Zumbro Smallmouth & water quality

[French Spaniel]

I live right on the Zumbro River over west of Mantorville. Like many people today I was out checking all the water and bridges. The water was coming over the roads in a couple places.

I had a good visit with the Dodge County Water Quality expert who was out checking the river as well.

I told him in the last five years the number of bass I have been catching in this area has been less each year. Especially the number of small bass. I was worried about the spawn. I've fished the stream here for 14 years and never kept one so harvest (by me at least) doesn't seem to be the problem.

In most of the last six or seven years right about the time of the spawn we've had flooding. I thought that had something to do with the lack of fish reproduction.

He acknowledged that the counties are worried about the lack or low numbers of smallmouth in the Zumbro in this area. He said the number of fish in the river is low in this area. He thought the floods could have something to do with it but he thought it had more to do with runoff.

He didn't think the runoff was killing the fish in this area but making them migrate downstream. He said the farm runoff causes a lack of oxygen in the water. The fish migrate to areas where the oxygen levels are better.

He said most farmers have just sprayed their fields and there are a lot of animal lots near the Zumbro. They are monitering the water quality all the time but especially during and after the flood. He said the floods are worse because all the tiling in the fields. The tiling makes the water quality worse because the chemicals in the fields run directly into them. The ones that are the worst are the ones in which you see a pipe sticking up in a field. There are not natural filters such as soil to stop chemicals in these.

Finally he said Dodge County is working with the Fisheries expert in Lake City in doing their study on the impact of farm run-off on the smallmouth bass in this area.

I know this was long but I thought many of you might be interested in this.

Take Care, French Spaniel

[uffdapete]

I concur with the Dodge Co. guy and maintain that the quality of our streams and lakes will depend on soil conservation and there is very little soil conservation practiced in SE MN, nor is there much incentive to do so. There are equally serious issues with lakes where inadequate control is excersized over development. I never gave a thought to the problems he brought up that result from tiling but his points are very valid. You don't have to look any further than modern day examples of Lakes Shady and Zumbro to see the results of inadequate soil conservation or if you want to go back a century, to the Whitewater valley.
Sometimes the only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history. It's terribly unfortunate that politics get in the way of sound practices and management of our resources. It would be surprising if much changes with the shortsightedness that exists in our society.

[CrappieJohn]

The small farmer is the one who really takes it in the shorts on this issue. They need to use every inch of their available land to make a living and, unfortunately, that means tiling to get the land dry and the use of herbicides and pesticides to protect the crops planted. The corporate farms can better follow some of the recommended guidelines regarding tillage and chemical use because they can absorb some of the costs. The sword in this case is truely double edged.

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[French Spaniel]

Every year I get a call from students at RCTC and do a conservation project in which they clean up the rivers.

They are always shocked to see what is in the rivers. People don't want to shell out $25 to the landfill so in the night they dump their truckloads in the river.

There are places along the banks where I live that years and years of junk have been dumped.It would take a construction crew to remove it. You don't see these things unless you wade the streams.

Back to the kids. They usually give me a call or a letter and report what they pull out of the river. The first year they did it they had little back packs for garbage. The next years they pull canoes.

Each time I wade the streams I pull a little garbage out with me. Doesn't make much of a dent but every little bit helps. French Spaniel

[stillhunter]

I have a very good friend (an avid Smallie fisherman) that heads up a group of college students in the "Skunk River Navy". An honors biology class that does water quality surveys, bank restoration and river clean-up projects. It never ceases to amaze me the items they can pull out with a canoe. The group helps bring attention to the challenges facing our watersheds.

I grew up on the smallie rivers of NE Iowa and have seen some changes in the many years I have fished there. Algae blooms following spring planting...and then die off is probably the most noticable. One would think those big swings would have to affect the fish

There are some programs that do sound promising with preventing the direct flush of phospates & other chemicals directly into the streams. One works with the landowners to recreate the natural filtering that occurs with the marshy prairie potholes...plugging tiles and allowing a filtering action to "clean" the water before hitting the flowage.

So keep your fingers crossed that more public awareness will help foster change. And I will keep doing the same as French Spaniel...carrying out what I can...and teach my kids the right way to appreciate your favorite body of water. (It must be working because the other day they started making a pile of trash to carry out when we were done fishing!!!! without Dad even asking,,,I was soooo proud)

Stillhunter

[Lew]

There is some hope out there, look at the improvements of the Minnesota River over the past 10 years. Sadly, I doubt that the Zumbro River will capture the attention of the state officials that the Minnesota River has. While wading last Sunday in a stream south of Kasson, I pulled out an old 10 speed bike AND I pulled out yet another of the signs promoting a yes vote in the Kasson bond issue. This is at least the fifth sign that I've pulled out of the river over the past three years.

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Lew

[French Spaniel]

Lew,

Must be a "sign" that the Kasson Bond was "Sunk." From the looks of the river out my back door I don't think you will be wading that stretch anytime soon.

Did you catch anything last week?

French Spaniel

[Lew]

Walked about a mile down stream (maybe less) and ran into a big surprize. I had the good fortune to play three nice sized northerns. All were between 20 and 24 inches. I had two of them close enough to land with a net, but I had no net. As I was eyeballing those teeth and guessing the odds of not being bit, they each gave a shake and ran off with my lure. For the third (and largest) one I had downsized somewhat to a jig with a twistertail. When I had him within about 4 feet he decided to take off and ran away with my jig and twistertail. I was disappointed that I didn't see much in the way of smallies, but I sure had fun playing our these northern on my ultralite rig.

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Lew