by Scott | Apr 1, 2015 | About Us, Five Year Mark & Recapture Study, News, Pages, Radio Telemetry Pilot Study, Radio-Tagged Trout, Tracking Updates
We’ve revised our website to better present the LMWTPS story. We encourage you to start at the beginning, but you can also jump straight to our findings or...
by Scott | Jun 11, 2014 | Five Year Mark & Recapture Study, News, Radio Telemetry Pilot Study, Tracking Updates
A big thanks to all of our volunteers – over 100 in all – who contributed over 2,500 hours to the study effort. Our volunteers caught over 1,900 trout and 1,100 other fish during the course of the study. This study would not have been possible without your help! We’ve reconfigured our website. Please visit our homepage or jump straight to the...
by Scott | Sep 11, 2013 | News, Radio Telemetry Pilot Study, Tracking Updates
Thanks to Arlen, Shannon, and Jason for the writeups on the past couple weeks’ progress! From 8/30: Following up on clues provided by Scott and Julia’s nifty detective work, last Friday four of us deployed on a casualty recovery mission to the borrow pit pond behind Roger’s Gardens at 42nd St. and Hwy 126, where they had detected 4 radio tags the previous week. Around 11am we launched our pair of sturdy and roomy craft, with Scott and Julia taking the lead with the receiver, while Shannon and I stayed close by to help with the recovery. We tracked tag #9 along the shoreline, and determined that the signal was strongest up the bank a ways. So while Shannon schmoozed with the nearby residents (making sure they didn’t shoot the trespassers), we remaining three dove into the shore-side underbrush; radio reciever + antenna, large magnets and metal detector in hand. This is the kind of ground we were picking through, only with the tag half-buried and much better hidden than in this re-enactment photo: Other radio signals seemed to be emanating from the water just offshore, and we spent quite a long time in this spot, with Scott up to his neck in water as he dug around in the bottom muck feeling for tags, all the while slowly disappearing into the ooze himself. Rather than spoil the suspense, I’ll wait for Scott, Julia and Shannon to weigh in with their additions to the story and the final results of our sojourn. I will just say that the reported 100-200 cormorants that over-winter at this pond have been very busy. Arlen...
by Scott | Aug 12, 2013 | News, Radio Telemetry Pilot Study, Tracking Updates
We did some aerial tracking last Saturday evening. On the way back to Creswell, we detected but did not code a tag somewhere in the vicinity of Marcola Road and 28th St. in Springfield. This weekend, we investigated some of these mystery pings. We drove on 126 and got a strong ping just west of the 42nd St. exit. We circled around and were able to finally code it – as I9 (Gil)! It was strongest from the north side of 126 (42nd St. onramp) and appeared to be coming from the pond north of 126. We also got a faint signal from I20 (Harvey). It was after business hours, so we weren’t able to investigate further. The next day, we started at the southeast end of the pond and moved around the south bank and up the west bank. Our curiosity quickly turned into surprise as we coded not just I9 and I20, but also I12 (Rusty) and I21 (Ole)! We were unable to get to the source of the pings (far northeast corner of the pond) but we are certain they are in there (or on the bank right next to the pond). Four tags in one small area, about five miles from the study section. Two of the fish were small (10”ish) but two weren’t (12”, 16”). Verrrrry interesting! A recovery mission is in the works and the culprits will be identified. Currently, we suspect osprey or eagles; but otters are also active in the area (shown below). You can, as always, see who’s where with Follow Our Fish!...
by Scott | Aug 7, 2013 | News, Radio Telemetry Pilot Study, Tracking Updates
With the summer heat, our fish appear to have settled down for the time being. We’re still tracking about a dozen fish, including Eeyore, Dasha, Chicago, 007, Sonya, Radio, Stanley, Finn, Lenny, Mike S., Waldo, and Wanda. Check who’s where with Follow Our Fish! The rumor on the street is that Wanda and Stanley have met unfortunate demises, but without tag recovery, we can’t be sure. We did get an opportunity to aerial track last week; this time in a Cessna 172 flown by one of the study volunteers. We removed the door and flew low and slow… a fantastic way to spend an...
by Scott | Jun 13, 2013 | Five Year Mark & Recapture Study, Radio Telemetry Pilot Study, Tracking Updates
Our trackers floated from Hendricks to Bellinger on Friday, 6/8, and located eight fish, including Eeyore, Dasha, Sonya, Radio, Finn, Lenny, Waldo, and Wanda. These fish haven’t moved much in the preceding several weeks. Finn and Wanda have not moved in several months. Finn has been hanging around RM 20.4, and Wanda at RM 22.7. Many of the volunteers have suspected that one or both of these fish are dead. On Sunday, 6/10, one of our volunteer crews was tagging fish for the Mark & Recapture Study. They had caught several fish on the evening… Julia was fishing a softhackle at RM 20.4, midstream (abeam of the log on river left), and hooked a nice fish. We landed it and when it was in the bucket, I noticed it had a floy tag – Julia’s first recaptured fish. Nice. I got to work scraping off the algae and read #02811. I brought the fish out to measure, and saw an 8” long wire protruding from its abdomen! Awesome! Sure enough, we’d recaptured #013, Finn, who had been tagged on 10/19, and hadn’t moved a lick since. When tagged, he was 297mm – yesterday he measured out at 318mm and appeared in good...
