations from other sources. We suspect most of the large size stocked rainbows that first took refuge were lost due to warm dry conditions around July 15 as well as some of the smaller stocked rainbows. We suspect this may be because most strains are less tolerant to warmer flows as compared to brown trout.

This thermal enhancement process as stated above is part of the fishery management plan. We got off to a late start promoting this project in 2010. We plan promote the 2011 project, on an ongoing basis, in our newsletter and in our website. Weather permitting we would like to start work in early June.

I would like to extend specials thanks to all the volunteers from HFFA and TU who helped and worked hard in the river this summer. Thanks to Jim Glowienka, CT TU Council Chairman for also promoting this project. Many of our members also are members of other conservation organizations such as Trout Unlimited. I am pleased that this was a collaborative effort.

I have received compliments from CTDEP and river guides on our work product. CTDEP is already looking at additional work sites and as well as new cool water flow diversion options for 2011.

For those members who believe in and enjoy working on in-river conservations projects please get in touch with Dan Kenny of HFFA to get on the volunteer list for 2011.

HFFA has a strong reputation on conservation achievements in the past – the Charles Downing Lay Award for Outstanding Conservation Efforts; National Wildlife Federation President’s AWARD; Outstanding Achievement Award from the Federation of Fly fishers; and Ct Sportsmen Alliance -Outstanding Sportsmen Organization Award. I would like to see our efforts on this project lead to achievement of our goal first and hopefully be acknowledged by an award.   

Finally, despite the very severe drought conditions this year I know we made an impact. This Fall when you hook up and release beautifully colored browns and bows with perfect fins – those are the survivors that we saved! 

Imagine the collective impact we will have on trout survival and growth if we commit adequate resources to this project every year! I hope we do because it is in our conservation and angling interest.

See you on the river!

Dan

Conservation May 2010

Current Housatonic River flow at March 22 is 3,290 cubic feet per second; not exactly “two weight water”. There is still a lot of snow pack water coming through. The frigid water levels are coming down rapidly, however. Many anglers are fishing other smaller TMAs throughout the State. There should be a plentiful supply of trout in the River. The State stocked 18,000 trout last year in the upper Housatonic TMA as well as 8,500 in the Bulls Bridge TMA. Help us protect the supply of fish by careful handling when releasing them. Make sure you have barbless hooks. It makes life a lot easier when releasing fish.  

Housatonic River Clean-up: The annual River clean up is Saturday, May 15. We will meet at the Housatonic Meadows State Park in the upper picnic area at 10am. Bring gloves and good walking shoes. We will supply the garbage bags. We need your help on this. Please plan on attending.  

Striped Bass: As many of you know, there is a disease problem (microbacteriousus) with striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay area.  Some of the fish have sores on their bodies and the problem appears to be getting worse. Anglers are being advised not to handle the fish. There has been a concern…and we emphasize “concern”…that the microbacteriousus may be contagious. There is nothing is writing about this at this point. However, we are advising anglers to use precautions when handling stripers this season. Do not touch them if they have sores on the bodies. At the same time, commercial stripers quotas are being increased for the advantage of the commercial people. That’s a bit confusing to say the least especially with the Chesapeake Bay problem. All this spells big pressure on stripers this season.

 Happy days ahead. Remember to take a kid fishing. 

Sam D’Ambruoso Treasurer and Conservation Chair

Conservation March 2010

This past week, as I went through mountains of old documents and files in the cellar, I came across the old fish-stocking HFFA records from 1975 through 1977. These were the days well before the TMA and well before the on-set of the personal computer.  I was Conservation Chair at that time and for the 18 years that followed. 

We used to accept donations from members for the sole purpose of stocking fish in the River. And what fish they were- 2, 3, 4 pound browns and rainbows and sometimes heavier. Live fish in those days were a mere $1 and something a pound. They were delivered by Davey’s Trout Hatchery and other Pennsylvania hatcheries to the waiting HFFA members on the River who eagerly placed one or two of these fish into prime holdover sections. Our stocking teams, anywhere between 15 and 20 members at a time, placed a serial numbered yellow tag through the dorsal fin of each fish which was accomplished on the stocking trucks.

 These were the very early days of catch and release policy being established for fisheries. When a fish was caught, before it was released back into the waters, the Members would take the tags off the fish and would send the tags to the Club. Besides a serial number, we had our HFFA address on the tag as well. Members would report were the fish were caught and we would measure migration patterns. One time a pair of browns migrated from the Sand Hole down to Kent Falls State Park. We charted migration patterns by hand.  These were the days before the personal computer – if you can imagine that. We eventually went to 16” caliber of fish. We got more for our money which in those days amounted to more fish in the River. These were also the days of a State stocking of 18,000 to 24,000 fish per year.

 These records will be available at the next March meeting in case anyone wanted to take a look. Perhaps you can recognize some names of past members. I even have the old Membership list. At the very least, you can see the amount of contributions along with the volunteers that we had in those days which went a long way in helping the growth of organization.

 Sam D’Ambruoso                                                                                                               Treasurer and Conservation Chair

Farmington River Survey

Greetings!

