February 2000
Trout Unlimited February Letter

TROUT UNLIMITED CALENDAR

The monthly meetings now happen on the second Wednesday of the month. The new location is at the GARDEN CITY City Hall Auditorium. The address is 201 E. 50th Street, just off of Chinden Boulevard (between Chinden and the Boise River). 50th Street is between Veterans Parkway and Glenwood Avenue, and a little closer to Glenwood. It is best to park at the back of the building and go in the back door. The times are the same: 6:30 p.m. for fly tying and 7:30 p.m. for the program. These monthly meetings are a joint meeting for the Ted Trueblood Chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Boise Valley Fly Fishers.

Wednesday, February 9, 2000 – Monthly Meeting – Garden City Hall Auditorium 201 E. 50th Street, Garden City. Learn why the Boise River reservoir system is operated like it is. The Bureau of Reclamation will provide a slide presentation and oral primer to our group on how and why Anderson Ranch, Arrowrock and Lucky Peak dams and reservoirs are operated throughout the year as they are.

Wednesday, February 23, 2000 – Public Hearing, Army Corps of Engineers Draft Environmental Impact Statement on Improving Migration of Snake River Salmon and Steelhead, Boise Center on the Grove. This is the public hearing on the study that looks at the alternative of breaching the four lower Snake River dams. Public support for salmon and steelhead is needed. Make plans to attend.

Wednesday, March 8, 2000 – Monthly Meeting – Garden City Hall Auditorium 201 E. 50th Street, Garden City. The Green River.

Saturday, April 8, 2000 - 9th Annual Ted Trueblood Chapter Conservation Banquet. Doubletree Riverside 6:00 p.m. opening, 7:30 p.m. dinner. Tickets are $35 per person and $60 per couple.

Wednesday, April 12, 2000 – Monthly Meeting – Garden City Hall Auditorium 201 E. 50th Street, Garden City. A special program with Dave Nolte from stillwater flyfishing of Bend, OR. Dave will present a slide show of fishing the upper Deschutes country, including some pretty special stillwater areas. In addition, Dave will speak briefly about the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Society, a coalition of national hunting and fishing groups (e.g., Trout Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation) who are working together on conservation issues on our National Forests. Dave is on the national staff of Trout Unlimited, and for many years has been running the Bring Back the Natives Program.

Swarm Stuns Seminar

The 3rd Annual Fly Fishing Seminar on January 29th at Boise State University was the scene of an unusually large turnout of hundreds of fly fishing enthusiasts. Estimates are that 500 or so people attended. This number was much higher than Seminar organizers dreamed would happen. The room with the slide show programs was at capacity through most of the day. Dozens of people hovered around the fifty expert fly-tiers. A dozen booths of local organizations, shops and businesses rounded out the seminar.

Seminar organizers can't blame the free beer for the huge turnout, because there wasn't any. There was free parking, however, which made for easy access for attendees. Cabin fever, and having the event the day before the Super Bowl, probably helped with turnout. The Scottish bagpipes from a separate event at the Student Union Building visited briefly (but not quietly) and added the the festive atmosphere.

A big thanks goes to Clayne Baker, who organized the fly-tiers. That was quite a job since there were nearly fifty of them.

TU BANQUET APRIL 8TH

This is the first of three newsletters where you will be harangued about the 9th Annual Conservation Banquet for the Ted Trueblood Chapter. It will be held Saturday, April 8 at the Double Tree Riverside. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. and the dinner will start at 7:30 p.m. Jim Cook is chairman of the event. Aside from his momentary lapse in judgment in accepting the post, Jim is well-suited to lead the Banquet Committee because he and his wife Mary York co-chaired the banquet last year. If you are interested in helping with the banquet you can contact Jim at 343-8548.

Look for your formal invitation in the mail soon. Those who mail in their registration will be eligible for a special door prize to be awarded at the banquet. In addition, those who sell "gold tables," which really means eight tickets, are also eligible for a prize.

YEAR 2 - Trout-In-The-Classroom Project By Richard Prange

The Ted Trueblood Chapter has purchased two new Glacier Corporation aquarium chiller systems that have been placed in Boise area 4th grade classrooms for the winter/spring semester of 2000. At $650 each, these units operate to maintain cold water temperatures during trout egg incubation and fish rearing after the egg hatch. The Glacier system is adapted for use in a standard aquarium setup.

