Unintended Consequences

 Trying to improve fishing by stocking, limiting bag size, slot fish sizes and even habitat improvements can have unintended results. Manipulating nature instead of working with the natural process never really works. Kind of pushes the problem down stream.

A few terms to chew on: native, non native, near native and invasive. I won't bore anyone with long drawn out nuances of each, but consider a native can be invasive as well as a non native. A near native is usually a replacement for a native that has been lost, as it possess the same qualities of that now disappeared native. It too can become invasive in the right circumstances.

Consider three species of trout, Brown, rainbow and brook (actually a char). One is a native to Europe and maybe North America before the continents shifted eons ago, the next is a native to the western slope and North Pacific region and the last found in the higher latitudes and elevations of North America it also has origins as a genus in Northern Europe and the similar regions. So now define which is a native?

While I am not a big fan of stocking and the practice of following a watery truck around, stocking has been the device needed to enhance the catch rate and availability of fish. Trout do adapt and quickly figure it out and the easy fish soon die as natural selection takes its toll. We like to call fish from last years stocking as over wintered fish, more correctly those fortunate few who figured out how not to get caught and found cooler waters to survive the summer.

Browns were stocked for their fighting ability and that they like to pounce on any fly. Rainbows tend to run toward the sea like their ancestors did and generally lie on the stream bed lazily feeding on whatever floats by. Brook after centuries of adapting to a stream use their local knowledge to survive. I am not sure how much of the gene pool is the original fish. As a boy I eagerly awaited the annual stocking guide and brook or as listed then speckled trout was implanted in every stream and pond in the local area.

Fact, Eisenhower was a big fly fisherman and every time he went fishing the local fishery people dumped a ton of trout in the rivers he was fishing. The result were, that those streams have an outstanding brown trout fishery today . Damn the native speckled trout, the general wants to catch some real fish. A local fishery manager used data collected and decided to increase the number of rainbows implanted and reduce the browns. His argument was that the data showed more rainbows were returned and caught again and again. The next reason was financial, a disaster at one hatchery made the number of browns very limited and more costly to raise. The unintended consequence was that while catchable by euro-nymphing, the lazy bastard would either lay on the bottom or run downstream after stocking and head out to sea. Not a fan of euro- nymphing.

Stock fish tend to school up and those pools tend to attract fisher person looking to improve their numbers. Not a big fan of catch counts, see the stages of fly fishing to understand. Not a fan of the easiest to catch or competing with ours who beat the water to death, usually racing to the next spot and ignorant of those shadows that dart ahead as they approach. The hard to catch ones, the real natives. Unintended consequence steam improvements that aren't natural. Not a fan of wooden fences and trampled steam vegetation.

To be continued.......................................

Update Alert!

Art has spoken, so it will be done!

On and Off Pause

 Funny how life brings twist and turns. The last 24 months have been on pause, but eventually the pause button becomes unstuck. For the sake of creativity one can't be permanently in a state of suspended animation. After all even the trout sitting and resting on the bottom of that stream are moving. Mouths slowly opening and closing filtering out debris and food bits, while expending no energy.

Thus life continues and passions flare into new actions. Lately I've been watching two bald eagles sitting on the peak of an apartment building. Yes, not a tall craggy pine and not in Alaska or Montana but Lakewood Ranch. A breeding pair looking regal despite the suburban background. So my point is this wilderness is where you find it. The eagle has been a comeback due to the Endangered Species Act. The banning of DDT, which had thinned the shells of their eggs helped contribute to my daily pleasure of watching this pair hanging out in my hood. 

A trip to the bay usually brings more than a glimpse of bottle nose dolphins, manatees, tarpon and barracuda.  If man were to disappear nature, wouldn't miss us. The alligators lazily sunning themselves, warming themselves on those cool Florida winter days. The hawk that visited my patio the other day, let me know he was in charge not I. Traffic rolling by fueled by the return of that elusive species, the snow birds. They are denoted by the blue hair dye, handbag leather skin and crowding all the early bird specials. Soon they will crowd the beaches and chase all the snook and triple tails out of the surf. The off gassing of sunscreen will change the ecosystem of the Gulf and maybe by spring a healthy dose of red tide and the coating of dead oxygen deprived fish lining the shoreline. 

As my old friends trudge out for the Saturday fly tying sessions, I do miss those after sessions at the Roast. I believe an unintended consequence and maybe the pandemic put that cozy spot out of business. I can sometimes hear the conversations arguing about hook size or materials, patterns bandy about, over cups of hot coffee. A morning well spent.

I will be up north sometime this year, close to a trout stream, a 1/2 hours driving distance away. My plan is to get out west, not sure where. But getting out and find some creative space to breathe and recharge my soul.

Tight lines,