Clean Angling
March 22, 2010
At the beginning of this month we had our annual FOAM meeting in Bozeman, MT. One of the speakers was from Center for Aquatic Nuisance Species located in Livingston, Montana. He gave a great report on what ANS are doing to the waters we love to fish and their impact on the bug life, fish, and Eco Systems associated with each water. Let me tell you it was an EYE OPENING experience. Probably like most of you, I had heard of things like Didymo and Mud Snails, but had never really given them much thought, nor ever considered Montana becoming infected with these species. I was wrong. There is usually no solution for dealing with a nuisance species after it is established in the wild, and we need to do all we can to help prevent their spread to all waters in the United States.
On the CANS website, you can find a lot of information about different types of ANS, and what we can do help stop or limit their spread. One small thing we can all do is take the Clean Angling Pledge to hold ourselves accountable to do as little transfer of ANS as possible from one stream to the next. If you have not heard, there is a motion set forth by Trout Unlimited to outlaw felt wading boots by 2011. Simms Fishing Products has jumped ahead of the motion and has discontinued felt soles all together this year, and have worked tirelessly to develop “sticky rubber” soled boots and shoes. In their presentation, a study of felt soled boots vs rubber boots was given to demonstrate the harmful effects felt brings to the fishing world. Felt traps dirt, grime, sand, and other ANS so well that even after a thorough washing in disinfectant, the majority of the grime was still trapped deep with the felt fibers. Rubber on the other hand was clean of almost all harmful species just after a quick rinse, and 100% gone after they were allowed to dry. I had heard how bad felt was, but never knew how bad it REALLY was. Tight Line Adventures has taken the clean angling pledge and hope that you guys will too. In the end we are all here for the fish and for the rivers. If our rivers become infected with Aquatic Nuisance Species, then we’ll all be left standing on the side of our favorite trout stream, rod in hand, staring at a river covered in moss and snails where fresh clean water trout used to live. Let’s all do our part to insure that this does not happen.
Justin
