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Tennessee Chapter American Fisheries Society

Newsletter Winter 2016 - 2017

President’s Message I hope everyone had a wonderful and productive 2016. Maybe the drought didn’t hurt you too bad. We certainly felt its affects at Sugar Creek Fish Hatchery. However, we were able to pull through it and raise good numbers of fish. It has been interesting following everyone’s work through avenues like Facebook this year. Our members are doing some great things in our state. I want to say congrats to the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute on opening their new facility. I’m sure you folks will be doing some great work there. As we look toward 2017, I hope each one of you have a great year. This meeting will mark our 40th anniversary. We originally started as the East Tennessee Chapter of the American Fisheries Society in Knoxville. Then in 1984, we became the Tennessee Chapter. I look forward to coming together and celebrating this with everyone in Knoxville. I think we’ve got a great meeting planned. I hope that many of you will take advantage of the continuing education classes offered. It is my hope that continuing education can be a program that we continue regularly. As we celebrate 40 years, I just want to take a minute and reflect on what we do. Our members represent all facets of the fisheries profession. I am extremely proud to be a part of this organization with each one of you. One of the things I am most proud of is our supports of free fishing day events. Last year, we supported events with $2200. These events hosted more than 1,000 kids. I appreciate your investment in the future of the sport of fishing. I know at the event I work, we have a bunch of kids that come through that wouldn’t get an opportunity like this without the free fishing day events. I want to encourage everyone to keep up the good work of getting items in for the silent auction and also bidding. Chris Morton

Chapter Annual Meeting: February 27 – March 2, 2017, UT Conference Center Knoxville All Meeting Info: http://sd.fisheries.org/2017tnafsmeeting/ Registration: Registration is now open! Early registration ends February 1, 2017 so register before that date to ensure you get the discounted rate. Regular registration closes March 8, 2016 and after that time registration will be considered “at the door”. Early Registration: $60 professional/$30 student Regular Registration: $70/$40 At The Door: $85/$55 Abstracts: Abstracts should be sent to Brian Alford, mailto:jalfor12@utk.edu by February 1. See website for details. Continuing Education Workshops: Mussels: Gerry Dinkins 8:00 am to noon on 28th. Crayfish: Carl Williams 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm on 28th. See website for details. TWRA Region I Fisheries Region I continued maintenance of deep water fish attractors established lakewide and established additional shallow water fish attractors in September and October in the Paris Landing area. Those programs are very popular with anglers. We also planted cyprees trees in the Paris Landing area and have monitored historic plantings in the New Johnsonville area and Eagle Creek area thru diameter, height, and survival measurements. Reservoir crews established state-wide FLMB

President – Chris Morton Treasurer/Secretary – Tim Churchill President-elect – Brian Alford Past President – Kathlina Alford

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stocking sites and have collected LMB fin clips from approved stocking sites to determine the current distribution of the FLMB allele. Those collections are being processed and the analysis should be available within the year. Approximately 180,000 FLMB were stocked in Kentucky Reservoir in three embayments in 2015 and an additional 150,000 fingerlings were stocked in 2016. The silver carp populations continued to increase on the Mississippi River and sampling can be very dangerous. As reported last year, silver carp have been collected in all Mississippi River tributaries, below the spillway at Reelfoot Lake and below Cheatham Dam. We have also collected silver carp below Pickwick Dam and commercial fishers have continued to collect bighead/silver carp in the Big Sandy area. The Agency is currently working with commercial fishers and private industry to determine commercial sale of Asian carp to China or to local markets. Several wholesale fish dealers have been established along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers in Kentucky. Although the leading distribution edge has been documented to Pickwick Dam, densities have not increased in the area. In addition, the Region I and II fisheries crews participated in a Carp Blitz in cooperation with the Kentucky Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Resources in November to harvest Asian carp from Kentucky Reservoir. Although the success of the project was minimal, both Agencies gathered pertinent information regarding gear type and successful methods. The Carp Blitz will also be conducted in 2017. In addition, TDEC issued a precautionary fish advisory due to mercury on the Big Sandy embayment for bass species. The listing is an advisory and states anglers should not consume more than one meal/month from largemouth bass harvested from the Big Sandy River and Big Sandy embayment on Kentucky Reservoir. In addition, a precautionary fish advisory due to mercury has also been listed for bass and crappie in the area known as the Springville Bottom adjacent to the Big Sandy embayment on Kentucky Reservoir. The stream crews completed assigned surveys (sampled 30 streams and small rivers) and have established the “leading edge” of silver carp distribution in the major rivers, creeks, and streams feeding Kentucky Reservoir. As you may remember, crews collected silver carp in the 150 to 225 mm range in Kentucky Reservoir last year. Fish were collected as far south as Beech River, but the largest numbers were collected in the Big Sandy river area. Larval light traps were set in Kentucky Reservoir in 2016 in an attempt to collect larval Asian carp. Larval Asian carp were not collected in the light traps and young-of-year fish were not collected in Fall electrofishing surveys. However, age 1+ fish were collected in both Kentucky and Barkley Reservoirs at significant densities (length collected > 350 mm).

