2010 Susky YOY Study

[CPR]

While the PFBC can NOT be blamed for the demise of the Susquehanna River smallmouth bass fishery they can be called out for their lack of will to respond to it.

The issues have been known for several years and we have not yet had any change in management of the resource.

For the past few weeks, prior to the rains of the past week, the Susquehanna river had been below 3 feet on the Harrisburg USGS gauge. The water flow levels are that their lowest, dissolved oxygen at the lowest, water and air temps at their highest, and YET, the multiple tournament clubs are still having as many tournaments as they can hold.

The infamous Susquehanna River Tournament Trail just held a very large tournament out of the City Island pool The river gauge was at 3.0 feet and the air temps were in the 80's with water temps to match,
and these tool bags are holding large adult smallmouth bass in metal boxes for hours at a time and then using them for a big show, err "weigh-in", at the end of it.

They claimed on their website to weigh in 95 smallmouth bass for a total weight of 268 pounds.

How many of those fish made it through that experience?

Why these events are allowed to exist considering the circumstances of the river is beyond me.

 

[JakesLeakyWaders]

I agree, I was asked why I didn't join a tournament this year that my local club was holding.

I told them that I didn't think the tournament should even be held with the condition the river is in.

They looked at me puzzled like I told a joke and they didn't get. It's bad enough already with TMI and Bruner island discharging 110 degree water into the river in my area. And then on top of that extreme low water 90 degree temps and a bunch of half drunk idiots yankin' bass out and tossing them aound in their boat.

 

[afishinado]

JakesLeakyWaders wrote:
I agree, I was asked why I didn't join a tournament this year that my local club was holding.

I told them that I didn't think the tournament should even be held with the condition the river is in.

They looked at me puzzled like I told a joke and they didn't get. It's bad enough already with TMI and Bruner island discharging 110 degree water into the river in my area. And then on top of that extreme low water 90 degree temps and a bunch of half drunk idiots yankin' bass out and tossing them aound in their boat.

Good for you Jake.

IMHO, priorities should be in order of importance:

1. Conservation
2. Sportsmanship
3. Fishing

:-(

 

[Nuthin_Fancy]

I do not condone bass tournaments, especially when conditions are so dire on the river. However, the characterization of the participants in such tournaments as "tool bags" or "half-drunk idiots", in my opinion, is not productive and is far from the truth. The tournament participants that I know are as passionate about fishing as we are; only their gear and methods are different. Rather than fighting among ourselves, we should form alliances and present a common voice to the agencies charged with managing the resource as well as our political leaders.

The current state of the river is not a result of tournament angling, bait fishing, or even keeping a few fish for dinner. There are almost complete year classes of SMB missing! The problem is complex, likely multi-faceted, systemic, and is complicated by climatological issues (I will leave it at that). In my opinion, banning or restricting tournaments, or even closing the fishery will not solve the problem.

Complaining about the PAFBC on this forum is non-productive. The PAFBC folks that I have known over the years are dedicated professionals and care deeply about our freshwater resources. However, as I understand, they are funded primarily by license sales and do not have the resources necessary to figure out the root cause(s) of the SMB population crash in the river.

Call me a pessimist, but unless a public health risk can be linked to the decline in the SMB population in the middle and lower river, I believe that we have already seen the best SMB that the river can offer.

 

[CPR]

Nothing Fancy

"I do not condone bass tournaments, especially when conditions are so dire on the river. However, the characterization of the participants in such tournaments as "tool bags" or "half-drunk idiots", in my opinion, is not productive and is far from the truth. The tournament participants that I know are as passionate about fishing as we are; only their gear and methods are different."


I guess you don't spend too much time at the Goldsboro or Middletown ramps during tournament season.

While I agree that some of the tournament participants conduct themselves with a professional demeanor, the descriptions above are pretty accurate.

I apologize for painting all with one brush but spend some time at a major Susquehanna river ramp on a saturday or sunday and you'll get a different opinion.

If they were as passionate about the resources as they were about ego's, bragging rights, patched shirts, and moving up the tournament hiearchy,
they would be the best protectors and advocates of the river you could find.

 

[JakesLeakyWaders]

The "tool bags" I was refering to are from a club ("private drinking establishment") I belong to, and the tournament starts in the club parking lot with a shotgun blast as members are cracking beers at six a.m. Steroetypically most of the club members fit the bill for half drunk idiots and I was not making an attack on spin fishing.

I am sure most tournaments are fairly professionally organized, just that I happen to know a fair number of the half drunk idiots who are club members personally, that said it is probably the most redneck tournament held on an annual basis.

