2015 News about the declining fish status at Fishery

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  • From: Vanderkooi, Scott
  • Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2015 5:09 PM
  • To: John Hamill (and others)
  • Subject: Re: Continued concerns with the Lee's Ferry trout fishery
  • All, In response to John's e-mail, I wanted to let everyone know what GCDAMP supported monitoring activities have taken place recently or are upcoming in Glen Canyon upstream of Lees Ferry and also in Marble Canyon. The GCRMC staff conducting the Rainbow Trout Early Life Stage Study (RTELSS) was in the field last week conducting redd counts. The next scheduled sampling trip will occur the week of March 23. This sampling occurs about every 4 weeks during the spawning season. GCRMC staff monitoring the aquatic foodbase is in the field this week conducting their monthly sampling of invertebrate drift and setting sticky and light traps to capture flying insects. AGFD will be conducting their annual spring monitoring (electrofishing) of Rainbow Trout and other fish in Lees Ferry next week. AGFD will also be launching a mainstem fish monitoring trip the first week of April. This trip will include sampling in the very upper reaches of Marble Canyon (e.g., near Navajo Bridge) which will provide information on the response of fish just downstream of Lees Ferry to recent events. The Ecometric/GCRMC Rainbow Trout Natal Origins study will also be launching a trip the first week of April. The first few nights of sampling occur in Glen Canyon and then move downstream to 20 mile, 40 mile, and then to reaches just upstream and downstream of the Little Colorado River confluence.
  • The timing of getting preliminary data from each of these efforts out to stakeholders and managers varies. Several of the fish projects can turn things around relatively quickly and provide some preliminary data within a few weeks. Invertebrate samples can take considerably more time to process, particularly drift samples due to the need for technicians to manually sort through debris and pick out insects which are then identified and counted. My guess is that there will be some fish data available in time for the April TWG meeting and possibly sooner, but it will be more on the order of months before invertebrate data is available.
  • I do have a little information on redd counts from the RTELLS work Luke Avery and Dave Foster have conducted to date, about midway through the spawning season. Counts are lower than in recent years and so far are similar to those observed in 2007 which was one of the lower years among the 10 or so we have data for. It is worth pointing out that just because the spawn is not large does not necessarily mean that there will be no significant recruitment. It is entirely possible with lower densities that survival of age-0 fish through this year will be good and that there will be good recruitment into larger size classes.
  • I'm open to discussing the feasibility of convening a workshop on this issue in the near future. Remember also that we do have plans to convene an evaluation panel on the GCDAMP fisheries program this fall.
  • Regards, Scott


3/12/2015_John Hamill Good Afternoon. Yesterday, John Jordan and I had a phone conversation with Terry Gunn (Owner, Lees Ferry Anglers) to discuss the status of the Lees Ferry trout fishery. Unfortunately, Terry reported that except for 6-8 locations very few or no rainbow trout have been observed in many sections of the river. In addition, fishing is slow in most sections of the river including the walk-in area. Terry also reported that only minor spawning has been observed. If these conditions persist we are concerned it will have a significant impact on recreational fishing and the guiding/lodging businesses that depend on a quality fishery.

We recommend the following immediate actions: (1) monitoring should be conducted early this spring by AGFD and/or GCMRC to assess whether Terry’s reports are accurate and if there has been any change in the aquatic food base, and (2) if the fish population has declined significantly, the Lees Ferry reach should be stocked with catchable triploid trout or with wild trout translocated from Marble Canyon to Lees Ferry.

We would also like to renew our request for GCMRC in coordination with the AGFD convene a workshop of tailwater fishery experts in the next several months to determine root cause of the fishery’s rapid deterioration and develop/review specific management and research actions for enhancing the quality and reliability of Lee ferry trout fishery.

We appreciate your consideration of these recommendations. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

John Jordan, AMWG Rep, Recreational Fishing Jerry Myers, TWG Rep, Recreational Fishing John Hamill, TWG Alternate, Recreational Fishing

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