FI, you want to keep a sense of fishing pressure on Big Spring, well please stop conveniently picking and choosing time periods and comparing ”facts and data” that are totally irrelevant. There are 4 distinct modern history periods of Big Spring: the prior to the hatchery years (1972 or so); the hatchery years (1972 – 2001); the no hatchery pre-restoration years (2001 to fall 2010); and the after restoration years (fall 2010 to present). You continually reference situations from pre 2001 to today and totally ignore what happened from 2001 – 2010.
In past posts you have said how there are a lot more fish in the entire stream today than there were when the hatchery shut down in 2001. Totally agree but you won’t discuss the condition just before the work and after the work and I’m not talking about some 200 yards section that now holds fish.
You also say how hundreds of people would be fishing the ditch because that was the only place on the stream that held fish and now they are spread out on the entire stream and in far less numbers. Totally agree but this is a totally irrelevant “fact.” The real comparison is comparing the number of people who were fishing the main stream and even the ditch from the period 2001 to the fall 2010 PRIOR TO the restoration work and the number of people fishing the stream AFTER the restoration work and the attention the stream got here and elsewhere. The answer is NONE to A LOT.
So yes, prior to the hatchery being shut down the only place on the stream that held fish was the ditch. It was stocked to the gills with thousands of hatchery escapees, with many in the 3-7lbs range and the PDEP in one of their internal memos actually referred to the ditch as, “An extension of the hatchery’s raceways.” So yes, it attracted a lot of people because it was loaded with stupid large fish and the ditch was managed as trophy trout.
Then the hatchery shut down and the ditch was no longer stocked, the fish were cleaned out, and the regs were changed from trophy trout to FFO C&R. Once that happened 99% of the pressure died off because the ditch was no longer a hatchery raceway. And you know what, the stream then started to make a remarkable comeback. And even though the stream was “famous and well known,” it had severe PERCEPTION PROBLEMS so no one ever fished it outside the ditch and those that fished the ditch (other than a few locals) would quickly lose interest because now they were fishing to WILD TROUT THAT WERE DIFFICULT TO CATCH. I started fishing it in 2006 and believe me you hardly ever saw a soul outside the ditch because the stream was PERCEIVED TO HAVE HAD PROBLEMS AND NO FISH AND NOBODY FISHING IT MEANS NO STREAM REPORTS WHICH MEANS IT CONTINUES TO FLY UNDER THE RADAR SCREEN. But the stream was absolutely LOADED with fish, big fish, outside the ditch but they hid and nobody knew about them and from 2006 to fall 2010 the stream was self sustaining with the brookies populating the upper reaches from the “top down” and the bows populating the lower reaches from the “bottom up,” and there was about a 200 yard section (the lower third of the current restored section) that held very little fish. Other than that THE STREAM WAS LOADED, MUCH MORE THAN NOW AFTER THE WORK. But nobody knew that because nobody fished it except me and probably BMarx.
So the fact is the restoration work HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE NUMBER OF FISH IN THE STREAM TODAY. I know you want scientific data and the data says the stream is better today than 18 months ago but the only thing the data says is better today than 18 months ago is a 200 yard section that now holds fish when 18 months ago it did not and the fish in that section moved into that section from downstream because the work RUINED THEIR HABITIT. Congratulations to all involved in the work, you made a 200 yard section more productive at the expense of the rest of the stream both above and below this section. And now the same idiots who did the initial work are going to do more work and ruin the stream even more.
I know you’ve been around a while but I seriously doubt you, and others who wish to argue this point, have ever fished Big Spring outside the ditch because if you did you would know all of this. You conveniently point to irrelevant facts that are meaningless to try and justify your point or disprove what I and Bmarx are saying.
