It was one of those things that always made me wonder how they did it. Well, I finally found out. Ed Dizon and I were privileged to be able to observe the Maryland DNR team, led by Michael Kashiwagi, when they did their annual trout population survey of Little Hunting Creek in August. They surveyed about 100 yards of the creek at the Manor area in Cunningham Falls State Park using a backpack electroshock apparatus. The fish were stunned, netted, weighed, and measured and then released unharmed. They only recorded about a dozen trout, all browns, with the largest being about 8 inches. They said that number was only about 40% of what they saw last year.
Their primary hypothesis is that the severe drought last summer and early fall interfered with the fall spawn, and reproduction was severely limited. They also said that numbers were down on Big Hunting Creek, although not by quite as much. If summer droughts become more common in this area, which seems very likely given the current trend of climate change, our local trout populations will be significantly impacted. So get out there and enjoy our local trout fisheries, while we still have them.
— Kevin Haney
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