Fish Kill in the SNP section of the Hazel River?

[Andrew Chaney]

I first fished the upper section of the Hazel River (from the point the park begins to the two decent sized falls upstream) a few years ago. It wasn't the most productive stream in the area, but I was still able to land a handful of brook trout. I've since been back a handful of times with similar results except the last two times I went.

The 2nd to last time I fished there (about a year and a half ago) I didn't catch anything and didn't see any trout. I didn't think much of it at the time and moved on to an nearby stream and had better luck.

I returned this last weekend after a few warm days culminated in the beautiful weather we had last Saturday. I fished the entire SNP section of the river and not only did I not catch anything, I also did not see a single trout, fallfish, dace, or other minnow. Every pool, seam, and eddy looked completely devoid of life. The water itself was crystal clear, however. I've fished all over the SNP for more than 15 years and I've never seen anything like it in an SNP stream that was big enough for fish.

So, has anyone had any luck on the Hazel River recently? If not, are there any known issues with that stream?

[Andrew Sarcinello]

Someone I know caught a single nice brookie there last year, I think in June.  He didn't find anything until he got about a half mile above the park boundary.

It doesn't explain BOTH fishless outings, but sometimes in winter things will completely shut down.  I've had this happen in SNP anytime the sun is not hitting the water in winter.  Can walk past a sunlit pool with feeding fish in the late morning, but pass it on the way out after the sun has dipped behind the ridge, and there isn't a fish to be seen.  Maybe this is what happened on your recent trip, and your previous trip you could have been fishing behind someone.

One thing to keep in mind is we've had very dry late summer/early fall conditions the past two years.  I personally believe trout populations are noticeably down in many streams from where they were 2 or 3 years ago.  However, I don't think it's anything to worry about (yet) as these fish have handled worse droughts for thousands of years.

[Richard Farino]

Something else to keep in mind – brook trout, especially mountain populations, have a pretty short life span.  3 years is average.

If there’s a population changing event, like drought, or overfishing, or increased predation, you can expect the populations to change.

Also you might not be going up far enough.  Most anglers don’t want to travel much further past the parking lot.  Next time put boots to the ground and don’t start fishing until you’re further up.

R

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[Gregg DiSalvo]

I second what Richard said.  I much prefer to start from skyline where possible.  I will hike down AT LEAST one hour (fast paced) and then fish my way back up.  I find it oh so tempting to jump in the stream too soon when hiking in from the bottom.  I fish usually once or twice each winter, just to get out.  I will go to my more productive park streams from the spring/summer where i'll have 20+ fish days.  I find in the winter that it is a good day when I land 1-2 fish.  

As for fishing behind somebody, that is definitely a possibility.  I fished Big Run for 2 days a couple years back.  Both days had other anglers sighted and I found the fishing terribly tough.  In what should have been at least 10+ fish days, we totaled four fish in two days.  It can be frustrating, but luckily, there are usually some feeder streams that you can detour to in these instance.

Maybe drop Harry Murray an email.  He's usually quite responsive and may have some intel.

Gregg

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[Bob Richey]

I was talking to a park ranger about brook trout recently and he mentioned that the past three years have been bad breeding seasons for brookies.  Anchor ice and drought had really impacted the number of fish that have survived.

On Tuesday, January 30, 2018 at 2:03:07 PM UTC-5, Andrew Chaney wrote:

[Richard Farino]

I learned my lesson about hiking down from Skyline the very first time I fished in the Park.  Never again.  It was 98 degrees and humid that day.

R

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[Andrew Sarcinello]

That makes a lot of sense to me. Drought plus winter cold in the mountains = major ice problems.  The smaller the volume of water, the quicker it freezes.  This winter has probably been really rough in terms of ice.  

[Bob Richey]

Yeah, as much as 50% decline in some streams according to the ranger.  We were talking about how in a particular stream, two years ago I wasn't catching many fish, but that the ones I caught were big (for brookies in the SNP) and then last year I didn't catch many at all and he said "yeah, they're all dead."  A couple of good years and they come back though.

[Andrew Chaney]

That's very interesting (and sad). That also explains my the reduced productivity in some of the more reliable streams I've fished in the last couple of years. 2+ years ago, I would be hard pressed to catch less than 20 brook trout per outing on my favorite streams in favorable weather. Doing the same thing last fall resulted in maybe 6-7 fish per trip at best. Maybe it's time for me to focus more on bass or something for a season or two.

[Andrew Sarcinello]

Not a bad idea, if it's clear that a certain population is having a rough time.  The larger park streams should still be in decent shape.  50% of what some of them were 3 years ago is still a healthy, fishable population. Other streams that maybe don't have as much deep pool habitat could be almost completely missing a year class or two, and this upcoming fall's reproducing class could depend on just a dozen or two fish.  I probably wouldn't fish a stream where that appeared to be the case (more than once, anyway).

One positive thing about a situation where fewer adult trout are around is the young are able to move into prime lies and get more food, so growth rates and survival rates increase.

[namfos]

Amen.