Garden State Trout

1 of my favorite spots too !!!!

great to see after the columbia lake dam came down, curious if some Big D trout will take more residence in the stream now.

I might actually have to return to fishing the Pkill. I haven't done so in years, just not my preferred water type. Maybe taking out the dams will change my mind.

I've been highly critical of this dam removal for the simple reason that the stated goal for the team was to provide fish passage for anadromous fish. So why zero fish habitat restoration and only dam removal and bank sloping? Too many bad engineers with no background in fisheries or fish habitat. I didn't bother bidding on it for this reason. That and this will spill over to next year.

coaltrout wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 30, 2023 10:12 am

great to see after the columbia lake dam came down, curious if some Big D trout will take more residence in the stream now.

hope so !!!!!

Drossi wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 30, 2023 1:04 pm

I might actually have to return to fishing the Pkill. I haven't done so in years, just not my preferred water type. Maybe taking out the dams will change my mind.

Imo taking that dam down & the Columbia river down now will change the eco-system for the entire river

Rusty Spinner wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 30, 2023 5:02 pm

I've been highly critical of this dam removal for the simple reason that the stated goal for the team was to provide fish passage for anadromous fish. So why zero fish habitat restoration and only dam removal and bank sloping? Too many bad engineers with no background in fisheries or fish habitat. I didn't bother bidding on it for this reason. That and this will spill over to next year.

Thats sad news to know there isnt going to be any fish habitat restoration being done

Rusty Spinner wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 30, 2023 5:02 pm

I've been highly critical of this dam removal for the simple reason that the stated goal for the team was to provide fish passage for anadromous fish. So why zero fish habitat restoration and only dam removal and bank sloping? Too many bad engineers with no background in fisheries or fish habitat. I didn't bother bidding on it for this reason. That and this will spill over to next year.

There's like 1 km / 3000ft of lake right? Ideally, in addition to the dam removal, the old lake area needs some support? What does that involve, re-foresting the banks and digging a more defined creek channel?

coaltrout wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 30, 2023 9:07 pm

Rusty Spinner wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 30, 2023 5:02 pm

I've been highly critical of this dam removal for the simple reason that the stated goal for the team was to provide fish passage for anadromous fish. So why zero fish habitat restoration and only dam removal and bank sloping? Too many bad engineers with no background in fisheries or fish habitat. I didn't bother bidding on it for this reason. That and this will spill over to next year.

There's like 1 km / 3000ft of lake right? Ideally, in addition to the dam removal, the old lake area needs some support? What does that involve, re-foresting the banks and digging a more defined creek channel?

Grading the banks around the dam and that's it. No in stream habitat, no enhanced riffles, runs or pools. Just one big run is what I envision it being based off the engineering plans that were out for construction bidding last year. And yes, reforestation of the riparian corridor affected by the lake lowering from removing the dam. This is happening far too often. Any of you that knows the East Ave remnant dam in Hackettstown on the upper Musky knows it is a popular stocking point and is heavily fished. They removed that remnant dam recently and there is no pool left, so the fish will just immediately swim downstream until they find suitable habitat. It literally would have taken my operator one to two extra hours to build a proper pool there as part of the project.

thanks, yea im not sure if they cared too much about rehabilitation with this one, more so just wanted the dam down before it came down itself by accident?

Is there some possilbe TU work here?

coaltrout wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 01, 2023 5:25 pm

thanks, yea im not sure if they cared too much about rehabilitation with this one, more so just wanted the dam down before it came down itself by accident?

The town that owns it did some major rehabilitation some years back and realize they were going to need constant engineering and repairs and would always be carrying the liability, so they toured some Musky dam removals with us and came to the conclusion they wanted theirs removed as well.

joe_panella wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 03, 2023 3:57 pm

Is there some possilbe TU work here?

Maybe, I'm not sure who is doing the plantings. But there wouldn't be anything else. It's in the North Jersey chapter's territory.