Trout Opener Article from Pioneer Press

[WxGuy]

Great article IMO...

by Chris Niskanen, St. Paul Pioneer Press

Trout season opens Saturday; here's what to expect

Minnesota's general stream-trout season opens Saturday. Last week, Outdoors Editor Chris Niskanen interviewed Jason Moeckel, the southeast trout program supervisor for the Department of Natural Resources. Moeckel addressed growing concerns about declining trout populations in the southeast and prospects for this year's fishing season.

Q. Can you give me a status report on southeast streams? Are they flooding?

A. Right now, our streams are bank full or were recently, and they are spreading on the flood plain. It's pretty typical of what we get with a snowmelt and spring rains. Some places are running pretty muddy and dirty.

Q. What can anglers expect from Saturday's opener?

A. This time of year, stream conditions are always variable. A good rule of thumb is if it hasn't rained for a couple of days, people should find the streams pretty fishable.

Q. What's the condition of southeast trout populations?

A. Fish are coming out of the winter in pretty good condition. The fish we're seeing are plump, if you will. We've had a mild winter. That's a good indication.

Q. And sizes?

A. Abundance of fish under 9 inches seems to be down. Typically, we would be seeing a lot more 6-inch fish and a lot more 9-inch fish and fewer over 12 inches. But we're seeing more of the inverse.

Q. Is that a reflection of poor survival and recruitment of young fish?

A. Our recruitment fluctuates, but there's an overall downward trend. For example, we've seen a general decline in the past 10 to 12 years in fingerling production in the South Branch of the Root River. There's this continuing pattern where we don't have that abundance of wild fish we should be recruiting. We're beginning to ask questions.

Q. Like what?

A. Well, what is the condition of landscape in the spring as it relates to agriculture? We're seeing the amount of row crops increasing, the amount of corn and soybeans increasing. Are we headed toward less sustainability with our trout populations? It looks like we might be going in that direction.

Q. So, there appears to be a link between more soil runoff from agricultural fields and what's happening in our streams?

A. We're seeing more links. When you look at our precipitation data, we're seeing a greater percent of rain in the months of April, May and June. When you drive around the landscape in those months, there's a lot of bare ground in the fields. Erosion rates can be very high during these months. It's not good for the farmers, and it's not good for trout streams.

We're not seeing the crop rotations like we used to in the 1950s, '60s, '70s, for example. Corn is being planted after corn and beans after beans. The amount of soybean acreage has been climbing and climbing over the past 10 years in Olmsted County. The amount of oats and alfalfa is going down.

There's no question about the science of this. We know soil loss coming from a soybean field is going to be higher than from an alfalfa field.

Q. What are you hearing from other folks?

A. I had a discussion with Dave Vetrano, the southwest regional fisheries supervisor in Wisconsin. I asked him, "How are your '04 and '05 year classes?" And he said, "What year classes?" So, they are having the same problem we are.

Q. How does this sediment problem fit with the history of southeast trout?

A. The history provides a valuable lesson. Soil erosion and increased flooding in the early 1900s devastated trout populations. The consequence was, for a long time up through about 1970, if you caught a trout in southeast Minnesota, it probably came from a hatchery.

Fortunately, our streams began to rebound, thanks largely to better land management in the mid-1900s; we saw improvements in conservation tillage, grazing management, crop rotations, riparian buffers and instream habitat improvements.

By the 1990s, most of the streams that relied on stocking in the 1950s supported a self-sustainable wild trout population. But now, we are losing ground … . To many of the people I talk to about this, it's not even a question.

Q. You were at the Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo last weekend. What was the word there about the sediment problem?

A. All weekend long at the expo, people were saying the same things.

Q. Can you address the decline on specific rivers, say the Whitewater?

A. On the South Branch Whitewater, it's pretty pronounced. There are still a large number of bigger fish, but far fewer smaller fish. It's pretty unusual. Why is that? This particular area might be affected by a very large beaver dam since last fall, but we're not sure of that.

Q. On streams where fingerling recruitment is down, will anglers notice it?

A. They may notice they're not catching some of those 7-, 8- and 9-inch trout, fish that would keep them busy during the day when they're not catching larger fish.

Q. What's the catch rate like?

A. According to our creel survey in 2005, anglers caught 1.1 trout per hour. That's high. In Michigan, the average is one trout per hour, so 1.1 trout per hour is doggone good. People are still catching fish, and angler satisfaction is very high.

Q. What kind of trout-habitat projects are you doing?

A. We have four projects planned this year. We have one planned for Trout Run in Winona and Fillmore County. We have a project planned for Rush Creek, a little maintenance project for Hay Creek and a fairly substantial project for Wisel Creek.

Q. How are angler-landowner relations?

A. We always emphasize anglers need to respect private property and not leave their garbage, ask permission if there's not an easement and not open gates or break fences. These things more than anything seem to strain relations.

We've been noticing some changes in ownership, and we're seeing more no-trespassing signs going up in places. We're seeing some erosion of access. It's something anglers should not take for granted.

Chris Niskanen can be reached at [email protected] or 651-228-5524