It was our last day with Fish and Game and we did very similar things to the previous days with the fish ladders. We had Kevin again today, he’s a really friendly guy. He taught me how to cast a bait net to catch fish and it was super fun. We had a girl from Oyster High come with us today too but she seemed shy and wouldn’t really talk to us.

We visited some cool dams and I got a photo of will at the bottom of one. There were so  many fish at the bottom of the dam, it must have been over 50,000 herring.

We came back to proctor and fished at hopkins pond which was a nice way to end the sunny day.

Today’s hours: 8.5

Total hours: 117.75

When we arrived at fish and game early this morning, we had a different mentor to follow. This time we were riding with Mike Dionne’s supervisor, Kevin. He is an extremely bright marine biologist and part time policeman. He met Dan Mori at the part time police academy and he hooked us up with these sweet jobs. We did similar work to last week, but the warm weather over the weekend has brought good numbers of fish through the ladders.

We passed the fish through in nets and counted them. We moved over four thousand fish that day! This was the most amount of fish that we have seen all project and it was very encouraging to see.

We came back to Andover and fished at Elbow until the light really started to go. It was a cool evening but it was nice to be outside and not working for a little bit and unwind on the water.

Today’s hours: 9.5

Total hours: 109.25

It was really fun to work with Fish and Game this week. They took a long time to get us to the point where we could volunteer after our internship applications were kicked back numerous times. Although we cannot work more than two days consecutively, we got some pretty solid days in this week. Working with our mentor, Mike Dionne, we have learned a lot about fish and data collection. We observed and helped him measure the fish along with other fish ladder maintenance. We counted fish both visually and with electronic sensors and were sorely disappointed with the results we found. In river herring numbers, for example, this time last year they had counted over 100,000 fish that had swam through their ladders in southern New Hampshire. This year, due to the cold water being 5-10 degrees cooler than usual, they have yet to see 15,000. When talking to the Fish and game people, they were very surprised that we were having any luck catching fish. They confirmed our idea that the fish are incredibly slow and behind in their spring because of the cold water. Fish and Game’s numbers indicate a 30 year low in fish at this rate and they think that this is not the first time this will happen. Many of them say it’s a one off fluke, others say a clear sign of climate change and a reflection of how we are destroying our planet. Although we did not do a ton of fishing this week compared to weeks past, we are very happy that we got to work with the fish so that we can now accurately compile our data and make a good guide from the data that we have already collected.

Today with the warm weather we went down to the Blackwater river and fished for a few hours. We didn’t have great luck and will lost a lure when hooked on what he thought was a trout. We got so hot that we had to jump in. The water was freezing but it was a cool relief from the hot and humid day. It was a beautiful day and I’m glad we spent it outside.

Today’s hours: 3

Total hours: 99.75

It was another early start to the day with Fish and Game. We sampled another 150 fish while will tried to catch some with his bare hands. After that we hit a few more ladders and moved the fish upstream.

We ended up at this beautiful wildlife sanctuary that nobody but the feds have access to.

We saw a bird that had laid a nest of eggs right in the middle of the road. The bird was trying to distract us from the nest so it was pretending to be injured, flopping violently on the side of the road about ten yards away. We tied a piece of orange flagging tape around a medium sized rock and placed it right before the nest.

After a solid day of work, we fished on a the Oyster River near Newmarket. We fished for a few hours and then drove back home for the night.

Today’s hours: 10.25

Total Hours: 96.75

Today was our third day working with Fish and Game. We started off early with the drive down to Durham. We went out and checked the fish ladders again. We sampled about 150 fish by netting, measuring, and taking scales. We, again, saw almost no fish compared to what Fish and Game usually sees coming through these ladders. They reiterated that at this rate, we are headed for a 30 year low for number of fish passed into the rivers.

We finished off the day after working with Fish and Game by casting for a while below some falls we had inspected earlier.

People were baiting up herring that they were catching and then pulling out monster stripers. It was a very exciting way to end the day and after that we headed back to Proctor.

Today’s hours: 8.5

Total hours: 86.5

Since we are not allowed to work more than two days consecutively, we decided to take today off to maximise the amount of time we can get with Fish and Game. We went down a bridge on Blackwater east of us a little bit. Mike showed us this spot some time ago. We fished the water and got to use our new fish finder. It has been much slower fishing than usual this year and we want to do everything that will give us an edge. It is a portable sonar that is about the size of a baseball and is able to be casted out on a rod.

Nothing was biting even though we both have caught tons of fish in there in the past and the sonar was showing many, many fish. After a bunch of bites and messing around with the new toy, we headed back to Proctor for the night.

Today’s hours: 5

Total Hours: 78

Today was our first day with fish and game! We got to the office in Durham and met with the Biologist we will be working with for the next week or so, Michael Dionne. We kicked off the morning by heading to a nearby fish ladder.

They had us jump into where they hold the fish before releasing them into the upper waters. It was almost impossible to walk in the water without stepping on fish. Mike estimated that there were about 3000 river herring in that one box.g

Will messes around with a net and was super happy to be surrounded by so many. We were in chock.

We checked out a few more ladders throughout the day, unfortunately there were almost no fish going through any other ladder. Although it is impressive that they have seen 10,000 fish this year, it is usually around 75,000 by now. At this rate this will be the lowest amount of fish they have seen in over 30 years. They said this is due to the cold water and the fish just aren’t moving.

After a whole day of collecting data and inspecting ladders, we went fishing at a nearby pond. I only pulled out 2 Sunny’s but it was a nice night and the warmer weather in the evening was great.

Today’s hours: 9

Total hours: 73

We wanted to catch some bigger fish so we headed to Webster Lake in Franklin. We fished from the early morning until it got dark and rainy in the afternoon but caught nothing. Will said he saw one fish, but I didn’t see a single one. The water is still extremely cold and we just haven’t seen as many fish as we thought we would have. It was a beautiful morning and it was nice to get out there so early. There was only one other guy there fishing and we are hoping to bring the boat here sometime this week.

Today’s hours: 7

Total hours: 64

This week, Will and I learned a ton. We interviewed a very experienced angler that gave us some awesome information on what to use and how to use it to catch more fish. We had similar discussions and got recommendations from the Bass Pro clerks. They guided us to the good lures and flies for the water temperature which is still abnormally cold. I loved getting out on the boat and catching some fish on a nice day. It reminded me of when I would go out in bays on Long Island as a child with friends in the same boat. It was also good to get some river fishing in as that is what I live for. What is surprising is that the weather and water remain so cold this far into the spring. This is concerning to us because the fish need warm weather to spawn and remain active. We will benefit from this week’s activities by applying them to next week’s fishing. We hope that with this new knowledge we can be much more successful in the field. These activities help me achieve my goal of being a better angler in the northeast. They have also allowed me to learn how to freshwater spinfish and Will has been incredibly helpful with that.