Making streams better for fish
Igrew up less than two blocks from Horseleg Creek in West Rome, and that creek was my favorite place to play and fish. In the late ’50s the creek was in great shape, with sandy beaches, twists and turns that created deep holes with logs and limbs lying across and in the stream.
It was not unusual to catch a bunch of bream, bass, catfish and other warmwater fish on every visit. The fish were usually not very big, but for a 9-year-old I was having a great time. I fished the creek almost every week and my friends and I enjoyed every trip. We almost always threw the fish back unless we caught an “eating-sized” big one.
Sometime in the late ’60s the Rome and Floyd governing agencies decided that the creek needed to change because of periodic floods.
The once beautiful meandering stream was channelized upstream of Mount Alto Road all the way to just past Burnett Ferry Road. The creek channel became a flat, wide ditch nearly 15 feet wide with vertical banks about four to five feet high. With the deep pools gone and no limbs or logs in the creek, there were no fish except a few rainbow shiners and some crawfish.
The intention of the government agencies that channelized the stream was to reduce flooding. The result was that the water flowed downstream faster, increased flooding downstream and destroyed fish habitat everywhere the channelization took place. The area adjoining the creek near where I used to live still floods to this very day because, when the river rises, the water upstream still spills out into the original flood plain.
LWD, or large woody debris is extremely important in a stream. LWD can be anything from a log, a root wad or just a natural log jam caused by a fallen tree or several fallen trees.
Limbs, logs, leaves and pine needles serve a purpose in creeks and rivers. The leaves are consumed by insects such as caddis flies that will not only eat the leaves butb have larva known for making cases out of twigs, leaves, pine needles, sand and small stones to pupate in. Fish of all types, especially younger fish, find hiding places between the logs and limbs and feed on the many insects that call the log jams home.
Logs and fallen trees also can deflect the current and create deep pools and beaches. Log jams can not only form deep pools but also slow streams down and cause the water to spread out onto the gentle sloping banks of a natural stream.
Logs and limbs often cause anglers to lose a lure but if there were no LWD in the stream the odds are there are not any fish either.
TU STREAM WORK AT FORT MOUNTAIN
This past Saturday the 17 members of the Coosa Valley and Cohutta chapters of Trout Unlimited joined three U.S. Forest Service personnel and three from the Southeast Conservation Corps and one person from the TU Southeast Project coordinators office. We worked about six hours doing stream enhancements on Rock Creek.
The work we did is called “wood loading” or creating porous jams — a form of chop-and drop to add large woody debris to the stream. We used a method of grip hoists, cables, pulleys, and slings to pull the wood into place with manpower.
Rock Creek is in a remote area on Fort Mountain and is somewhat pristine, with little impact from man.
As the stream name implies, the creek has a lot of rock and in many places there are huge rock slabs and little wood. We placed three new log jams across the stream, which should add cover, food and nutrients to the stream and increase the creek’s carrying capacity for the wild rainbows that call the creek home.
Our previous work in Rock Creek involved placing cover logs, deflector logs and k-dams that created pools and hiding places for these wild trout.
FISHING REPORT
Ken Bradshaw, Eric Fischera and I fished some areas downstream of the work area after the work day was over. In the hour or so of fishing, we all had numerous hits and follows on our spinners. Ken caught a nice Rainbow that was destined for the dinner table and I caught a good Red Eye Bass.
Mark your calendar: Kids Fishing Day is June 18th at Rolater Park in Cave Spring. More on that later.