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Biologist: Why change a good thing?
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is one in a series of stories examining different aspects of minimum flows in the White and North Fork rivers. The Bulletin is taking a look at what minimum flow is and how it will impact the Twin Lakes Area.) The White and North Fork rivers are considered by many to be the crown jewels of trout fishing in Arkansas. World-class and premium are just some of the words often used to describe the fisheries. .
Fishing Notebook: Most trout are not keepers
Pennsylvania anglers release well over half the trout they catch, according to a new study by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and Penn State University, which compared anglers fishing stocked streams for the first eight weeks of the 2005 trout season with those fishing wild trout streams mid-April to Labor Day in 2004. The stocked stream anglers averaged more than one fish per hour and released 63.1 percent of their catch, while the wild trout anglers averaged one brook or brown trout every two hours on large streams and two brook trout per hour on small streams, and released 92.7 percent of their catch. They preferred large over small streams by a ratio of 57.5 percent to 42.5 percent. More than 21 percent of the 2.1 million stocked stream trips were made on opening day weekend.
Low flows compound a high drama
This summer has certainly been one of great joy for holiday-makers and sun worshippers. The sun has been working overtime while the rains have been on strike - until this last weekend. River fishing has been virtually at a standstill except for some trout fishing around dusk and sewin fishing at night. Rivers like the Towy and Rheidol have produced a few quality sewin intermittently despite the low water levels. Sewin, often referred to as the children of the tide, have been scarce on most rivers and even on rivers where stocks appeared more numerous, the fishing conditions have been atrocious. Anglers sometimes equate catches with stocks when in fact the catches often reflect the fishing conditions. Anglers are very concerned about the future of sewin and salmon stocks especially as several of those important nursery streams are drying up.
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