I’ll take any reason to be near flowing water, trout and the bugs they eat. The Citizen Stream Monitoring Program that the folks at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency put together affords me an opportunity to be closely connected to a stream I live near. Once a week (or as often as I can) and after rain events I get in the truck and drive with no rod or reel, just a bucket, my camera, thermometer, clipboard and turbidity tube. I enjoy checking up on the trout that reside at each of the two locations I monitor. With the exceptional weather this spring site monitoring has been kind of dull, gin clear water most of the time and despite over half an inch of rain each of the last two days this stream shows little sign any precipitation fell.

Recently the MPCA sent out 1st year monitors their Volunteer T-Shirts and I’ll proudly strut mine around everywhere I go, look for it in the upcoming season’s trout fishing photographs. Site #1 was 52 degrees at 10:30am and the trout were about, some nicer looking browns but the few brookies I noticed last year must be in a different spot, perhaps they’ll return. Since this first site runs along a highway I tend to spend time picking up the road trash from the rip-rap. I personally think rip-rap is hard enough to look at, it’s a much harder pill for me to swallow when it’s littered with random road trash. A few bug photo’s were taken as I like to check on most aspects of the trout environment. Ephemerella nymphs along with a large amount of free living caddis are enjoying this clean water, and the trout in turn enjoy them, for lunch. Site #2 had very similar results, same water temp, same bugs, similar in most respects. I choose to monitor two sites because it gives me an opportunity to see what, if any effect a mile of farm fields downstream of site #1 has on the water quality.

I highly encourage those of you who live near water or visit it often to contact the MPCA and sign up for this program. They send you (free of charge) all the necessary materials, including the rain gauge that I look at every day of my life, as well as the turbidity tube and all data sheets, all they ask is you visit the water and let them know what is going on. It is our responsibility as frequent users of the cold water resource we have in Southeast Minnesota to be good water stewards, be vigilant and take an active role in maintaining the streams you love.

Slide Show

I visited my two CSMP sites yesterday to take my last set of data measurements for the season and to spy on the trout that hold at my site. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency asks volunteers to record daily rainfall totals as well as weekly visits to the stream site and after significant rainfall events. Looking over my data there was little to do in September as a nearly three week long dry spell made visiting my sites easy as each time the water remained gin clear. I was hoping that with the recent rain we’ve had the stream would look a bit different but even the few inches we have gotten hasn’t done much, didn’t even bump up the flow level. The trout look good and I was pleased to see the fish have grown over the last few months, there is now atleast one fish over 14 inches residing here and a brookie moved in which is excellent (note the brightly colored fins). I hope it’s a female, my thought is that it is with a shorter face and a wider gut. I will be turning in my data sheets and my rainfall measurements electronically with the data submission forms that the MPCA has conveniently put up on their website here. Also if you live near water and would be willing to take the time to record a few basic measurements contact the MPCA about volunteering, there is way too much water in Minnesota for the MPCA to keep track of it all and it should be our job as users of the resource to ensure that it is frequently monitored and maintained the same way we would approach poachers and other non-beneficial behavior when say a DNR CO isn’t around. Water-Stewards, Be One. Read the rest of this entry »