It's that time of year again - the brook trout are on the beds in clear view and we still have a mindless angler or three wading right through the redds. The Swift is not the best brookie river in central New England because we stock the hell out of it or even because we practice catch and release. It's because of the environment that the Swift has what the brookies find perfect for spawning. So why ruin it by stomping through it?
Stay on the Green
Walk on the weeds or on leaf litter or on sandy bottoms. Trout don't spawn in those areas. Stay off the clean gravel or you will be scrambling brookie eggs and then complaining that there are not as many brookies as before.
This Weekend
We had our little introduction to winter over the last two days but this weekend will be mild and dry. All the rivers are in good shape and the Swift and EB should provide some season ending dry fly action. Don't miss it.
Ken
14 comments:
Great post Ken - If I could add that a lot of people feel that walking on the edges (where the gravel looks all clean) is the right thing to do.. Many Swift Brooke make Redds right along the edges, even right in front of convenient put in trails. There is no way that we anglers are not killing thousands of eggs by wading the river this time of year. I am hopeful this receives some consideration by the powers that be that manage the river. In the meantime, the micro egg has been a killer above rte 9. Would it make sense to have a wading closure instead of closing fishing?
Falsecast,
Brook Trout spawning areas are shallow with enough current to keep the gravel clean. Most of the Swift is not like that so why put restrictions up in deeper silty stretches? One thing we know for sure is that there is a big population of brookies even with our current wading practices. Will there be more brookies if we restrict wading? Who knows? The DFW should.
Ken
Dear Ken,
This discussion begs the question of whether we should fish the Swift River at this time of year. We know that the Swift supports a robust wild brook trout fishery, an irreplaceable resource in 'hatchery-dependent' Massachusetts. Since most anglers would agree that fishing for spawning brook trout is unsportsmanlike, why are we fishing the Swift River at all in October and November?
Fishing for spawning trout reduces reproductive success, whether this is due to abandonment of redds, trampling of eggs when wading, premature release of eggs/milt when trout are handled, or mortality associated with catch & release. Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont all limit fall fishing to protect spawning trout; Massachusetts should follow suit.
-Mike
Mike,
First of all, let's look at your statement, " We know that the Swift supports a robust (your words not mine) wild brook trout fishery." If we spend every Fall destroying the spawning effort then why is it still "robust"? Maybe we are not putting a dent in the spawning activity. The brookie population, in my view and in the view of another DFW official, has exploded in the last 10 years and is certainly, in my view, more robust than 20 years ago.
Fishing over spawning brook trout has not put a dent in the brookie population on the swift. Please present evidence to the contrary if you have it. Conventional wisdom doesn't cut it here! In your world would we still be able to fish for sterile clonebows or are they off limits too? (we shouldn't even have them)
The anglers of our sister states to the north had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the trout management table whenever conservation measures, like C&R or conservative creel limits were proposed. They needed to cut the season short just to save the resource.
I proposed that wading anglers walk the shore or walk in the weeds and leaf litter to be safe. Angling success in October and November has not hurt the fishery.
Ken
Hey everyone just a few thoughts... One I know VT just extended its season with a C and R restriction but also I think we need to remember that spawning fish dont really eat, I dont know about you folks but I think its more the rainbows that are easily exploited in this time and not the brook trout, I dont fish the swift this time of year not because i believe it to be unethical but more so that my blue lines fish the best this time of year, i like the swift in july when its 105, but either way as long as we are mindful we wont hurt these fish
Education helps if done in a non-confrontational way. I was fishing there on Saturday when an enthusiastic young angler stepped into the water and fish I was swinging to (green is the only place I stand in). He was very good with the bobber/egg setup but when he decided to keep a fish in the net and drag it a couple hundred feet up the river, along the edges of the redds, to get a picture with Dad, I had to say something. I am now of an age where I have joined the ornery old guys club. So I have been carefully trying to word my interactions with novice anglers. I let him know what he was doing was not the best way to go about fishing the area. Hopefully he understood without embarrassment.
When I first started fishing the Swift 28 years ago, the old guys were not so careful with their interactions. I have come to know and admire those guys and have even seen them soften over the years, but they will still tear into anyone they feel needs it. It is all about protecting the resource.
Now if etiquette on the stream could be picked up by the young folk....
Always look forward to your reports Ken,
John
Dear Ken,
Quite detailed Massachusetts fisheries data sets may be found in the MassWildlife Annual Reports posted on the Mass.gov website. These are heavily-weighted toward reportage of hatchery production, fish-stocking totals, anadromous fish passage, and the like; however, the FY2018 and FY2019 Annual Reports include Swift River trout population data from electroshock samplings done in 2017 and 2018 by the Coldwater Fisheries Project.
If you have not read these I urge you to do so, as the electroshock data from the Swift is illuminating: many brook trout, far fewer rainbow and brown trout, rapid depletion of rainbow trout after stocking, no evidence for brown trout reproduction, etcetera.