Last year, the Ted Trueblood chapter provided substantial funding towards the purchase of a $3,500, 70 - gallon Living Stream tank that was placed in Carrie Prange's 4th grade class at Riverside Elementary School. On January 21, I moved this unit to Riverglen Junior High School where it was placed in the lab of 7th and 8th grade teacher Kris Stone for use in her Life Science classes this year. The two new Glacier units will be used in Carrie’s class and in Jessica White's 4th grade class at Highland Elementary School.

The Parent - Teacher Association (PTA) at the three schools will help purchase aquariums and other needed equipment for the projects. Ted Koch, U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist, will oversee and mentor Jessica White's class and I will be assisting in my wife's class activities. I will be seeking another professional biologist type to help Kris Stone.

As with last year's trout-in-the-classroom project, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game will be providing key assistance and advice. For instance, on February 1, Ted Frew, IDFG hatchery supervisor, spawned trout in the three classes and helped the students charge the vibert boxes with fertilized trout eggs. As you can imagine, this activity is one of the highlights of the 4-month project, which culminates in the springtime release of the reared trout fry into a nearby stream by the students.

During the project period, curriculum units are taught that include fish biology and the importance of healthy aquatic habitats. Interest in this program continues to grow in Idaho (as well as in many other states) and the potential is almost unlimited in terms including the trout-in-the classroom project as an environmental teaching tool.

VOICES OF THE BOISE RIVER

Editor's Note: The February meeting for Trout Unlimited and the Boise Valley Fly Fishermen will be a presentation by the Bureau of Reclamation on its management of the Boise River system of dams and reservoirs. This issue includes a number of essays written by people with interest and experience with the Boise River. Both the Boise River through town and the South Fork Boise River are discussed. Due to space limitations three of the six essays are included in this letter.

I've become especially familiar with two stretches of the Boise River over my 31 years in Idaho, and my allegiances have shifted with my fishing abilities.

I fished the river through Boise from Eagle to Barber Park in the early days. People laughed at me in the early 70's when the river was still considered undesirable. I saw the river get cleaner and the hatches more numerous. I noticed that my critics often drove 70 miles to the South Fork of the Payette to catch less of the same hatchery rainbows I found five minutes from home in the North End. I caught many from the earliest plantings of brown trout in the stretch by BSU where I then taught. I often donned my waders to let off steam during lunch hour.

I seem to have forgotten the river through town in recent years. Like many I was fascinated with the early attempts to dump excess steelhead right in town. Over time I came to believe that such fish generated far too much pressure and actually harmed fishing in the long run. In addition, access became more difficult as trails and fields gave way to subdivisions and fences. I keep meaning to go back more often. And I keep wishing that Fish & Game would leave the lunkers where they belong. I probably didn't fish the South Fork below Anderson Ranch until about 1972. I clearly remember being quite scared the first time I was caught unawares in midstream by the rapidly rising flow that characterized river management in those days. It was on the South Fork that I finally left my trusty Mepps and ultralight spinning gear behind, forcing myself to fish solely with fly gear until I found the secret to catching fish rather than just casting flies. My one and only rod in those days, used for grasshoppers and muddlers and small dries alike, was a 6ft glass rod from Hardy's.

My fishing abilities improved dramatically, but so did the fishing. In the old days there were lots of small fish. Slot limits and enforcement and a real commitment to more stability of water flows clearly led to bigger and better fish. Today, the South Fork is a treasure, but one we need to think more about preserving. Ten years ago I thought I owned the river in the fall. I quit hunting to do more fishing. There was no competition. Today that is all changed. As Cecil Andrus related last year, "it's getting so bad you have to bring your own rock to stand on."

I am almost ready to consider some sort of rationing or permit system. For several years now, I have thought we needed to post some sort of rules of etiquette for fishing in crowded situations. This is Idaho, not Michigan or California. What's ample elbow room here ought to be defined by us, to prevent the combat fishing so common in more populous places. I would like to see a little more water in the river over the late fall and early winter, for the fish. That would often allow some late spring fishing at moderate flows of the sort we saw in the drought years, but it would mean taking on the irrigators, who still run all rivers and believe in planning as if it will never rain or snow again.

