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A Good Read

Started by Dee-Vo, February 11, 2020, 21:03:33 PM

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Dee-Vo


Sedition and Pockets

Some good info on interpreting topos, but it does reinforce what I view as the misplaced obsession with stream gradient.  I want to know whether a creek is likely to hold water and stay cold, but I also want to catch fish that aren't fucking dinks, and ladder-type plunge pool streams are not a good place to seek out real ones.

Big J

Quote from: Dylar on February 12, 2020, 07:22:57 AMSome good info on interpreting topos, but it does reinforce what I view as the misplaced obsession with stream gradient.  I want to know whether a creek is likely to hold water and stay cold, but I also want to catch fish that aren't fucking dinks, and ladder-type plunge pool streams are not a good place to seek out real ones.

This.  Some of the flattest streams can produce the biggest trout.  I feel like headwaters with a healthy cold spring system and ability to hold water trumps stream gradient any day.

Dee-Vo

For the majority of my fishing, I just like to see what's there in terms of trout species and size and also scenery. Comparing scenery/trout/geology/flora has become a favorite activity of mine. Sizable trout are great, and I'll gladly take the largest offered, although it's not everything to me. At times I'll get large fish on the brain, still though, I usually have slid back to new water ideology - regardless of fish size/reputation before I even turn around.

Woolly Bugger

ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!


Sedition and Pockets

Quote from: Big J on February 12, 2020, 09:24:59 AM
Quote from: Dylar on February 12, 2020, 07:22:57 AMSome good info on interpreting topos, but it does reinforce what I view as the misplaced obsession with stream gradient.  I want to know whether a creek is likely to hold water and stay cold, but I also want to catch fish that aren't fucking dinks, and ladder-type plunge pool streams are not a good place to seek out real ones.

This.  Some of the flattest streams can produce the biggest trout.  I feel like headwaters with a healthy cold spring system and ability to hold water trumps stream gradient any day.

High gradient usually means low fecundity.  I do map research, but mostly to make sure creeks have a sufficient catchment area to hold water.  Otherwise, I'm mostly after the infallible signs of fertility (chiefly, historic or ongoing human habitation).

Dougfish

But some high gradient streams do deliver some big fish. They may be fewer and farer in between.
(But our average VA brookie crushes those NC southern strain fish  :wave )
And I like the challenge and the beauty of a tumbling stream.
Yeah, you have to have dependable year round water, but after that, pH, nutrients and bugs rule the roost.
Only 10%? of streams have all of the above?
"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here?
 Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change? "
Kelly's Heroes,1970

"I don't wanna go to hell,
But if I do,
It'll be 'cause of you..."
Strange Desire, The Black Keys, 2006

Mudwall Gatewood 3.0

Interesting discussion.
 
Several years ago, there was a huge flood isolated in a certain VA high gradient watershed.  Macroinvertebrate, temp, pH, etc. historical data were available for this brookie stream.   The flood opened the canopy in much of the stream, allowing abundant sunlight.  Temp remained good from the upstream intact riparian cover.  However, the inverts changed in the newly opened reaches, as well as the growth of the fish.  Those brookies grew fat and sassy from the new macroinvertebrate assemblage.  This continued until the vegetative cover returned.

The biggest brookies I've ever seen came from slower moving habitats (beaver ponds, landlocked brookies in human impoundments, or flushed brookies that ended up in larger streams).  I believe these more placid, sunlit habitats offer greater food biomass and less energy requirements.  If temp is good, open and calm flips my cookie.  I don't think brookies will be forced to join Jenny Craig after eating critters that consume deciduous leaves and hemlock needles – slow turnover in the food biomass.  Sun = biomass = bigger brookies, if temp endures.   
"Enjoy every sandwich."  Warren Zevon

Sedition and Pockets

Quote from: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on February 13, 2020, 08:37:08 AMInteresting discussion.
 
Several years ago, there was a huge flood isolated in a certain VA high gradient watershed.  Macroinvertebrate, temp, pH, etc. historical data were available for this brookie stream.   The flood opened the canopy in much of the stream, allowing abundant sunlight.  Temp remained good from the upstream intact riparian cover.  However, the inverts changed in the newly opened reaches, as well as the growth of the fish.  Those brookies grew fat and sassy from the new macroinvertebrate assemblage.  This continued until the vegetative cover returned.

The biggest brookies I've ever seen came from slower moving habitats (beaver ponds, landlocked brookies in human impoundments, or flushed brookies that ended up in larger streams).  I believe these more placid, sunlit habitats offer greater food biomass and less energy requirements.  If temp is good, open and calm flips my cookie.  I don't think brookies will be forced to join Jenny Craig after eating critters that consume deciduous leaves and hemlock needles – slow turnover in the food biomass.  Sun = biomass = bigger brookies, if temp endures.   


I don't think there's any question that brookies prefer lower current environments.  Roaches want that big push, but brookies, not so much.  Anecdotally, even less than browns do.