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A Fisherman's Friend Can Often Break Ecologists' Hearts
There may be plenty of unwanted fish in the sea for government ecologists, but often those invasive aquatic species are a boon to local anglers. Take the brown trout. A European native, the trout was introduced into America in the late 19th century and can now be found in bodies of fresh water from coast to coast. Though they may might provide tasty meals after lazy summer afternoons, new fish species come at a cost greater than a bucket of worms. "There's a number of either purposely introduced, or accidentally introduced, species that have provided quite a recreational resource," said George Madison, fisheries supervisor for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for the Western Upper Peninsula. "So while smelt can be desired by people, or brown trout or rainbow trout, it's very clear that they out-compete the native species." In the Great Lakes region, the introduction of salmon has changed the aquatic landscape, displacing native fish such as the coaster brook trout, a minnow forager.
Number of women fly fishing has gone up since 2003
By DAVE BUCHANAN The Daily Sentinel Fly fishing. It’s not just for men anymore. As if it ever were. It was in the 1400s that Dame Juliana Berners, preceding Izaak Walton by 200 years, published the essay, "A Treatyse of Fysshynge Wyth an Angle," (the Old English title) in which the good nun suggests that fishing with a rod and a line brings good spirits and enhances life. More and more, many of those anglers enjoying those good spirits and enhanced life are women. According to an Outdoor Industry Foundation study last year, there are nearly 3.5 million women who fly fish in the United States, up 200,000 since 2003. That’s welcome news to Robert Ramsay, president of the American Fly Fishers Trade Association.
Chubs making a comeback at Strawberry
During the C.A.S.T. (Catch a Special Thrill) event held on Strawberry this past Saturday, I had the opportunity to take a look at the chub population in the Soldier Creek portion -- and the picture wasn't a pretty one. "We've been catching fish right and left," said George Sommer, current president of the TBF Bass Federation, "but all we've caught are adult chubs." It was a fact that the area Sommer and his C.A.S.T. participants were fishing showed a water column littered with adult chubs, that swarmed each bait as it fell towards the bottom. "We thought the cuts (cutthroats) would be biting," continued Sommer, "but we can't seem to get through all the chubs." The same story was repeated several times Saturday. Each time I approached a boat, my fish finder came alive with schools of chubs, which were confirmed as I moved slowly through the shallows so that the chubs became visible to the naked eye.
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