Lehigh River Dam Study

[jdaddy]

Quit stocking musky above Parryville dam.

 

[SBecker]

troutbert wrote:
Why do people want the Parryville to remain?

No one wants it to remain except a few board members of Palmerton Borough. They have a gravity fed pump house that they sell water from, to Horsehead corporation. Untill Horsehead stops buying water, that dam will remain. Our President has been trying to set up a meeting with the Horsehead owners to reccomend water recycling options, but they do not seem to want to listen.


Proposed fish ladder and proposal

The picture of the dam is not real good, but picture old wood board running verticle the whole way across. Looks like something from the 1920's, and I do not understand how it is still safe, but it is.

 

[SBecker]

jdaddy wrote:
Quit stocking musky above Parryville dam.

At that time I felt it was better to put it above the dam then let it below the dam and eat all the fish stuck there.

46 inch bastard too

 

[JeffK]

Steelhead, chinook, and Atlantic salmon have been tried in the Delaware system on and off since the 1880's - I don't see why they would take all that much better today. Back in the 1960's the NJ fisheries chief was all about getting steelies into the Delaware over the objections of the biologists who favored cleaning up the streams for the fish already there. This stuff goes on and on. Just a short list of the introduced fish in the Delaware system:
Rainbow trout
Brown trout
Smallmouth bass
Largemouth bass
Bluegills
Rock bass
Walleyes
Muskies
Channel catfish
carp
flathead catfish

Of the non-migratory native fish of the Delware the only ones that I see much of are fallfish, redbreast sunfish, and pumpkinseeds.

I don't know if there is room for seasonal migration of brookies in and out of the Delaware anymore.

 

[RyanR]

LRSABecker wrote:
The thing that kinda gets me is this, I was always under the assumption the TU was against stocking over wild and natives, correct? Why did the TU up near the Ausable request a large stocking of trout on the Ausable, so there would be more fish for a 2 fly contest? Also, been told they frequently request stockings on the LL. Am I just wrong?

Question.... Are the Steel programmed like the Salmon to return to their birth waters? If yes, then if the birthing was done on the Lehigh, would this not mean they would only return to the Lehigh?

Not true on either count regarding TU and the Ausable and LL. BTW, the Ausable is predominantly a stocked trout fishery anyway, very few wild trout exist in there (small broookies are prolfici in some of the tribs though.) Reason being is the sevre winters and icing up of the river each year.

Regarding the fish ladders on the Lehigh dams. They do not work that well (gfen I have observed several species of fish using them) for the shad because, according to leading shad biologists from PFBC and the Feds, basically they do not generate enough current or flow to attract the the shad up into the ladder system.

Yes steelhead are generally programmed similar to salmon to return to the waters of their birth. However just like some salmon do, some steelhead will wander into other nearby tribs as well and don't all end up exactly in the stream they were born in. Steelhead and salmon have both been tried on the Delaware previously too btw.

Believe it or not guys, DCNR is the major opponent to removing the lower dams on the Lehigh, specifically the Easton, Glendon, and Chain dams. Why? So they can fill portions of the canal in Easton for a few hundred yard canal boat ride they make money from. So much for conservation of natural resources eh?

Nice job linking the fight for the return of salmon/steelhead runs to the Snake River in Idaho and the positive and prolific economic impact it would have. Proof of significant local economic impact of a successful tailwater coldwater fishery on the Lehigh River can be found much closer to home too. That impact can be obtained though without trying to introduce a salmon or steelhead run into the Lehigh. A significant population of wild and stocked browns, rainbows, and brookies would be enough to bring in tens of millions of dollars annually to the local economies. A new tower with multiple levels of release gates will go a long way towards achieving that goal over 30 or 40+ miles of river.