No one disputes that the Swift's brook trout fishery is good; almost certainly an appropriate fall closure to protect spawning trout offers an opportunity to improve it further. There is only one way to find out.
-Mike
"No one disputes that the Swift's brook trout fishery is good: almost certainly an appropriate fall closure to protect spawning trout offers an opportunity too improve it further".
Hmmm...What's an improvement? Just shutting down the season may not improve it. It's improved in leaps and bounds WITH FALL FISHING which is something some people forget. My fear is that the brookie population may outstrip the resource like you see in some remote beaver ponds. Lots of runts.
Ken
Hi Ken- It's a very slick slope to discuss any restrictions on outdoor sporting here in the "Commonwealth". We are over run with enviro-nazis who will always push to restrict fishing anywhere, they just require an excuse, real or imaginary. Anglers simply need to be aware of how we wade and place our feet. This is a "respect the fish" issue very much like wetting your hands before handling trout or going barb less. The vast majority of us cherish the trout in the Swift. If you see someone wading through redds say something (be gentle). That person may be new to the sport simply not know. State restrictions based on a flawed ethical argument would be a big mistake and nearly impossible to remove once in place.
Thanks for sharing the MassWildlife Annual Reports, Mike. Interesting reading for sure. No surprise that there are lots of wild brookies and that stocked rainbows are generally a waste in terms of providing a sustained population of trout for us to target. I am most intrigued by the lack of brown trout reproduction given the high quality habitat, the highly successful brook trout reproduction, and the success of programs on the Farmington to increase the number of wild browns. Seems like the Swift may need a higher population base to encourage successful spawning? Of course, too many more browns (which are at least anecdotally known to become highly piscivorous) could threaten the brook trout, so perhaps be careful what you wish for?
In my opinion the best thing for the Swift would be an enhanced C&R down to one of the bridges below route 9 for the entire year. That would give the more mature browns space to grow. I have seen people keep some good sized to very very large browns down there and this would hopefully enhance both the brown population and the brook trout population. The river can't be all things (a wild brookie brown fishery with a huge dump of clonebows that compete for food with them all) That being said they'd likely still poach the heck out of it.
Interesting discussion. I'm fully in favor of adding abundant signage explaining sensible wading practice to protect trout redds. Why that vs a closure? Because it really feels like the biggest impact on positive trout productivity in the swift has been the increasing quantity of woody debris and detritus in the river over the past several decades. Heck, I'm not "old" at 46... But I can remember fishing the river in grade and middle school, and it truly was a pea gravel ditch bubbler to rt 9 for example. As more wood landed in the river things started to really change. As the river has aged and gotten a bit more plant material it's changed.
Now, generally I'm a follow the science guy. I like to use evidence and work towards sound decisions. Sometimes those are frustrating to me as the evidence leads me to a different end than I want.
But on this one, the magnitude of observational data coming from basically anyone who has fished the river for more than a couple years, shows the brookies not just to be doing well, but to be doing amazingly. A trend that has only grown. Heck, I've caught 19" wild brookies in the swift, and I know a few others - some who have posted here, some who I know in "real life" have done similar.
Despite steady fishing pressure, some years with water level flux etc, the brookies are going up in number and size. They are doing that despite predation from large browns and the occasional (wash over the spillway bass). They are doing that despite predation from rainbows that are stocked and competition from all of those fish. And they are doing that despite angler pressure and stream bed disruption.
It seems the best strategy, would be to continue to shock and monitor the river, and observe how the brookie population is changing so we have strong data to either back or refute the heavy stream of observational data fishermen have been building for years, and then consider closures or other changes to fishing practice on the river.
Serious question though for those of you with more brookie biology knowledge than I. Wouldnt wading need restrictions well into the winter, maybe even spring? I've read that brook trout hatch from February to April, if that's the case, wouldnt an effective closure effectively make the river off limits for most of the mid fall into the mid/late winter?
Will
Will,
Knowing where to wade is important through the winter but by late March the brookies have hatched. If you know where to wade there is no reason to close the river seasonally. You are right to say that the BT population is exploding even if flyfishers are careless where they wade. Shocking and monitoring the river didn't give us the BT population that we have or the BIG browns. It just happened!!! I'm also not a fan of "abundant signage" unless you can enforce it. Most flyfishers should know this stuff anyway and if they don't they shouldn't be wading here. The DFW should be spearheading the public outreach on this and those TU groups should be doing something!!!
Ken
Great discussion! Ken, it's a great idea to get TU groups involved. I'm going to suggest to my local chapter that they include something about brookie spawning in of their late-summer or early-fall meeting presentations. That might make a real difference! Lessons on how to give--and take!--gentle coaching on the river might help a bit, too.
Cheers,
Dave P.
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