10-29-2002, 11:34 AM
I have been fishing the Provo over 40 years. Sad to say, that condition does happen during the brown spawn...or even before...any year that water levels are lower and temperatures higher. It is a fungus condition that affects browns that get stressed from high temperatures and/or spawning activities.
From what I have been able to observe, once a fish develops even a small spot...like wherever it has been handled and the protective slime removed...the spot spreads all over the head and body and it is almost always fatal. I'm not certain, but I'm guessing it a a similar fungus to the one that grows on some Pacific Coast salmon after they spawn and before they naturally die in their life cycle.
It breaks your heart to see big trophy browns swimming aimlessly around a hole...or remaining motionless in mild current, just waiting to die. The first year I ever witnessed this, it happened to a big old brown in a hole right in Orem. I had found the fish hanging out under a blown down tree. It swirled after a spinner a couple of times, but I never hooked it. Of course, it became a quest to get a hook in that big boy, and that tree was the first spot I hit every time I went there...which was almost every evening through the summer. I didn't have a car then, so I rode my bike and parked it at a friends house near the river.
One day in late October I rushed down to the tree, after missing it for a couple of weeks. I sneaked up to the tree, along the bank, and looked down through the branches, to see if the fish was still there. He was, but he looked different. As my vision adjusted to the low light under the branches, I could make out the patches of fungus on his body. Heartbreak. About three or four days later, he was finning over next to the bank, opposite the tree, completely out in the open. I waded out to get a closer look, and spooked him. But, instead of bolting for the cover of the tree, he rolled over and started going downstream sideways. I didn't follow.
During the next couple of weeks I caught a ride with a friend to fish up above the trestle several times. I saw quite a few of the larger fish suffering from the fungus. I have never hooked one that had any spots on it. That stuff seems to shut them down for good.
The good news is that it never seems to totally wipe out the fish population. It is an affliction that strikes the weakened and damaged fish, but leaves the healthier ones behind. In some parts of the Provo, it is probably a good thing...to help balance the population. In low water years there is not enough habitat or food to sustain as many fish.
Sorry about the longwinded dissertation. That's whatcha get for teeing me up. Anybody else got any observations?
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From what I have been able to observe, once a fish develops even a small spot...like wherever it has been handled and the protective slime removed...the spot spreads all over the head and body and it is almost always fatal. I'm not certain, but I'm guessing it a a similar fungus to the one that grows on some Pacific Coast salmon after they spawn and before they naturally die in their life cycle.
It breaks your heart to see big trophy browns swimming aimlessly around a hole...or remaining motionless in mild current, just waiting to die. The first year I ever witnessed this, it happened to a big old brown in a hole right in Orem. I had found the fish hanging out under a blown down tree. It swirled after a spinner a couple of times, but I never hooked it. Of course, it became a quest to get a hook in that big boy, and that tree was the first spot I hit every time I went there...which was almost every evening through the summer. I didn't have a car then, so I rode my bike and parked it at a friends house near the river.
One day in late October I rushed down to the tree, after missing it for a couple of weeks. I sneaked up to the tree, along the bank, and looked down through the branches, to see if the fish was still there. He was, but he looked different. As my vision adjusted to the low light under the branches, I could make out the patches of fungus on his body. Heartbreak. About three or four days later, he was finning over next to the bank, opposite the tree, completely out in the open. I waded out to get a closer look, and spooked him. But, instead of bolting for the cover of the tree, he rolled over and started going downstream sideways. I didn't follow.
During the next couple of weeks I caught a ride with a friend to fish up above the trestle several times. I saw quite a few of the larger fish suffering from the fungus. I have never hooked one that had any spots on it. That stuff seems to shut them down for good.
The good news is that it never seems to totally wipe out the fish population. It is an affliction that strikes the weakened and damaged fish, but leaves the healthier ones behind. In some parts of the Provo, it is probably a good thing...to help balance the population. In low water years there is not enough habitat or food to sustain as many fish.
Sorry about the longwinded dissertation. That's whatcha get for teeing me up. Anybody else got any observations?
[signature]