Asian carp will be our biggest management issue for the future and we are working with private industry and commercial fishers to develop harvest plans. Trap netting surveys documented poor crappie recruitment at Kentucky and Barkley Reservoirs and good recruitment in Reelfoot Lake; electrofishing surveys showed good populations of largemouth bass on Kentucky, Barkley, and Pickwick Reservoirs. The Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to reduce the crappie creel limit from 30 to 20 fish/day/angler beginning March 1, 2017 on Kentucky Reservoir. Sauger populations improved in 2014 - 2016 but anglers were not able to take advantage of the increased densities because of high discharge rates during the entire sauger season.. We initiated a sauger stocking program in 2011 and that has continued for five years. Stocking will not continue in 2017 to determine if sauger can sustain themselves without a stocking program Hopefully 2017 will provide good fishing conditions. The state lakes and hatchery crews have worked to improve state lake facilities and visitation remains good. The Humboldt Hatchery is the largest in Tennessee and has been assigned the Florida Largemouth Bass program. The crew is currently constructing a rearing facility and plan to have the facility operational by January 2017. Florida LMB will be reared at the facility to about two-inches and then stocked at approved stocking sites. The Agency also plans to obtain brood fish and spawn fish at Humboldt. Sauger, catfish, blacknose crappie, sunfish, Florida LMB are the primary species raised at Humboldt and trout and alligator gar are also received and stocked from the hatchery. New stocking strategies may allow the hatchery to begin rearing striped bass and/or hybrid striped bass. The winter trout program has also been a success in Region I and the Agency stocks approximately 12 small ponds throughout Region I with over 12,000 trout. This is also a popular program with the anglers. We are also working on developing new small impoundment stocking strategies to determine if lower numbers can continue to provide good densities, especially with catfish. In addition we have been working with Shelby Farms providing pond management strategies and technical assistance for newly renovated ponds. Lone Oak is a 1,200 acre University of Tennessee facility in Hardeman County designed to serve as a 4-H camp. The Region I fisheries crew has also worked with Lone Oak to provide technical assistance and pond management recommendations for area ponds. Tim Broadbent

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Tennessee CFI Report

Conservation Fisheries, Inc. (CFI) continues to propagate, stock, and monitor Smoky and Yellowfin Madtoms, Citico Darters, and Spotfin Chubs in Tellico River. Evidence of reproduction was observed for all four species in 2016 and again included good numbers of Smokies & Citico Darters as in all recent years. Good numbers of Spotfin Chubs were observed as well this year. After years of propagation difficulties, this marked the second year for releases of significant numbers of Ashy Darters. We were able to document survival of the species last year, however we were unable to revisit the stocking site in 2016 due to extremely low (drought related) water conditions We plan to spend more time in the vicinity of the releases in 2017.

Snorkel monitoring in Citico Creek Quantitative snorkel monitoring of restored Citico Darter and Smoky and Yellowfin Madtom populations in Abrams Creek was continued a fifth (and final) year by Great Smoky Mountains National Park and CFI. Results will be compiled and compared to earlier years as well as data from similar application of the protocol for the third year at seven sites in Citico Creek this year. The data collected will provide baseline information and quantify long-term population trends and reproductive success, providing a model for similar future monitoring in Tellico River, and possibly elsewhere with similarly cryptic fish. Efforts to propagate and restore Elk River Boulder Darters to Shoal Creek continued. Nearly 1000 juveniles were tagged and stocked into Shoal Creek. Monitoring in Shoal Creek in 2016 was minimal due to summer extreme drought conditions; regardless, eight Boulder Darters were observed at four sites (four were wild fish with no tags). Twelve wild individuals were collected for brood stock from Harm’s Mill Dam, Elk River in early November, suggesting that the population at that site is doing well. No releases of Emory River Spotfin Chubs were made with none planned for several years while population status is evaluated. None were observed