I have fished the Farmington River over 30 years.  The fishery has come a long way in the last 35 years.  It has grown from a small trout, put and take fishery to one of the best  streams in the northeast.  Some changes are being considered in the management of the TMA.  These changes are intended, at least in part, to continue the steady improvement in wild trout in the river.  I have put a brief survey together to learn how other fishermen feel about some of the issues involved.  I have shared this with Neal Hagstrom from the Fisheries Dept and he is enthusiastic to see everyone’s feedback as well. I hope to get as much involvement as possible.   Please pass the link to this survey on to your membership and anyone else you know who might be willing to take a few minutes to complete the survey..  The more people we have participate the more our voice will be heard.

There are two ways you can send the survey through email.  You can send folks directly to the survey by linking to

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dHd6WDAyN0FWTWZYdWphZjRZeEpTN2c6MA

So, if you want, you can include something in your email like – “Please take a few minutes to complete this Farmington River Survey,” so when readers click on it they go directly to the survey.  Alternatively, you can refer folks to www.farmingtonriver.blogspot.com which is a blog I put together to present the survey.

Email to your members is likely to generate the most responses but if you are willing to post it to your site, once again you have two choices.  You can embed the actual survey in your site with the following code;

<iframe src=\”http://spreadsheets.google.com/embeddedform?formkey=dHd6WDAyN0FWTWZYdWphZjRZeEpTN2c6MA\” width=\”760\” height=\”4975\” frameborder=\”0\” marginheight=\”0\” marginwidth=\”0\”>Loading…</iframe>

Or, you can simply put a link up on your site to either www.farmingtonriver.blogspot.com or

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dHd6WDAyN0FWTWZYdWphZjRZeEpTN2c6MA

which will take them directly to the survey form.

Whatever you can do would be greatly appreciated.  I think you would agree, the Farmington River has grown into a first rate trout stream.  Changes to management policies should be considered carefully with input from its most important constituency, we fishermen.  At the same time, prospects of catching quality wild trout is exciting as well.

I look forward to hearing from you, your members and other fishermen you can pass this message on to.  Thanks for your help.

Greg Miller

Handling and Releasing a Fish    November 2009

A short note.  Well maybe not so short, on the handling of fish.  Handling of the fish we catch and then releasing them back into the water is a crucial point in conserving a catch and release fishery.  Here are some simple steps that I think will work to help us with this objective:
 
1. Before you make the first cast, make sure the hooks have no barbs on them.  It makes releasing fish a lot easier. It also prevents those unsightly sores we see on the fish’s mouth from being previously caught. In Montana, some guides are cutting the barb off and just experiencing the rise of the trout to the fly and perhaps a few tugs of the line before it releases itself.
 
2. Make sure you are using a catch and release net.  Many of us still have a deeper net that was used to make sure nothing got away.  It’s not really needed anymore and it also helps in not quickly releasing the fish.
 
3. If you are not using a net, make sure you wet your hands first before you touch the fish to release them. A wet hand helps protect the skin of the trout with can develop a fungus especially in warm weather. Trout have delicate scales; you just can’t see them.
 
4. Don’t play the fish to death!  In the warmer months, lactic acid will build up in the fish if it is played to long on the end of a line. You risk losing the life of the fish if this happens. You should not be fishing for trout if the water temperature is around 69 degrees.  I know…some say 70…I like a little extra precaution
 
5. If you find you have a trout wiggling everywhere when its taken out of the water, trun the fish turn belly up while holding it.  That will hold them still while you take out the hook.
 
6. If the hook is down the gullet of the fish, cut the line. Pulling on the hook only insures death of the trout.  An embedded hook will release itself in a few days; the trout will live…and be a little smarter the next time.
 
7. When releasing fish, especially large ones, make sure that you do so in slow water.  Sometimes you gently have to move them back and forth in the water to move some water through the gills.  Don’t release the fish until it releases itself from your hands. If your in rapids, release them facing downstream and close to the waders as possible.  Waders will form a small pocket of slower water.
 
The above steps can help ensure a healthy catch and release fishery.  Talk about these steps with angling friends. Make sure they are followed.

Sam D’Ambruoso
Conservation Chair

Annual River Clean UP May 2009

On Saturday, May 16, 2009, the Annual River Clean-up was held along with the annual picnic provided by the Long Island Flyrodders. We had plenty of trash that was collected off the River banks. We want to thank the Housatonic Meadows Fly Shop on Rt 7, Cornwall Bridge, for allowing us to deposit some waste filled garbage bags at their own collection point and also the DEP for helping us with trash disposal.

The HFFA runs on the work of volunteers. We would like to thank the following people: Eileen Bevans, Russ Bevans, Allison Brown, Dan Kenny, Bill Lanzoni, accompanied by our youngest volunteer ever: his 8 month old grandson Derek; Fred Monahan, Mike Piquette, Max Ruggiero, Walt Sliva, Tom Toomey, who videoed the event, and Jim Woodworth.

The Boy Scouts, lead by the HFFA past President and now Head Scout Master, Fred Monahan were also volunteers. We would like to thank Scout Master Rob Fortin, and Boy Scouts, Braden Disbrow, Danny Woronick, and John Turenne.

As usual, the Long Island Flyrodders were in attendance as they are every year. We would like to thank Paul McCain for all the efforts with the picnic this organization provides for clean-up volunteers. We also want to thank Tom Cooleen, Cliff Dies, Nick Friedman, Morty Schneiderman, Dick Van, and PeteYuskevich.

Get involved and volunteer with the HFFA. We are only as strong as our participation. We have plenty of work to do in the coming months. Hope to see you all on the River.

Sam D’Ambruoso
Conservation Chair