Fishing Forum

As you all know, there's a huge hoopla in the media right now about the Mustang Fire. All the attention is tightly (and rightfully) focused on those vulnerable homes along the US 93 corridor between North Fork and Lost Trail Pass.

Lost in the media feeding frenzy is the fact that the Mustang Fire basically destroyed more than 50 miles of "river right" of the Salmon from Indianola to at least 16 miles below Corn Creek. Since the fire at the far west end is uncontrolled and still active, it may eventually extend much farther down river into the Nez Perce National Forest. Granted, the fire can't destroy bed rock canyon walls but it's likely that most of the vegetation on the south facing slopes is gone or badly damaged.

The problem that arises is going to be the outwash into the river from those adjacent blackened areas. Some black outwash occurs after every fire season. However, the sheer length of this particular riverside burned area makes it newsworthy. Coupled with the dirty runoff from the Salmon' tributaries that extend far into the 281,000 acre (and counting) Mustang burn area, what kind of an impact is that going to have on salmon and steelhead?

How is the fallout of the Mustang fire going to affect fishing in this key and popular area? We have some phone calls into NOAA Fisheries and also the Forest Service to inquire about the inevitable BAER Team rehabilitation efforts that always follow a fire of this magnitude. The Mustang Fire's devastation is far from over at this point but the really big news that's going to follow this fire long after the snow snuffs it dead out is what's going to happen to the fishery?

We put together a short article simply to illustrate the long length of the fire line along the river. We've studied the Mustang Fire KML data files on Google Earth to get a much closer look at many portions of the line and it looks quite probable we're all in for a shock when we see the full extent of the fire's affect along that section of river.

http://www.salmonriveridaho.net/2012/09/...-line.html

Thanks for reading, jp
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Thank you for keeping us updated!

It will be interesting to see the conditions once the burn is over.
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I sure hope it wasn't man caused but it probably was.
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[quote DCG]I sure hope it wasn't man caused but it probably was.[/quote]

It was actually lightning. There was a typical big, dry lightning storm that rolled over Salmon Country the weekend of July 27-30. (That's Friday through Monday)

The tail end of that storm flicked down a lightning bolt and started the Mustang at 6 pm Monday, July 30th. It started very small as all lightning storms do, but there were some other fires nearby and they couldn't get a handle on them all so they named them the "Mustang Complex."

I was in North Fork store August 3rd and there was a the Dalton Hotshots were there from California's Angeles Nat'l Forest. I talked to some of them and they said they were "going out on a little fire called The Mustang." They nodded their heads and said they would be able to get a handle on it, "no problem." Well, I reckon they didn't get the handle they hoped!

Their red shirts took over the entire dining room to have lunch. Boy, did things change not long after that!
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keep up the good work jp. I cant wait to read your artical about dugout dick.
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[quote jigs]keep up the good work jp. I cant wait to read your artical about dugout dick.[/quote]

Thanks, jigs! You sure have got me into some interesting stuff. Trout stocking and the Halstead. WOW. Ever since you asked me to write that first article about the Halstead, it's been pretty wild and crazy. That one article alone had 6000 page views in exactly one month! Amazing.

Well, "Good Ol' Dugout Dick is gonna have hisself a right mighty fine memorial if that publisher guy gets his way."

(The spot for the memorial could turn out to be a pretty good fishing spot and boat ramp, too.)

Thanks for your encouragement, suggestions and kind words!

Happy Fishing &Many Cheers! jp
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JP you deserve all the credit. Your the one that has spent the time and research. I only hope that your wife feels the same apreciation as I do. You have done an amazing job with everything,! and ther are a whole lot of others who believe the same, but honestly tell your wife im sorry
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Thanks for report... so its happening here is ID
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Depending on the severity of the runoff, its may have little affect on the fishery in the river. It may in fact prove beneficial. The runoff will be high in nutrients and will likely result in increased aquatic productivity which would provide more food for salmon and steelhead fry/smolts. Gotta remember the native species evolved to deal with fire. I know fire usually has little impact on native cutthroat populations and in many cases increases in the populations follow fires.
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Seems like they use charcoal to filter and purify everything. There should be lots of charcoal washing in along with the ash and silt and mud and logs and rocks.

Today was the first time I have met people around Salmon wearing masks. But only a few.
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