Texoma Turns Toxic, So Does Kansas' Milford Reservoir

Weeks of hot, dry weather have turned many of the reservoirs in the Great Plains to toxic soup.

For example, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Tuesday that all of Lake Texoma is now under a blue-green algae warning and water contact is prohibited.

To the north, meanwhile, Kansas’ largest fishery, Milford Reservoir, is suffering the same fate.

The Wichita Eagle reports that three dogs have died from ingesting Milford’s water and several people have become ill.

“As of right now, you can’t even fish from the bank,” said Brad Roether, owner of a fishing guide service. “Nothing is allowed: no boating, no fishing.”

He also said that resource managers were out in boats last weekend, telling people to get off the lake.

The Abilene Reflector-Chronicle decribed the situation this way:

The algal bloom has been the result of a “perfect storm.” The lake is about 14 feet over conservation pool of 1,144.4 feet above mean sea level. Because of high water and flooding downstream along most noticeably the Missouri River, the Corps has held water back in its lake, Harms said.

Rain in the Republican basin watershed has carried agricultural fertilizer and nutrients downstream into the reservoir. Since July a hot spell has struck and without much release from the outlets it has “turned the lake into a large farm pond.”

Algae thrive during hot, sunny weather, especially when water is calm. A day or two of clouds will slow down or even stop the blooms, as the sun can’t provide energy for growth. Wind and water flow also can break them down.

Extended cloud cover can lead to a die-off of the algae, which will burn up oxygen in the water as they deteriorate. And that can kill fish, especially if the blooms have had plenty of time and prime conditions to grow and spread.

Here are links for Texoma, Milford, and a Corps list of closures, warnings, and advisories for Oklahoma reservoirs.

Discarded Baits Could Be a Fish Killer; Put Them in the Trash

Plastic worms catch lots of bass. They also might be killing a few.

If you’re still tossing used plastic baits in the water as you fish, stop it!

You could be killing bass when you do it.

How do I know? Well, first let me say right up front that I have no definitive evidence.

But I have some pretty convincing proof that bass eat those discarded baits. And if they’re eating these soft, long baits, intestinal blockage is a distinct likelihood for at least some of the fish.

Should that happen to a bass, it wouldn’t be able to eat. As a consequence, it would grow skinny and eventually starve to death.

Intestional blockage by a plastic bait could make a bass skinny and eventually kill it.

How often does that happen? We have no way of knowing. Fatalities wouldn’t be obvious, as they are when a kill occurs because of pollution.

And how frequently do bass eat discarded baits? We have no way of knowing that either. Because of the popularity of catch-and-release, we rarely clean fish and take a look at their stomachs.

But Joe Ford did just that, after a 10-pound bass that he caught at Lake Amistad died in his livewell. It had        swallowed a Senko and he put the fish in his livewell to see if it would survive.

It did not, and so he cleaned it. In its stomach he found 12 plastic baits, weighing about 4 ounces.

“They were different sizes and colors,” he told Activist Angler. “But mostly they were large. It was amazing. I don’t know how that fish would have passed them.”

Fisheries biologists also have told me about catching bass for display at outdoor shows. The fish are held in tanks for a few days for their systems to “purge” so they won’t foul the show aquariums.

“We often see plastic baits in the bottoms of those tanks,” one biologist said. “”Ninety percent of the time, they don’t have hooks in them. Those fish are picking up discarded baits from the bottom, thinking that they are something to eat.”

So, please, don’t throw those torn baits in the water or on the ground. Put them in the trash, where they belong.

And tell your buddies to do the same.

If we aren’t good stewards in this regard, we are hypocrites when we preach and practice catch-and-release.

Environmental Groups Still Using Lead Lies to Threaten Recreational Fishing

Anti-fishing groups use the loon as the "poster child" for their campaigns.

If you’re a freshwater angler and you think that your right to fish isn’t being threatened also, I have news for you:

You’re wrong.

The same folks who want to implement Catch Shares in our ocean fisheries and establish “marine protected area” where no fishing is allowed, are coming after you as well.

Only their approach is a little less in-your-face and a lot more sinister.

With the iconic loon as their poster pinup, they want to take away your right to fish in fresh water by starting with a ban on lead. And not just weights either. They want to eliminate jigheads, spinnerbaits, and anything else with a lead component.

The latest evidence: The American Bird Conservancy (ABC) is looking for a lead campaign manager.  Get the job description here.

Here’s a key part of that description: Campaign Manager will work with states and agencies to put lead-free regulations into effect.

And here’s an interesting coincidence: ABC joined the usual cast of anti-fishing characters --- Environmental Defense Fund, Ocean Conservancy, Defenders of Wildlife, etc. --- in supporting President Obama’s creation of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, which set up a massive bureaucracy for “zoning” uses of marine waters.

“Since the fishing industry is already leading with producing non-toxic sinkers, and waterfowl were the only birds really in need of a lead-free zone (loons and other birds do ingest lead shot), so to speak, this smacks to me as totally unnecessary and, therefore, more nefarious,” says a confidential source.

Continued

Anti-Fishing Advocates Launch Another Assault in California

Here comes another yet another assault on fisheries in California, where preservationists already are using the Marine Life Protection Act to close coastal waters to recreational fishing.

This time it’s Assembly Bill 1299, intended to further restrict harvest of California’s pelagic forage species, most notably sardines and squid.

An opinion piece in The Daily Triplicate points that that the legislation wouldn’t protect such species because they range far beyond California state waters, which extend only three miles from shore.

It also points out that “the majority of California’s fishing community --- municipalities, harbor districts, recreational and commercial fishing groups, seafood companies and knowledgeable fishery scientists --- oppose AB 1299, seeing it as a disingenuous attempt to curtail sustainable fisheries unnecessarily.”

And it says, “The National Marine Fisheries Service voiced concern about the bill’s redundancy and overlap with federal management, pointing out that it could actually impede ecosystem-based management.”

Such revelations should come as no surprise. These are zealots on a mission and that mission is to stop as many people from fishing --- both recreationally and commercially --- as possible and to turn the public resources of the ocean into a privately owned and big-government managed commodity.

With the Environmental Defense Fund at the forefront, these are ideologically driven people with deep pockets, thanks to funding from the Walton Family Foundation, Pew, and others.

They’re not going to stop unless we stop them.

Prime Salmon Fisheries Restored in Alaska

An important salmon river and one of its tributaries in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest have been restored to their near-original condition. They were degraded for decades for clear-cutting that caused erosion and blocked fish passage.

“The Harris River and Fubar Creek restoration is a model for the type of work we need to see more of on the Tongass National Forest. Projects such as these create local jobs, involve residents in collaborative resource management, and improve fish habitat for anglers, commercial fishermen and subsistence folks alike,” said Tim Bristol, director of Trout Unlimited, Alaska Program.  See the full story here. 

The Tongass produces approximately 70 percent of all salmon harvested from national forests, roughly 28 percent of Alaska’s overall salmon catch and about 30 percent of the salmon caught on the West Coast of the United States.