 

[Nuthin_Fancy]

From Susquehanna Riverkeeper website: http://www.lowersusquehannariverkeeper.org/

"Once again this year, we are seeing die-offs of the Young of Year Smallmouth. Low river flows and high temperatures may be causing some of these deaths, but we are also finding sex organ mutations in the adult Smallmouth. The chemicals causing these mutations could also be responsible for possible immune deficiencies that may make the young more vulnerable to the low-flow, high temperature conditions in the shallow areas that are the nurseries for the young bass. Recent USGS research into the effects of fish exposure to tiny amounts of the corn herbicide Atrazine (.5 ppb) shows that this poison could be one of the chemicals responsible". http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2467&from=news_side

"The combination of this and other chemicals known to cause "endocrine disruption", such as estrogen and other pharmaceuticals, PCB's and dioxins, and bisphenol A, can work together increasing the negative effects. We are working with USGS to further this research".

 

[Fredrick]

Nuttin Fancy do you know if anyone is putting any pressure on the DEP to clean up the river . It seems like everyone is putting all the pressure on the PFBC to clean it up . Has the DEP had any public meetings or even published any finding about the river .

 

[CPR]

Frederick

DEP has been pressured but in all honesty the Rendell administration has done a hatchet job to it's budget and their enforcement resources are stretched thin.

I went to the last meeting and heard Dr.Blazer's presentation. It seems to me that they (DEP, USGS, SRBC) know what the pollution is, where it's coming from, and how to fix, but they just do not have the political backing to do anything about it.

Research Atrazine.


The PFBC can make immediate changes to the way the resource is managed through regulations to achieve at least some relief to adult smallmouth in the river, like say, declaring the river a catch and immediate release fishery.

 

[Fredrick]

Thxs I found this http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100519131126.htm

And this Poor Kermit http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091203225038.htm


So were do they go from here ?

 

[CPR]

I wish the PFBC would have posted Dr. Blazer's presentation online. The information she had was crazy.
The USGS had done studies on some parts of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers where almost 100% of the fish were inter-sexed. The the Susquehanna tests are starting to show a trend in the same direction.
High concentrations of Atrazine and High percentages of inter-sexed fish.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080208115302.htm

Every fish in the Susquehanna River needs to treated as a precious resource. Should we stop fishing? Absolutely not, but we should start to do what we can to keep what we do catch alive.

NO metal boxes AKA, ironically, Live-Wells, and NO dinner plates.

I may or may not deep hook and fish and kill it by practicing catch and immediate release. But I'm certainly not going to kill as many as a tournament angler or a catch and keep angler does over the same period.

It's crazy to me that so many people can't look at all of the available information and see what needs to be done.

 

[Fishidiot]

CPR wrote:

I went to the last meeting and heard Dr.Blazer's presentation. It seems to me that they (DEP, USGS, SRBC) know what the pollution is, where it's coming from, and how to fix, but they just do not have the political backing to do anything about it.

CPR,
While I share your desire to see the lower Susky changed to C&R regs - I too attended Dr Blazer's presentation and would respectfully disagree with your conclusion. The link between intersex phenomena in Susky bass has not been put forth as the cause of the decline of the bass populations in the lower Susky (although this is being investigated). You seem to imply that, were there political backing, that the river could be cleaned up, the intersex abnormalities eradicated, and the problem solved. While this might be possible, it doesn't guarantee the return of world class bass fishing on the lower Susky. The fact of the matter is, the discovery of intersex bass MAY not be a new problem - after all, atrazine and Prozac have been around for years. Dr Blazer was clear that the chemicals were not tested in fish tissue in the past and that only recently have intersex conditions been discovered in Mid Atlantic riverine SMB pops (2003). Since the discovery of intersex, there have been two very good spawns in the Potomac River. The 2007 spawn was a record. While common intuition would hold that intersex abnormalities would affect spawning - this does NOT appear to be the case in most of the waterways where this problem has been documented. At least not yet. For all we know, these intersex abnormalities may have been in bass for years. If I had to hazard a prediction, I'd bet that with further research intersex abnormalities will continue to be found in many more SMB pops in this part of the country including in many rivers with excellent bass fishing, like the Potomac.

 

[CPR]

I believe I read somewhere that the intersexed fish can reproduce but there has not been studies done as to the effectiveness of their effort.

I apologize if it seemed that I was implying that atrazine and other chemical pollutants were the only problem with the river. Certainly mother nature herself has been just as cruel. The persistent drought/flood cycle we went through in the early to mid 2000's were just as damaging to the spawn.

When you add it all up, pollution, unfortunate/untimely weather events, excessive fishing pressure, and poor management you get the perfect storm.

I suspect that with the proper political backing the DEP would be in a better position to deal with the pollution issue. One of the most powerful lobbies in the Commonwealth is agriculture. Who is the biggest benefactor of chemicals such as Atrazine? Agriculture.

It's a tough situation and it's a shame that my children will not be allowed to know the Susquehanna river as I did growing up.

:-(