The Caddis Fly: Oregon Fly Fishing Blog

The McKenzie River from Hendricks Park to Belinger Boat landing has been the site of a mark and recapture study to track the population of trout after the removal of stocked fish. Four years ago that section of river was a sliver of what it is today. Fish populations and fish size have improved mightily!

From Arlen Thomason: Thank you to all who attended the wrap-up meeting Tuesday evening. And to those who weren’t there, sorry that you couldn’t make it. After the presentations we had an interesting and enjoyable discussion about the future directions of efforts to support wild fish.

One of the things that we all agreed upon was to get out the message about the rebound of the wild trout population and the improvement in fishing results after hatchery stocking ended in the study section. Over four fishing seasons, 2010-2013, the trout population and the documented angler catch rate both increased by almost 300%. The anecdotal experience of those who regularly fish it matches the numbers.

So please help spread the word. Every chance you get, tell people about what has happened there. Invite them to fish the study section and see for themselves. Little by little, let’s chip away at the myth that artificial supplementation is necessary for our rivers to provide a quality fishing experience.

The 2013 and whole-study report is on the web now and can be downloaded from this page.

The story told in numbers and words is pretty darned amazing. Maybe most amazing of all is this set of numbers: 108, 2559, and 276.

108 volunteer participants.
2559 recorded hours on the water.
276 trips to tag and recapture fish.

And those numbers substantially understate the actual level of volunteer involvement.

The level of dedication, effort and accomplishment in this implementation of citizen science deserves recognition. I tip my hat to all of you.

Not that it is any way adequate acknowledgement, but we have Certificates of Appreciation and Accomplishment, printed on thick high quality glossy paper, for any study participant. We handed them out to people who were at the meeting, but if you weren’t there and would like to have one, please contact me and I will find a way to get it to you.

Cheers,
Arlen

By now the state media has spread the word the ODFW Coastal Multi-Species Conservation and Management Plan (CMP) was approved. However, what was not in most press releases: The harvesting of winter steelhead in the Umpqua Basin was REMOVED from the plan! Hmmm? Wonder how it happened?

Seems like a few people sent the message to the ODFW commission in support of no harvest! The stack of public input (emails) at the meeting was about 1″ thick. A significant amount of the emails were in support of no harvest. Say what we wish about ODFW, they listened, and acted to the public outcry about harvesting winter steelhead on the Umpqua. So that’s the good news and now…the not so good news…

The ODFW will be seeking revenue to help close a projected $32 million dollar shortfall in the 2015-17 budgets.

All possible options are being evaluated from increasing license and tag fees, cutting staff, and asking for more money from the state general fund. The commission has a tough job ahead to implement the CMP plan while facing budgetary challenges.

One of the key presentations during the meeting was the request for the “monitoring budget” to be approved for the CMP plan. We shall see what lies ahead. Meanwhile, every time we release one those winter Umpqua steelhead, smile a little wider!

LV

In typical agency fashion, ODFW is hosting a weekday event wherein working folks need to try to take a day off to support their interest in protecting wild fish in the Coastal Management Plan. There is a place for written public comments listed below, but if you’ve ever been through one of these, the thing that actually matters is in-person appeals.

So why attend? Although it’s not included in the Coastal Management Plan, we expect a large vocal contingent to attend requesting the plan be amended to include harvest of wild Umpqua winter steelhead. Here is some info from North Umpqua guide Mark Stangeland’s blog:

Please attend if you can to support the current no-kill regulation. If you can’t attend, please send an email odfw.commission@state.or.us or letter to the Commission opposing any harvest of wild steelhead on the Umpqua River.

Your message can be very simple. You can also include any of the following issues to support your position, but it’s important to get the basic message across: No harvest of wild steelhead in the Umpqua Basin.

1. This is the last, best wild steelhead run in the United States, a world-famous fishery characterized by uniquely large fish as recognized in the CMP. Sound management requires caution with such a resource.

2. ODFW relies on their 2004 Biological Assessment to support harvest. Based on admittedly sketchy data, they estimate a run of 30,000 – 35,000 wild steelhead with over half coming from mainstem Umpqua River tributaries. Neither ODFW nor BLM can identify the tributaries with sufficient high quality rearing habitat to produce the half-million smolts needed for this estimated return (and it likely doesn’t exist).

3. Pending Federal legislation would transfer management of O&C lands currently administered by BLM to state control, under the provisions of Oregon’s Forest Practices Act. This will result in additional deterioration of fish habitat in mainstem Umpqua River tributaries

4. Climate change will have a disproportionately high impact on the upper Umpqua Basin for both flow levels and temperatures. As the only Cascade Mountains rivers in the CMP, the Umpqua headwaters depend on snowpack for summer flows, and snowpack is diminishing – note the recent news articles about record low snowpack in Crater Lake, the source for much of the North Umpqua summertime flows.

5. Given the budgetary problems ODFW is facing, they cannot identify the current state of wild steelhead or adequately monitor impacts from harvest combined with these other factors. This isn’t the time to increase pressure on the best wild run in the US.

Meeting info below:

COASTAL MULTI-SPECIES CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT PLAN

The Commission Draft Coastal Multi-Species Conservation and Management Plan (CMP) was presented to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission (OFWC) at its April 25, 2014 meeting in North Bend. Thank you to all who testified in that public hearing. The CMP and your input were favorably received by the OFWC.

The final draft CMP is being presented to the OFWC for approval on June 6, 2014 at ODFW Headquarters in Salem. Public testimony will again be heard as part of this agenda item, which we expect to be taken up most likely after 10:00 AM (please note that agenda items are subject to change and we cannot provide a time-certain). Details on this meeting can be found on the OFWC website. The final draft CMP and Executive Summary will also be posted by 5:00 PM on May 28 at: http://www.dfw.state.or.us/fish/CRP/coastal_multispecies.asp. In addition to testifying at the Commission meeting, written public comments can be submitted prior to the meeting to: ODFW.CoastalPlan@state.or.us, odfw.commission@state.or.us, or Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission, 4034 Fairview Industrial Drive SE, Salem, OR 97302.

The Stellaria Building
150 Shelton Mcmurphey Blvd., Eugene, OR 97401
Large community room

Monday June 2nd at 6PM, The McKenzie-Upper Willamette Chapter of Trout Unlimited will hold its monthly board meeting in the small community Room of the Stellaria Building, 150 Shelton Mcmurphey Blvd.,Eugene, OR 97401.

At 7PM, there will be a presentation entitled “Trout Unlimited in Oregon: Partnerships with the US Forest Service to preserve native trout habitat.” presented by Dean Finnerty, SW Oregon Organizer for TU. This meeting will be in the large community room of the Stellaria Building. The public is welcome to attend.

See you there!