Madison River between the lakes

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nativebrownie
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Posts: 2193
Joined: 12/20/04 19:00
Location: Middle Atlantic

Re: Madison River between the lakes

#21

Post by nativebrownie »

I have no additional info, but I am not so sure mortal wounds were avoided. For one, in very low waters with many safe areas gone, the fish are forced together and you will lose the young and smaller fish to larger browns. I know that from our conservation work here. Happens in very dry years in late summer in the East.
My thought, what was the State Environmental Dept's reaction to this catastrophe? Oversight, investigation, even charges...?
In my home State, I know that there would be little response or oversight. In a neighboring State, there would be an strong reaction at the environmental level. As you can guess, the resources and fishing is far better in the active State.

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BigTJ
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Joined: 06/04/06 18:00

Re: Madison River between the lakes

#22

Post by BigTJ »

At least it wasn’t as bad as 1959! Compared to that this was nothing.

I watched a recount of the situation on YouTube last night. It didn’t sound that bad. There were a lot of people helping. They saved a lot of the young of the year fish (all age classes) and also stoneflies. It was also pretty warm so no problems with freezing. My guess is a lot of the eggs in the dewatered redds stayed viable in the moist gravel. With any control structure there is always a risk of a malfunction. The dam operator should put some measures in place for a quicker response if this ever happens again.

The other thing is apparently the spawn was over so presumably a lot of fish had already worked their way back down to Quake Lake.

John

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