ÿþ<HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> <META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="Microsoft Word 97"> <TITLE>General 8 - Bith Of A Trout Stream</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <BLOCKQOUTE> <FONT FACE="Courier New Bold,Times New Roman" SIZE=5><CENTER><P>Birth Of A Trout Stream</P> </FONT></CENTER> <FONT SIZE=4><P>There are two national organizations that deserve the support of anglers everywhere. They are Trout Unlimited and the Federation of Fly Fishers. The efforts of both focus on the good of fish first and fishers second.</P> <P>I have been a member of the former since the mid-60's and am a national charter member of the latter.</P> <P>Their philosophies are similar. Trout Unlimited's interest and efforts are concentrated on the cold water fishery while the Federation works with both cold and warm water habitat.</P> <P>A few years ago there was no naturally reproducing trout water in our county. Today through the efforts of a handful of anglers and help from TU and the FFF we have three class two trout streams (water that has natural reproduction but is also stocked because of fishing pressure) where none were before.</P> <P>One is unique because a resident wild brown trout population was established by planting eggs instead of fish. It was one of the first in the United States and the very first in the Great Lakes region using the Vibert box method.</P> <P>Here is a report on that project. It dates back to the beginning of the Federations's Vibert box program and is still unfolding.</P> <P>A few of us had thought for sometime that a smalI area stream could support trout. About three miles long, it was well blessed with springs, watercress and aquatic insects. As far as we could see, the only drawback was that it emptied into a sewage ditch in which nothing could live. The little creek did, however, maintain a minnow population.</P> <P>The idea didn't progress beyond the conversation stage until 1972 when the Flyfisher magazine ran a two-part article by Dave Whitlock, called "Trout by the Boxful". It described Vibert boxes; told how to use and where to get them. It sold us and became our bible.</P> <P>In July that year, a DNR biologist checked the stream for us and reported water quality, "well within tolerable limits for brown and rainbow trout".</P> <P>Armed with this report and copies of the Flyfisher article, we obtained permission from a landowner to work on his part of the stream and a promise from the DNR of enough eggs for an experimental planting.</P> <P>Thanksgiving Day, Frosty and Steve Parish, Norm Thompson, Roy Sarow and I carried gravel and buiIt two redds about 25 yards below a large spring.</P> <P>At 9 a.m., December 4,1972, Roy and I picked up 3,600 eyed brown trout eggs at the DNR office in Madison. We rushed home and, working in my wife's kitchen, sorted out a few questionable eggs and proceeded to load six boxes.</P> <P>The eggs had arrived in 38 degree water. We cooled more water (brought from the creek earlier) to the same temperature and worked with the boxes immersed in that. Cooling was done with ice made from stream water. Goose wing feathers were used to scoop the fragile eggs into the boxes and window shades were kept drawn so they weren't exposed to sunlight.</P> <P>When the boxes were loaded, Roy, Frosty, Norm, Bud Cufaude and I immediately took them to the creek. Here, box temperature had to be adjusted by adding water from the stream.</P> <P>We knew that at least 15 minutes should be allowed for each 5-degree change. Stream temperature was 49 degrees and the air a windy 12. As it turned out, there was no danger of warming the boxes too fast because the wind cooled the stream water nearly as fast as we dipped it.</P> <P>The boxes, with duck decoy anchors and retrieving lines attached, were buried in the redds. Marker stakes were driven and the lines attached to them.</P> <P>Because of excessive snow melt, they were rechecked late in December. One redd was covered with mud so the two boxes in it were discarded.</P> <P>Another larger redd held the remaining four boxes. Two were lifted for inspection. Since they appeared to be all right, they were reburied. We thought it best not to disturb the other two.</P> <P>The boxes were taken out February 11th. The two that had been lifted and replanted were clean and had a near perfect hatch. Three eggs were left in one and nine in the other. The other two had some sand in them, but more than half the eggs had hatched. We were jubilant.</P> <P>That summer, Roy, Bud and I did extensive work in and below the big spring. It was decided to postpone planting more eggs to give the stream a chance to stabilize.</P> <P>Then disaster struck. The winter of '73 and '74 brought an inordinate amount of snow. Late in February it started to rain and continued for days. The little creek went on a rampage. Water swept over fields and roads. We were sure the baby fish had been swept into the sewage ditch.</P> <P>Our group moved on to other projects. The little creek was relegated to the "at least we tried" file. it went unmolested for seven years.