You know, I'm starting to get really pissed off with these people! They come on to private land to shut us down not to mention doing everything they can to get us blocked from public land. Yet, Al Gore can have a mining (zinc) company get fined over and over for polluting a stream and yet...nothing! We are doing everything possible to please these nut jobs but we continue to lose ground...literally!
Take Tellico for example, thousands upon thousands of private dollars have been spent to build bridges, maintain roads to prevent run off and yet, some fisherman that do not catch their limits of trout gets their panties in a bunch and now we are about to lose many trails. And I have to ask, just what has “Trout Unlimited” done to help? Absolutely nothing! They tout facts that could not be farther from the truth. Now I will agree that there might possibly be a decline in the brown trout in the streams but lets take a closer look. They have changed they way they conduct their counts. Mainly they used to count anything over 1-1/2” long but now it has to be over 3”. Now if they had never counted anything under 3” would the numbers but low in comparison?
Now lets look at the environment. This area, as most of the South East, has been under drought conditions for about 5 years now. All you have to do is look at yearly rainfalls over the past years to see that it was coming up approximately a foot each year. Now with a shortage in rain fall, it is a completely reasonable idea that the water levels in the streams are low. Now what happens when water levels drop? Oxygen levels also drop so is it possible that the trout move down steam where they can…breath?
Okay, now lets look at the sport of fishing in itself. Just how many practice the catch and release program? Next, trout are extremely sensitive and the mere handling of them can kill them even if the swim off at first. Also, just how many of these are being removed from the streams? Could we have a problem with the streams being over fished? If “we” are removed from the area because of the low trout population, all fishing of the streams should also be banned until the population recovers.
Okay, I’m off my soap box…for now.
