3 Rivers Management Plan (comments needed)

[Red Childress]

I just got this link from a MI-50 chapter member last nite and I have not had time to read much of it. The PFBC has opened up a public comment period lasting until April 30th, if anyone is interested. (Page 130 of the "Hi-Res" document has some musky info listed.)

The first blue hyperlink you will see appears to be a summary of the proposed plan with the other 2 links being the itemized parts of the plan.


http://www.fish.state.pa.us/ThreeRiversPlan.htm

[ThreeRiversEsox]

Within the next 3 years

Prepare a grant proposal that funds a study to determine the extent and degree of natural
reproduction and recruitment of muskellunge on the upper Allegheny River.

[Red Childress]

I heard (from a reliable source at the Butler Show) that the PFBC may do a study on the Middle Allegheny regarding the amount of natural reproduction in the very near future.

[Rich W]

Guy's
The second public meeting is scheduled for tomorrow night in Franklin.
I would highly suggest if there is any way possible for you to attend this meeting, please do so.
We had in my opinion a very disturbing turn out in Monroeville on Saturday.
At 10:00 AM when the meeting started there were 13 people in attendance with 3 or 4 more that came in after the presentation started.
The meeting was very informative, the Fish & Boat Commission really needs to hear our ideas and concerns about the rivers.
We have the best fishery in the state right here in our own back yard being the Allegheny River.
Please take the time to actually read the plan they have posted on their website, it is very informative.
We need to show the Fish & Boat Commission that we care about what they are trying to acomplish, if not we may lose the best fishery in the state.
If someone does attend please post what your thoughts were.
Rich W

[Red Childress]

I think the 3 Rivers chapter will have the PFBC guy there next month to field questions/concerns.....maybe the 1st Tuesday in March??

[Ivan]

Three Rivers MI chapter meetings are always the second Monday of every month at the North Side Sportsmans Club in Warrendale/Cranberry. Non-members are welcome also.

[Katmai Kid]

Kind of off track a little...... How would a trout loving group of people go about getting the section of river from the dam to the glade bridge (trophy trout) turned into a catch and release only. (for trout) Myself and some die hard trout lovers would LOVE to see this happen!!! Any clue on where to send the letters?? Thanks in advance!!

[Ivan]

The Three Rivers Chapter of MI had Bob Ventorini speak at the monthly meeting last night. Bob is a Fisheries Biologist for the PFBC and is in charge of the Three Rivers Management Project.

Bob gave an informative powerpoint presentation that started with a history of the Three Rivers (Allegheny, Monogahela, Ohio). Some amazing things there like the Mon had zero fish as of about 1968 due to pollution. He talked about the waters recovery over time until now with all the different native species present in the rivers. The Allegheny has a very high number of native species.

The next part of the presentation reviewed the parts of the management plan such as water quality, affects of mining, etc, fish movement and locks/dams, etc. There were others but you can see those in the plan if you look it up.

Finally, the part most of us are interested in...the fish. The program's primary concern is what Bob called the big three (walleye, smallmouth, and sauger). There was a decent amount of talk about muskies. Muskies were a tier two priority, but there are resources available to start a muskie study this year. The first thing they will do is a young of year study at 20 locations on the Allegheny from East Brady to the Kinzua Dam. The PFBC suspects that there is natural reproduction of muskies in this stretch of river because they have found fingerling muskies while electrofishing in August before any muskies are stocked.

He talked about use of pit tags and wire tags to try to understand the muskies in that area. They also plan to study adult muskies at some point also. Unfortunately, they know very little about our river muskies because their primary capture method is through electrofishing and adult muskies are very rarely captured with this method. As a matter of fact, with the electrofishing that has been done over the years on the Allegheny, they have only captured 12 adult muskies, ever. That is not enough of a sample to do anything with. I suggested trap nets like used in our lakes around spawn and Bob said that that has been difficult in the past due to current, but it is something he would like to revisit.

We also talked about a possible scale sample program with anglers of the river, but apparently the growth rates of our river muskies are slower than in our lakes and counting the rings on older fish is more difficult and less definitive. Not sure if that will ever happen but Bob seemed to have an interest based on what we told him about OH's scale sample program.

The bottom line is they are interested in learning more about the muskie population in the middle Allegheny (although Bob calls it the upper). It sounds like there will be some harvest/mortality of muskies due to tagging methods and samples kept for further testing. One thing to be careful or fearful of...if it is learned that there is a decent amount of natural reproduction, that may mean reduced stocking in that stretch of river. But as of now, nothing has been determined.

Red...I told Bob about you...your name and business name, etc. I told him that if he was interested in input from a person that is very familiar with that section of river and muskies that he should contact you. He wrote down the information and sounded as though he would.

If there are any specific question that I didn't address, i will be glad to try to answer them if they were covered.

Adam Andresky

[Red Childress]

Thanks for the summation, Adam. I hope he contacts me if he has any questions or concerns.

I wish it was legal to tag fish here in PA. It would be so easy and inexpensive to get musky migration data that could be used for stocking-based decision making as well as life span and growth rate information.