Black Hills Flyfishers
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Home > Newsletters > September 2006 > Under the Noses of the Presidents
| Under the Noses of the Presidents |
“…We are going to “knock the snot” out of this one!” “Can we say that in public?” “Yes, and we mean
it.”…Quote from BHFF Board meeting. …July 2006.
We had just adjourned from our board meeting held on the deck overlooking Rapid Creek and were
looking at a drawing of a royal coachman cut into the cement of our patio to commemorate all the good
fishing in the year 2006, when I heard that answer to a question we had been debating a few
moments earlier.
How tactful should we be when we address this invasive algae that has impacted our fishery?
We were blessed this year with literally the finest Trout fishing on this earth …but not in our backyard.
We found the good fishing in El Patagon, Chile in February, Wyoming and Montana in May-July, and
Alagnak, Alaska in September. We fished a couple dozen good rivers and streams this year and
caught some of the most beautiful fish ever. And after each trip when we returned home to the Black
Hills, we looked around at the beauty we have in our own backyard and ask ourselves…”why did we
leave?” The answer is simple…Good fishing is not in our backyard today like it was a couple of years
ago. The excitement of a trout taking a fly doesn’t happen in our backyard today like it did a couple
years ago. Why…? We have an algae problem in Rapid Creek which by now you all have been made
aware. The experts call it a “good algae, gone bad...Didymosphenia Geminata”. The rest of us have
been, not so politely, calling it what it looks like...Rock Snot! You know how invasive it is. The
bad news confirmed through monthly tests conducted Adam Larson DENR on 11 Rapid Creek sites,
reported this year that it has spread farther downstream into Dark Canyon and to another stream in
the Black Hills … Castle Creek. Is this rampant algae spread repeatable in other streams. The answer
is yes…
it.”…Quote from BHFF Board meeting. …July 2006.
We had just adjourned from our board meeting held on the deck overlooking Rapid Creek and were
looking at a drawing of a royal coachman cut into the cement of our patio to commemorate all the good
fishing in the year 2006, when I heard that answer to a question we had been debating a few
moments earlier.
How tactful should we be when we address this invasive algae that has impacted our fishery?
We were blessed this year with literally the finest Trout fishing on this earth …but not in our backyard.
We found the good fishing in El Patagon, Chile in February, Wyoming and Montana in May-July, and
Alagnak, Alaska in September. We fished a couple dozen good rivers and streams this year and
caught some of the most beautiful fish ever. And after each trip when we returned home to the Black
Hills, we looked around at the beauty we have in our own backyard and ask ourselves…”why did we
leave?” The answer is simple…Good fishing is not in our backyard today like it was a couple of years
ago. The excitement of a trout taking a fly doesn’t happen in our backyard today like it did a couple
years ago. Why…? We have an algae problem in Rapid Creek which by now you all have been made
aware. The experts call it a “good algae, gone bad...Didymosphenia Geminata”. The rest of us have
been, not so politely, calling it what it looks like...Rock Snot! You know how invasive it is. The
bad news confirmed through monthly tests conducted Adam Larson DENR on 11 Rapid Creek sites,
reported this year that it has spread farther downstream into Dark Canyon and to another stream in
the Black Hills … Castle Creek. Is this rampant algae spread repeatable in other streams. The answer
is yes…