Here is a article written by Jeff Kelble for the Woods and Waters magazine.
The Wood and Water magazine is FREE in many gas stations and stores all over the state of Virginia. The magazine is packed full of great hunting and fishing articles as well as fishing reports and much, much more!
Jeff Kelble, the Shenandoah Riverkeeper, patrols the water, educates the community, and advocates for a healthier Shenandoah River. Jeff knows how an unhealthy river can hurt the local economy and the health of the local residents. In 2005, after fish kills ruined his fishing guide business, Jeff closed his 6-year old business and joined up with Potomac Riverkeeper Ed Merrifield.
Jeff's job is to investigate pollution in the Shenandoah and start a dialogue with the polluters. If the polluters do not listen, or do not stop polluting, Jeff is ready to use the citizen suit provisions of the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and other environmental laws.
On Saturday, August 13th, you can come meet Jeff at the Shenandoah River Rodeo. The event is from 4pm -- 8pm at the VFW Post in Front Royal, VA.
Every Wood€™s and Waters owner asks me to write and submit a €œState of the Shenandoah River€. I take a great amount of pleasure communicating with fishermen across the state whether the news is good or bad, and as many of you know we have had plenty of both over the past six years. In addition to working on pollution issues in the river, I find that it€™s very important that the public know and understand what is happening to our fish, our river system and ecosystem in general. I find that most fishermen are extremely curious about things that effect their fishing, naturally.
Since 2008, I have been encouraging fishermen to come back to the Fork s of the Shenandoah River to fish and to canoe and enjoy. And if our rivers will ever fall to a fishable level, I will do so again for 2011 with enthusiasm. I take tremendous criticism with just about everything I put in writing and you all have read some of the pieces I produce, but it€™s my job to call it like I see it.
Right now the entire Shenandoah River system is an excellent smallmouth bass fishery. We have fish in the river that survived the fish kills of 2004/2005 and those fish are in the 18-22€ range. Though this river never produces as many of those fish as the James and New River, we do have a nice population of those fish. Your chances of catching a trophy sized Shenandoah smallmouth is as good as it has been since 2002, and it may not get much better.
As I have reported in previous years we were fortunate to have tremendous reproduction during 2004, 2005 and 2007 and then average reproduction in the years filling in those dates. The fish born during those years are now 12-17€ rounding out a very nice fishery. I believe the super high number fish days of 2008/2009 where anglers were commonly catching 100 fish per day have passed. But now we€™re in a period where I believe anglers can still catch high numbers, and the chances for big fish sprinkled in are high. This is where most fishermen like their fishery (except for you gluttons for punishment that only need to catch one huge fish a day to be happy). I feel like I know my river pretty well and so this may be a skewed statement, but I€™ve fished the river five times this year and have caught a 19€ or larger fish four of those days, and the fifth day my boat partner caught a 21€ smallmouth.
More positive news? As of today May 25th, I€™m incredibly excited to report that I have not observed any significant fish kills in the entire system. That felt really good to say. In fact, that is the first time I have been able to say that this since 2003, eight years ago. But I admit I€™m still holding my breath because we€™ve had a very high muddy spring and we don€™t know what we€™re going to find when the river calms down and clears for good.
Down the road the fishing is still a question mark. For reasons I can€™t explain, our spring weather pattern seems to be stuck in a major rut. Since 2008 we have had high river surges April through May. Our critical smallmouth spawning window every year is during this period and for four years running I have observed high water events greatly curtail the reproductory success of our brown fish. Without exception, our best spawning success occurs when river levels settle out at the end of April and remain consistent during May and June. The result of four years of this weather pattern has been mediocre reproduction four years running.
This year for example, I ran one of the stretches I know really well on the South Fork. The good news was that I hand counted 68 smallmouth nests in five miles of river. These nests were all being tended by large mature males 14-21€ long. About half those nests had eggs, half were freshly swept. There is good news and bad news in the observations I made that day. The fact that there are 68 large mature males is amazing. In fact, I haven€™t seen populations of big fish like that since 2001 and 2002.
There are likely about equal numbers of big females in that stretch of river as well. What I€™m not happy to report is that these nests were all wiped out by the ensuing rise in water levels. That was the second time this year they were wiped out. So even though smallmouth carry several rounds of eggs that ripen in successive periods of time, we may largely have missed our window and again may be left with mediocre spawning. Enough years of this in a row and I will be reporting a downturn in fishing.
The wild card remains our fish health issues. I would like to write a more in-depth article for W&W down the road about what I€™ve concluded from the scientific research that has been done, and that is ongoing. But I will leave a teaser. And this is all my opinion and I base it on thorough ongoing review and involvement of all the science being done in the Valley and beyond.
I believe our fish are exhibiting signs of immune-suppression that seems to be expressed most strongly in the spring of each year. This suppression of the immune system leaves our fish more susceptible to disease. Our fish also have been shown to have relatively high parasite loads and they exhibit damage to their gills and organs in ways that seem only to explained by contaminant exposure. Our males are producing eggs furthering the evidence of contaminant exposure. And I believe all of this will eventually be tied together to explain the ongoing spring fish health problems we are seeing focused in the spring but that we see evidence of all year. I am also looking forward to further development of information regarding a cold-water bacteria which is being isolated from our fish population during the period of time when fish are most sick. I will say there is significant disagreement among scientists and state agency staff about the role that this bacteria is taking, and it€™s too early to conclude anything, but it does seem to be playing some role. I personally believe that the bacteria is not responsible for the major fish kills we had during 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2007 throughout the Potomac, Shenandoah and James River system, but I am a little closer to believing it could be part of what we are seeing each spring with low levels of infection river-wide. More on all this later.
Thank you for reading this years state of the Shenandoah River. As always, please contact me directly for fishing advice, where to go, or with any questions you have about our fish and our rivers. You can even call or email to tell me I'm a lousy guys, but hopefully you'll be calling to tell me you think I'm doing OK work . Happy fishing this year.
