New addition

[corn fed fins]

Who's the new up and comer in our wonderful fishery? No, it's not a fish but it goes with them...........You guessed it, gill lice. Many of us knew it was coming but this was the first I've seen of it in this part of the river system. Took a "class" and did some sampling with CPW a while back and about 15% of the bows are positive and from my definition of +10 lice/gill being heavily infected I'd say 1%. The "word" is that the source of this parasitic infestation is traced back to the private stocking of a family day care business on one of the tributaries. You know the places. Businesses that stock and feed pond fish to get them big. Then for $150 or so, tourists can tie on a deer spun dog food fly($10 extra by the way) and waylay a 10lb fish, take glory shots, and walk away thinking to be an accomplished angler. LMAO

I did some more sampling for CPW last week on my own further down river. Most of the rainbows were still stacked up on redds so I only put three post spawners in the net; 0 lice. Browns: 0 lice; but for some reason (behavioral?) they are less susceptible to the parasite.

I have yet to hear any reports on Taylor fish being found infected but it's just a matter of time. Might have to make a trip up and do some angling sampling. With the rebounding Kokanee populations I'm surprised it hasn't been reported there. Low run off year here means really low water in fall, high fish densities, warmer water, and a faster spread of the parasite. Too bad.

First whiling disease literally wiped out the rainbow population in the early 90's. Now there is gill lice. Wonder if maybe we can get that privately funded and maintained wader wash station in place now or if we will still have to wait for confirmation of mud snails before action is allowed?

 

[stenacron]

I thought Gill Lice were native to the region, no?

 

[driftless22]

Gill lice are a problem in the Driftless area. For some reason,they do not infect Brown trout, but they are having a major impact upon the Brook trout in some streams. Gill lice are native to this area; unfortunately, it is possible that the problem is getting worse, potentially due to climate change and warming water.

 

[omas]

Corn Fed what water shed were you fishing?

 

[corn fed fins]

Gunnison Drainage. Yes I believe they are native but never have been documented in this area until 2015 in the Kokanee population in Blue Mesa. Most knew it was just a matter of time before they were found in the river two reservoirs down from Blue Mesa. I suspect the parasite has been here for a bit and a lid was kept on it until CPW needed to get more sampling information. I mean, how often do people open up the gills and inspect them? I never did. I seriously doubt that a couple of these fish just contracted those parasites in the last year or two. The mass on one fish's gills made me feel bad. lol The difference is the sample population comes from a very specific section in the river (giant redd) and I am curious as to the infection rate below the irrigation tunnel, where the Gunnison is a river and not a slow moving lake. This will go to my blog. LOL. Need something other than experiments with deep water ESN.

 

[cpowell]

The DOW/CPW seem to exacerbate the natural problems and introduce more. I hope the Gill Lice isn't another debacle for them. Dan has done a lot of good up there but I honestly believe the CPW and Sherm and the DOW did a lot of harm to the gunnison drainage. Sherm was a leader and a pioneer on WD research..but

For starters the Aspinal project gobbled up a watershed that was a to valuable to cover up, b, was to be replaced by equal amount of moving water access and we are way shy of total replaced and never will we achieve that number, c, they never should have put the lakers in on such elementary assumptions, d, why then kill the best Lake trout produccing lake with the poorest of management practices with the kokes. I could probably finish the alphabet but I am also thankful for much of what they do.

The sucker assumptions have made things quite difficult on the canyon as well, especially in the low water years. But I did just read how well the rainbows are doing now. But like Sherm always said...they are trout and quite easy to manage. Rear, dump, rinse, repeat. We sure have some nice endangered fish rearing facilities now though, secretly darted around the state.

I really believe the river would have fared much better if they would not have discontinued the stocking of WD positive or potentially positive fish.

The Northwest regional office and the kill crews are one of the reasons I decided to move away. Anglers roundtables...That's where Dan lost so much of his credence with the local fishing folk. It's never easy.

The Gunny is a special place for me and still one of my all time favorite places to fish in the world and I am sorry to be an armchair quarterback on that luscious system.

This used to be a slightly above average canyon Bow, by today's standard a hog...Before digital and waterproof cameras we released so many fish that could dwarf this one. Gawd I love that river, may the fish God's be with her.

 

[corn fed fins]

You said it. We are working on introducing a new effort to have "areas" closed for fishing during spawn and if we can't achieve that then a fishing closure in those areas during spawn for low flow years only; this year for example. These areas are easily accessed, used as crossing areas, and are huge redds! Our CPW biologist (Eric Gardunio, great guy by the way!) says it will not make a difference, we disagree and will be presenting this with the proposed closure. If the Gunny can start recruiting more and more fish through natural reproduction and slowly phase out inner gorge stocking, then the river system could dodge the bullet with some mass introduced disease (E.g. WD, early 90's; BKD, 2015, Glenwood SFH, adverted). CPW is worried about gold medal status as opposed to a natural fishery. Both are achievable but the state needs to quit managing for money and start managing for wildlife. Hunting? I won't even start.

As of recent history stocking has been done solely with parr from genetic material acquired within the gorge; the "new" (lol)Gunnison Rainbow Strain. Hofers are now exclusively in the lower 30% or so of the river; in other words from where water temps are too warm for bows and up. Hofers were a reasonable solution for the created problem.lol These populations are trending to zero as they are no longer stocked according to my information. The biggest hurdle is getting the brown population to reasonable level. As you know WD wiped out the rainbows and you couldn't buy a rainbow in the mid 90's. As a result the browns took over. This population needs to be checked for better natural rainbow recruitment. Some headway is being made but low water years like this will benefit the brown population big time.

Nice rainbow! Definitely above average. Fish like that are not uncommon today for the dedicated angler. 18.5" is the common pinnacle according to sampling. I have landed multiples this year in the 20-22" and a couple from 22-25" BUT I also know the river. Like you I have been fishing it for over 30 years. lol I've put rod in mouth and clung to the wall outs around rapids, swam across the deep lakes, and even roped down into this beautiful canyon just to fish holes that only world class Kayakers ever see. Today it gets crowded on the weekends on the accessible stretches and even during the week in the summer. Those areas are also some of the prime spawning habitat!

The river down low is a melting pot of fish and fish migrate, so the lower gorge can host a variety of species. Catfish, carp, suckers, trout and an occasional pike. It had a good ambush position but mine was better.lol

 

[cpowell]

Good Post Corn. Eric is a great guy and good steward of our waters.

I know there will be days in our future when we are perusing that canyon together and swapping some long earned tales of the river.

 

[corn fed fins]

Good Post Corn. Eric is a great guy and good steward of our waters.

I know there will be days in our future when we are perusing that canyon together and swapping some long earned tales of the river.

Looking forward to it!