From: Durniak, Jeff
Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 12:52 PM
To: Durniak, Jeff <
Subject: Weekly Report- Stocking Elves Spotted!

Best wishes for a great holiday season. Maybe the weather and your family schedules will even allow for a little time afield during your days off. The ten-day forecast looks fairly promising, with some warm temperatures and fairly low rainfall totals.

Overcast and warm is a great combo for reservoir striper chasers, and moderate overnight temperatures

give midday stream trouters a great chance to score in the double digits, especially if they bottom-bounce their favorite winter recipes.

Here are a few reports and hints to enhance your holiday plans. Just like Santa’s trackers, we evidently have some spotters out there who are tracking the DNR trout stocking elves this week. Keep your eyes open and your fishing poles handy. Yes, Virginia, there are stocking elves!

Volunteer Thanks

The WRD Hooch trout elves (Chris, Pat S, and Buford staff) would like to thank the forty great volunteers who toted Tuesday’s buckets at the NPS-Whitewater Creek access. That river reach should be a best bet during the holidays, especially if folks fish deep and slow enough to tempt the bottom-hugging trout.

By the way, the next Hooch DH volunteer bucket brigade is tentatively planned for Feb 20, so mark your new year’s calendars.

Ami Stocking Elves Spotted

Jeff,

Your boys are working hard. Enjoy the pic.

Sincerely,

Big T on the Ami

12/20 at 1200hr

Hooch Tailwater

There have been unconfirmed reports of WRD Hooch stocking elves also spotted behind the hatchery and at McGinnis, Abbotts, Medlock, The Jones, Garrad's Landing & Roswell Shoals this week. The river is clearing as Lanier is finally on the verge of turnover.

From

Prior to the 1980s, oxygen concentrations (greater than 5 ppm) and temperatures in the thermocline of Lake Lanier, a young reservoir at that time, were adequate to allow trout to survive. Since then, organic matter entering the lake has increased, and the oxygen needs of trout can no longer be met. There just isn’t enough oxygen to keep trout alive through this critical summer period. Today striped bass still find enough oxygen and adequate cool water habitat in the lake's thermocline to survive the summer; however, they can be stressed by low oxygen conditions (2-4 ppm).

In the fall, as air temperatures drop, the lake begins to lose heat, and the process of de-stratification begins. The warm water of the epilimnion cools and becomes deeper and denser. It still has lots of oxygen. As the epilimnions density approaches the density of the hypolimnion, mixing of the layers can take place. When this happens the stratification is broken and the bottom water mixes with the surface water, and the lake is no longer stratified. This event is called "Lake Turnover, and generally occurs around Christmas each year. After the mixing there are no layers, and the entire lake will have high oxygen concentrations. Within a few days after lake turnover, the dissolved metals become insoluble and settle to the bottom. This leaves the lake water clear from the top to bottom, and the river water clears as well. Metals that have settled on the river bottom are eventually washed downstream by the daily generations.

With the warming of spring, the stratification process will repeat itself, and the plankton, fish, and other aquatic wildlife will react to these changes in their habitat.

Delayed Harvest Reports

o Hooch

o Chattooga “Rockfish”

o Ami “Fifty Fish” Before the Elves

o Enjoy this report from a highly traveled trouter who hit four DH streams in a week:

Winter Fishing - Fingers and Toes

More Winter Zen

Ready for subtle strikes from frozen fish?

Carters Hybrids

Carters Lake gets a late fall dose of hybrid striped bass courtesy of Richmond Hill Fish Hatchery. Nearly 11,500 juvenile hybrids were stocked in the lake early last week. While most lakes around the state are successfully stocked with hybrids in the spring, this experimental fall stocking is being done in an effort to improve stocked hybrid survival and to increase their abundance in Carters Lake.

This was the second year for fall hybrid stocking at Carters. Recent sample data suggest the hybrids stocked last fall have done well in Carters’ baitfish-rich waters. We anticipate these newly stocked hybrids will do well in the coming year.

- WRD senior biologists Chris Harper and Jim Hakala

(706-295-6105)

Lanier Stripers

Both Henry C and Landon say the topwater action is still good, especially on the warm, overcast, rainy days that keep the sun at bay. The south end of the lake is fishing better than the north end. Savvy anglers can troll a trout, but also have imitations of the very small (two-inch) threadfin shad ready to cast to breaking fish. Notice the large channel cats that are grabbing striper baits, too:

Big Lanier Spot on the Fly

Bigger Spot!

Ken’s Reservoir Reports

Fresh on Fridays -

Thank you and happy holidays from the North Georgia Region Fisheries staff, stationed at Summerville, Buford, and Burton hatcheries and our two offices in Armuchee and Gainesville. We hope that you receive the blessings of good health and the love of your family and friends this season. Maybe you’ll even discover that an elf has beat you to your favorite holiday fishing hole!

Jeff Durniak
North Georgia Region Fisheries Supervisor
Wildlife Resources Division
(770) 535-5498
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