Finally, I think it is about time for some of the fishing clubs to organize litter campaigns and rework the outhouse situation. I've seen some serious trash and unsightly as well as unsanitary waste disposal recently. The ability to continue to allow the dispersed camping I so much enjoy may ultimately depend on people leaving everything "cleaner than it was when they arrived." - Bill Eastlake

* * *

Dispersed camping along the S. Fork Boise has become more popular each year, especially as the Treasure and Magic Valley areas continue to experience population growth. Unfortunately, the ethics of camping in these dispersed areas generally leaves something to be desired. Like others, I have noticed a proliferation of trash, fire rings and especially human waste.

I believe it is time for a coordinated effort to address these problems. Personally, I would like to see some effort to focus on education along with an elevation of these concerns to the appropriate land management agency, i.e, the Forest Service. Perhaps, it is time for clubs and interested individuals to consider sponsoring chemical toilets for several highly used campgrounds such as # 3, 4, 7 and 10.

Let's face it, more than ardent fly fisherman have discovered the S. Fork. Somehow we have to find a way to "hook" these dispersed campers to contribute to the effort to keep these campgrounds like we would all like to see them kept. - Grant Simonds and Family

* * *

It's physically possible to maintain higher winter flows in the Boise River. Reservoir management can make that happen if system flexibility were optimized. The constraints, however, are institutional. Fortunately, with some water service contracts expiring this decade, a little water can be left for the river. Releasing more water in the winter would both help fish and generate hydropower at several dams during the time of the year that electricity is at its highest value. The farm lands where most of the Boise River ends up have been replaced by suburbs at a rapid rate. What's needed now is an open dialogue over the River.

With more winter water in the River through town, the other piece to put in place is restoring spawning and rearing habitat. The options here are limited since nearly everything near the river is developed. But hope exists in TU's work with Harris Ranch to establish some side channels along River from Barber dam to Warm Springs Mesa. Other opportunities exist and likewise need to be pursued.

Another dilemma is the best fish habitat lies upstream of Broadway Bridge. Habitat would be even better, but most snags have to be removed for tuber safety. Fortunately, the City's new River Plan establishes a policy of helping create more habitat to mitigate for snag removal.

Meanwhile, the South Fork merits several visits every year because the river changes so dramatically with the seasons. There is a "big river" in late spring and summer, when float fishing is the best way to see the river. Late summer brings dry hills and flow more conducive to wading. Then in the winter it is a dormant, gray canyon, and a stream of white fish surrounded by snow, mud and ice.

Seasonal changes are punctuated by major events like the fire in 1992 and the big washout in January 1996 that wiped out the pocket water stretch below Indian Rock and turned the "bend pool" into a run. The River and its denizens appear healthy, but I wonder whether the loss of tributary spawning habitat due to Anderson Ranch Dam spells long-term trouble for the River. The canyon below Danskin Bridge must act as a refuge since the fishing pressure is so much less than upstream. Perhaps fish move to the deep pools in the canyon for the winter. Meanwhile, I have caught more than a few hatchery recruits sucked out of Anderson Reservoir. Is the fish population being subsidized by more than a few of these reservoir trout?

I give the Bureau of Reclamation a B or B+ for their water management in the South Fork. John Keys (former Regional Director) is still my hero it ends on page five VOICES from page four for maintaining 300 cfs through the drought of the early 1990s. If the dam were not there, the South Fork in many winters would dip below 200 cfs. Clearly the River is benefiting from higher and steady winter flows.

Still, there is room for improvement. When several above average water years converge, we should see winter flows of 500 to 600 cfs, not 300 from mid-October until water managers panic at the snow pack in February and then release 2,000 cfs or more the rest of winter. Some flexibility can be found because there are two more reservoirs downstream to minimize the risk if it decides to not snow one winter.

The South Fork is full of odd memories, too. I've lost or found fly rods, fly boxes, and a boat anchor. A fly, leader and 15 feet of line broke on a willow in August, only to be recovered in October. NBC Dateline struggled greatly to film Gov. Cecil Andrus for a story on his efforts to save the salmon. There was also that campout in October 1995 when we had our car radios tuned to Game 5 of the Mariners v. Yankees playoffs, when Edgar Martinez doubled in Arod and Junior in the bottom of the 12th.

Finally, I think the quality of Gear Jammer food has gone down hill in recent years. Luckily the new Jack in the Box came in across the street, and a Sourdough Jack makes a decent meal after a day on the water. - Andy Brunelle

Ted Trueblood Chapter News Published 10 times a year Vol. 10; Number 2 Editor: Andy Brunelle Comments and articles may be emailed to tutedtrue@aol.com
Ted Trueblood Chapter Idaho Trout Umlimited