</P> <P>In the fall of 1979, we heard a rumor that someone had taken a trout from our stream. Since fishers aren't noted for accuracy about the sources of their catches, we didn't investigate immediately.</P> <P>Then a muskrat trapper reported seeing trout in the creek. He had spooked one that had jumped and fallen onto some watercress to lie there for a second or two before slipping back into the water. "A beautiful ten-inch brown" he said.</P> <P>This got our attention. We queried a streamside landowner. "Why yes, a neighbor lad has caught a few trout in the creek. One was 20 inches long," he said.</P> <P>August 24, 1980, at our request, Don Bush, the area fish manager and a DNR electro-shocking crew checked out part of the creek. Frosty and Roy accompanied them.</P> <P>Starting a few rods above the sewage ditch, the entourage moved upstream poking electrodes into likely cover.</P> <P>In less than 100 feet, the first fish surfaced. it was a healthy 22.1 inch brown. Weighed and measured, it was returned to the stream. Unprepared for what they were to find, the DNR crew s scale only registered to 1,000 grams. This one went on the tally sheet at 1,000 grams plus. There would be 10 more entered the same way.</P> <P>The next was a 10.7 incher, the next 20.5, the next 23.8, the next 22.3, the next 19.2, the next 16.2, and so it went. A total of 27 prime fish all the way from a 9.3 incher to a monster 25.5 inches.</P> <P>The DNR workers were flabbergasted. Roy and Frosty were ecstatic. What had started as another work day for the fisheries' crew and had held out some hope for Roy and Frosty had turned into one happy surprise after another.</P> <P>Frosty told about a crew member being directed to "try under that culvert". Instead of one, five lunkers drifted out. One man told him, "We have been shocking for the last three days without turning up a single trout, and now this"!</P> <P>Bob Davis, technician with the crew, said that besides the original hatch, there was definite evidence of at least three different year's reproduction.</P> <P>Much of the stream couldn't be navigated by the electro-fishing boat so a sizable section wasn't shocked.</P> <P>Since then, the DNR has really moved into gear. The little stream has been studied, re-studied, surveyed and re-surveyed. The entire creek, its springs and the surrounding land have been aerial photographed. Don Bush told me that, pounds of fish per acre, it compared favorably to Mt. Vernon before that was developed. Mt. Vernon is a famous southern Wisconsin trout stream.</P> <P>It was officially designated a Class II trout stream at a public hearing in February, 1982. That means it is naturally reproducing but may require stocking to keep up with fishing pressure. In our state, classifying is necessary for a stream's protection. Here, politicians respect trout water but little else.</P> <P>At the hearing, Don Bush said the stream is a "real asset to the county". He also announced that he had applied for funds for purchasing or leasing fishing and fencing easements along the stream and will be pursuing that shortly.</P> <P>He tells me the boxes were tried a few years ago in some tributaries of Wisconsin's Wolf River. The Department was hoping to start brook trout in those streams and thought accessibility and other factors didn't warrant the expenditure of hatched fish. Don said the project wasn't successful.</P> <P>He said we were wise (fortunate is probably a better word) in selecting a hatching spot so close to a large spring. In our area we have widely fluctuating winter temperatures with subsequent snow melts. Sometimes several times a season.</P> <P>Don's idea is that snow run-off can change temperatures suddenly in small streams, killing eggs and newly-hatched fry. He thinks this helped doom the Wolf River project and he is sure spring flow in our location protected the eggs from sudden temperature change. Don has been very complimentary about the whole project.</P> <P>Personally, I believe that lifting the two boxes for inspection in December contributed to their near perfect hatch. Perhaps if the other two had been looked at, the sand would have rinsed from them also.</P> <P>Paul Collier, FFF national secretary at that time, was a great help in getting the project started. He saw that we got boxes as soon as they were available and, most important of all, encouraged us.</P> <P>The little stream is alive and well. The very large trout, of course, have been fished out. The wild strain is still there and reproducing. From time to time the DNR augments the population with fingerlings.</P> <P>I haven't revealed the exact location because so far no land has become available for purchasing. Although none of it is posted and landowners have been generous about giving permission to fish, a heavy onslaught of fishers could change that.</P> <P>Our latest project, funded so far by TU and worked on by chapter members is a stream through DNR owned land, but more about this later.</P> <P>Trout Unlimited's address is P. 0. Box 1944, Washington, D.C. 20013.</P> <P>The Federation of Fly Fisher's is, P. 0. Box 1088, West Yellowstone, MT 59758.</P> <P ALIGN="CENTER"><IMG SRC="G6.jpg" WIDTH=208 HEIGHT=122 BORDER=0></P> <A HREF="TOC.html">BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS</A></FONT> </BLOCKQOUTE> </HTML>