tjm

L.Sugar is now down to 1560 CFS after peaking ~3550 and the low water bridge will reappear at ~500. We might need rain again in 3-4 weeks.

Put a mink in the boat it will kill and eat the muskrats.

Yeah we had plenty of rain by a day or two ago, all that has fallen in the past 48 hours is wasted runoff. That creek is up to 2,580 CFS from 48 CFS

In my mind all modern trout are artificial. In the few places where indigenous trout remain, I think most species have been contaminated by stocking of other species or subspecies. Hard to justify protecting a fish that exists only to be stocked for recreational use. If my memory serves, there were no native trout east of the Mississippi, only the two chars; brook trout and lake trout. Rainbow Trout and the char Dolly Varden were native only to the streams draining directly into the Pacific. The Great Basin and the Rockies had only Cutthroat trout and and the char Bull Trout. Browns were strictly European. As were the common carp that were imported at the same time. I was going to refresh my memory but apparently the USGS no longer has a website.

If the Federal stocking is in mitigation of the lost native fisheries, as I think it is, the Feds would be legally obligated to furnish trout from some other source. A certain number of trout annually is typically a part of the negotiations when the Army wants to build a dam that has out flow cold enough to kill the native fishery. I'm not sure that is true on the White and the Northfork, but presume that it is.

From here in the rocking chair, it sounds like time to install a cooling unit and an air compressor. Might cost a bit but if this is an ongoing condition of the lake, then the alternative would be to convert the hatchery to producing crappie. It does sound like the tailwater itself is marginal for trout survival though if it is getting water at the same depth and conditions.

Greer https://waterwatch.usgs.gov/?m=real&r=mo

Some people would say oh no, no, wild trout are different; or oh no this river is special because it's a "spring creek" and you have to use 18' leaders with triple aerial mends. But I'll bet you are right trout are pretty much fish brained and try tasting everything to see if it is food. I guess I didn't find those short stretches.

Enforcement costs money and is pretty scarce everywhere, I can't recall the last time I saw an Agent in the park at RR and although I saw agents on streams three times last year (the first in several years) none of them asked me for a license. I did notice that they were in pairs which didn't used to be the case.

Nope, just telling it like I saw it. People lined up wading into the stream and following each other down river a step at a time to get out and repeat. Other people "Fly fishing" with spinning rods. The prettiest part of the park stream was the bait area as best I recall. I think we stayed there in passing three times in the mid/late '80s and I never went back until year before last and again last spring. From my perspective it's just as bad now as it was then. The pool was DNR and had zilch to do with fishing and dredging and chairs take away from fishing. That's one of the things MDC did to down grade RRSP is extensive dredging and stream modification in the lower section of the Park. But I was probably spoiled at that time having been fishing in the North East for 9-10 years, where it was rare to see two other anglers on any given piece of water other than the Bay. And none of the streams had been "improved" or "maintained" since the mills stopped using water power.

Doesn't that park have a stream nearby that is more or less wild and natural where a person could actually fly fish? I've always considered the parks as "almost fly fishing", because there are always other people in the way. 3/4s of which will walk right into a fly line. Or cast a spinner across your line. Some day I will learn to dangle a fly under a bobber, but so far it hasn't worked for me. I try that method once or twice a year whenever I find a nice bobber by the creek. The same with those balls, I've been picking them at RRSP up in mint condition for 40 years and try all of the ones I find, but have yet to catch a single fish with one. It's crazy, because I've seen hundreds of trout caught by both those methods. I've even asked others exactly how to set up a bobber rig. I think the first time that I fished BSSP was in the mid '80s and it did not have any "real fly fishing" even then. It's why I've been back there so infrequently since. I did kill some good sized trout, but it was not "fun". Montauk was nicer than BSSP back then with some green stuff and bushes by the stream, but the fish were smaller on the days I was there. Truth is you can't have thousands of people walking back and forth without destroying the vegetation and eventually the banks. And I appreciate the Parks most for the fact that they keep all those people in one place, leaving the White Ribbon areas and "warm" streams for antisocials like myself. We need to plant more stinging nettle.

Well, yes the limit is now 4. But the fish are not the Park when it comes to talking about upkeep or improvement, the number of vehicles and the number of people dumping trash or using the toilets etc. would affect Park maintenance expense and need for personnel, but those would be on the DNR. Some days at RRSP the dog walkers and hikers have outnumbered the anglers and they have no qualms about dragging their dogs and leashes through the fishing areas. None of those users buy tags but they all cause park wear and tear. Hatchery maintenance, improvement and fish quality, on the other hand are MDC's responsibility and expense. I'm confused about what your complaints target, are you disappointed in the fish or in the park management? I'm quite curious how the daily tag money is divided up, part to the concessionaire, part to DNR, part to MDC, or does the concessionaire keep it all? and how big are the parts? Why do we have the same guy as concessionaire at multiple parks and why doesn't that change every year with a bid process?

Well that's too bad, RRSP tore out all the tent sites and converted them to concrete parking for those things. Pulled out all the trees that they had planted 30 years ago too, digging electric and water lines. I haven't been over there for months but I suppose the whole place is now as interesting as a Walmart Parking lot. One of the things that I hate about BSSP is having to see the massive parking lot near the stream. They need to tear the bridges out not improve them. Wrench's comment had me thinking about how pleasantly run RRSP was in the 80s-00s and how shabby it seems now, rather like wench's view of BSSP. and wondering if it was DNR spoiling the place or just We The People trashing it.

Would you say that those years of the 70-90s had more users than today?

Maintaining the park falls on DNR, MDC just deals with the fish and the hatchery. Perhaps some stream work that would affect the fish. Any decision about maintaining the park would be one of to do or not to do by DNR which is politically dependent so on the Politicians.