Code Red: A second fishing guide calls for shutting down the river where he takes clients

In addition to Ken Pavol’s comments about the heat effects on wild trout in Western Maryland (see my earlier post), here’s what another guide, PJ Daley of Savage River Angler, wrote last week in an appeal for a fishing closure to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Note that he also uses the opportunity to express opposition to the allowing of bait fishing in the long, catch-and-release section of the North Branch Potomac, a thriving and still developing trout river.

NOAA is forecasting five of the next seven days to be in the upper 90’s at Keyser, W. Virginia. The other two “cooler” days are 90 and 92 with sunny conditions. Indeed the heat has been relentless.

This past Monday I received an email that I interpreted as “maybe you folks should think twice about fishing for trout in Catch and Release water until the weather cools down.”

It should have read: “Unfortunately, due to the weather, low flows and water temperature, the North Branch Potomac Catch and Release trout water downstream of Westernport will be closed to fishing until water temperatures and weather permit its reopening. We will monitor the situation closely and appreciate the public’s understanding. We regret to have to make this hard decision, but with conservation and the health of the fishery in mind, it will be closed until further notice.”

The water at the Route 220 bridge has been hitting lethal temperatures, especially for trout that get hooked, at about 1:30 pm every day except for a couple of days. That’s on the very upper portion of this fishery. Water temperatures are certainly much higher farther down towards the end of this management area.

I am a resident taxpayer and small business owner in Maryland and I rely on the trout in this river. Through strong fisheries management, there should be a healthy abundance every season.

Beyond the scope of deadly warm water temperatures, bait fishing is still being allowed in catch and release trout management water I speak of.

To suggest the North Branch is somehow different from trout catch and release management areas nationwide for the last 100 years, and in light of the body of science regarding bait hooking mortality, is quite a unique argument.

It’s never been necessary to reinvent the wheel to justify management that is already supported by the collective experience of generations of fishery biologists. Banning bait is a no brainer. This is not a matter of ethics, but one of taking an approach with conservation in mind, using already established science that has been around for longer than any of us, to grow the best Catch and Release trout fishery possible.

Your rationale for continuing to allow bait in the NOBR catch and release area is that your creel study indicates the use of bait was low and the impact therefore minimal. What was the rationale to forbid the use of bait in every other specially regulated trout catch and release trout stream in Maryland? Why the inconsistency?

The banning of bait, besides eliminating the significantly higher hooking mortality associated with bait fishing for trout, would help the Maryland Natural Resources Police deter poaching. Poachers are likely to use bait and generally don’t fish in areas easily accessed by the creel study clerks. They are fishing legally, while concealing their catch, and will continue to do so. I am downright discouraged by, and fully disappointed with the stance that Maryland DNR fisheries has taken with seemingly no regard to the safety or promotion of the wild and naturalized trout population in the North Branch of the Potomac.

This is not water that you just dump a truck load of adult trout in and everything is fine. It takes years to rebuild, and there are many other businesses that rely on this fishery. The economic impact spreads far and wide.

This fishery should be closed downstream of Westernport all the way through the catch and release trout water immediately to conserve what has not been already damaged.