SEPTEMBER 2018 TUFF MEETING MINUTES

 

 SEPTEMBER 6TH 2018 TUFF MEETING MINUTES

24 Trace fishermen were invited to this special "Greet and Meet" event to enjoy Thai appetizers and talk about fishing in Lake Trace. Thanks to those who attended for their input!  I found the lengthy discussions about invasive plants, silt dredging and dam problems informative.  However, these are issues that basically we have no control over (other than voicing our concern to management)  ... because Escalante controls the decision-making and the checkbook.  In the time left at the meeting we were able to discuss what the TUFF Club can do to help improve the fishery. Please note that approaching Escalante about getting permission and money to pay for materials for our volunteer "work" projects (in spring 2019) is currently on hold until dam repairs are made. 

 

Thanks to those attendees who expressed an interest in volunteering to help with:

• building new fish structure to place in shallow areas. Buster is getting an estimate on how much it would cost to build 50 of them. Plus pretty sure we can use the CTCC maintenance building area at Emory Point to build these structures, like we did for the JLC Fish Haven effort. Note these new structures are smaller and less labor intensive as the CT Christmas trees and large, stacked havens dropped in the past;
• locating where and if those older fish structures from JLC have shifted by using boats with electronics such as fish finders or side imaging; 
• emplacing the five buoys recovered after hurricanes along the shoreline in shifted locations, perhaps enhancing the areas with shallow new fish structure;
• Lake Trace clean-up from litter and hurricane debris. Charles Holder has already been contacted with this suggestion as he has the watercraft database and the names of all the boat owners. Trace volunteers supply the labor if Escalante will pay for baggies and disposal;
• culling invasive white perch.  Please see blog below. I will communicate this to CTA, CTCC members, TUFF/fishing database, and Next Door re: what they look like and why to please remove them;
•  doing our own fish survey. This is because we are a private lake and NCWRC doesn't electroshock private lakes. Chances are remote that Escalante would hire a lake management company to do this with estimates @ $5000- $9000 (as if (!)  with dam repairs). Here is what our NCWRC fish biologist Mike Fisk shared: "As for the fish survey, if it’s easier on your ten anglers to have it less structured, just request a minimum of 30 fish from each angler during that time frame. That would give you at least 300 fish for the spring (includes March, April, May, June) which is a good sample size for the lake. You need to record length and weight, if you still want girth that’s up to you. ALL Largemouth Bass need to be measured and weighed, not just the big ones. Maybe you can request all anglers have a hand-held scale and measuring tape/board when fishing?  Accuracy is important, the length and weight needs to be as detailed as possible. For example we would need a length of 320 millimeters or 6 3/8 inches, they cannot be rounded. The weights need to be in either grams or pounds and ounces, (1 pound 3 oz), do not round to nearest pound. Another piece of information that may be useful is how long each angler fished and how many fish they caught during that time frame. For example Joe Smith caught 4 fish in 2 hours. I can send you a data sheet to copy and send out to anglers to help with this process. If you can compile all the lengths and weights of these fish in an excel file, I can help out on the rest."
• informing CTA Security about non residents coming in to fish the lake. Recent e-mail from Eagles Nest resident complaining about noisy folks fishing at the turn-around at night. She said phone calls to SPA said SPA replied it has no authority and it was up to the Country Club. I sent her (and CTA officials) the 2016 CTA Security document (Section 8 on page 12) that addressed her concerns.  I said, give a hard copy to SPA!  "If people are fishing on CTA common ground at the turn around at night (with nets!?), SPA should enforce this regulation, and see if those fishing and coming in with boats are even residents of CT. More communication about this problem should be pushed upon CTA officials, if this continues ...