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Gorging on beauty, trout
In that dim void between nightfall and moonrise, two arm-weary anglers drifted into sleepy chatter above the kettledrum throb of a rapid, watching the chiseled outline of a canyon wall slowly fade to black. A sudden racket from a garbage bag suspended in a tree brought the conversation wide awake. "Raccoons," Kirk Deeter declared, swinging a light beam to catch a bushy tail disappearing into the foliage. When the noise came again, the flashlight told the real story. That magnificent tail, more than twice the size of a coon's, belonged to a ringtail cat, a highly nocturnal and seldom-seen resident of the desert Southwest. The sighting, perhaps once in a lifetime, seemed appropriate for a river setting that is equally extraordinary. Of all the places where trout reside in Colorado, none lifts the bar of scenic beauty and fishing opportunity nearly so high as Gunnison Gorge.
Trout blamed for too much
WITH the new trout fishing season upon us, I think that my recent discovery is timely. Among some old papers which were stacked in a box under my house, I found a report concerning the native spotted tree frog, Litorea spenceri, which was threatened with extinction some time before 1990, although the report I have is dated 1997. The main theme of the report was that these threatened frogs were declining in numbers as a result of being eaten by rainbow trout. To help the dwindling frog numbers there was a scheme afoot, involving the Victorian Government and then Department of Environment, to withdraw or eradicate rainbow trout from streams in the Mt Buffalo National Park in particular, in an effort to halt this alarming decline in frog numbers. Both rainbow trout and brown trout are exotic fish species, being introduced into Australia from the US and England respectively in the late 19th century.
Northwest Angling Reports for Week ending 13th August 2006
Very low water levels again impacted on anglers fishing the Moy system. The Moy had a reported catch of 321 salmon for the week with the tidal section of the river fishing best. On the Weir Pool in Ballina Seamus McEleney from Donegal had 2 fish which he released, George Heuston also from Donegal had 3, best at 4.74 lbs. and Gareth Byrne from Offaly landed 4 grilse, best at 5.7 lbs. On the Ridge Pool Keven and Nial Tonge from Co.Meath had 3 salmon, best at 4.75 lbs. and Armagh anglers Des Moen and Jim Browne had a total bag of 7 fish. Visiting Belgian angler Bernard Mattiez also did well on the Ridge Pool where he caught 2 nice grilse. On the Cathedral Beat, Ken Millsopp and Alan Hannan from Co. Down had 3 fish each 2 of which were released and a decent 6.80 lbs. grilse was landed by Gerard Thomas from Armagh.
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