during monitoring. The lack of recruitment observations suggest that the stocked fish may not be able to successfully reproduce, possibly due to the habitat differences between Emory River and Shoal Creek and associated population ecological adaptations. If the failure of Spotfin Chubs to establish a reproducing population is verified, a new reintroduction effort with a population from a more ecologically similar stream (Buffalo River) may be attempted in the future. Efforts continued on the project initiated in 2014 to hold, propagate, and maintain an ark/refugium population of Tuxedo Darters collected at the sites determined to be impacted by the return to historical operations of Lake Cumberland. CFI only minimally assisted TVA and COE with monitoring this year but collected a few additional broodstock from localities where low numbers were collected in previous years or where Tuxedo Darters had not been collected before. Efforts to propagate the species in 2016 failed to produce any spawns and thus a more intensive effort will be undertaken in 2017. This year marked the second collections of Olive Darters and Sickle Darters for broodstock for propagation projects. Olives were taken from the Oconaluftee River in hopes of producing young to stock in the restoration reach of the Cheoah River in NC. Sickles were collected from Little River in Blount County to attempt to restore to Tellico River. CFI has never propagated any close relatives of either species, so a steep learning curve has been encountered. Efforts to propagate both species in 2016 failed to produce any spawns, perhaps due to insufficient numbers and ratios of breeders. More of both species have been collected, thus a more intensive effort will be undertaken in 2017. Funding was provided by the Cheoah Fund and TVA.

Yellowfin Madtom Hatchery spawning and/or rearing included the following additional species/populations in 2016: Sicklefin Redhorse, Tangerine Darter, Blotchside Logperch, Barrens Topminnow, Ashy Darter, Slackwater Darters, Spring Pygmy Sunfish, Buck Darter, Barcheek Darter, and Bluemask Darter. CFI

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attempted for a second year to further refine already-developed captive propagation techniques for the production and collection of Diamond Darter eggs and larvae, but utilized the closely related Crystal Darter as a surrogate to avoid collection of any additional Diamond Darters until success with the surrogate species is obtained. Unique (for CFI) larval microhabitat conditions and prey item(s) resulted in survivorship and development of a few subadults, a success that can hopefully be replicated and expanded in 2017 and then applied to Diamond Darters in the future. A final significant new reintroduction effort was initiated this year with the collection of Yellowfin Madtom nests from the Powell River (TN & VA). For the first time, over 300 madtoms were produced and stocked in the North Fork Holston River at two sites in June 2016. The two reintroduction sites were snorkel surveyed to assess survivorship in September and a total of seven madtoms were observed (3 at one site and 4 at the other). The groundwork for this effort was laid with the designation of a nonessential experimental population (NEP) for the species in that river in 1988 by Richard Biggins. Better late than never…

Website info: www.conservationfisheries.org & http://www.facebook.com/pages/Conservation-Fisheries/377299094501. Tellico Hatchery Update 2016 has been a very difficult year for Tellico Hatchery. Southeast Tennessee experienced exceptional drought conditions combined with record setting heat. This combination resulted in extremely low flows and elevated water temperatures in the Tellico River drainage. The USGS gauging staging on the Tellico River at Tellico Plains consistently recorded record low flows during late summer and fall. The length of stream stocked in the Tellico River had to be greatly reduced and stocking on Citico Creek had to be suspended all together due to high water temperatures. Green Cove Pond nearly dried up, and could not be stocked for 5 months. In early July, water temperatures at the hatchery intake exceeded 70oF. A plan was put in place to save as many trout as possible. Tellico Hatchery along with assistance from Buffalo Springs, Erwin, and Flintville Hatchery hauled trout from Tellico to streams that Dale Hollow National Fish Hatchery was scheduled to stock in July and August. The hatchery was emptied except for a few brown trout that weathered the high temperatures fairly well. Dale Hollow held their trout until water conditions at Tellico improved and those fish could be hauled to Tellico to replenish the empty raceways. The rains have finally returned and we are busy refilling

raceways with trout. Tellico Hatchery took advantage of the situation by making some much needed repairs and improvements to the Tellico River water intake and dam. The brook trout hatchery at Tellico did not fare any better. The hatchery was on track to have the greatest number and largest size fingerlings in the history of the project. The brook trout experienced the same issues with low flows, elevated temperatures, and nitrogen supersaturation. All brood trout and fingerlings had to be stocked in early July as water quality plummeted. Low water levels in autumn did not provide enough head pressure for the gravity flow water system in the brook trout building to flow properly. As a result, brood stock could not be collected in October and there were no trout to spawn. The plan is to collect brook trout in the coming month to hold until next fall for spawning. The low water levels did provide the perfect opportunity to conduct extensive rainbow removal on lower Sycamore Creek. TWRA, USFS and student volunteers from TN Tech, Cleveland State, and Pellissippi State worked on the removal of rainbow trout from 4 km of Sycamore Creek in November. Thankfully, the rains have returned and we are hoping for a wetter 2017. Report from PAEC We have had another interesting and successful year at Parham & Associates Environmental Consulting, LLC. We have been busy applying the High Definition Stream Survey (HDSS) and High Definition Fish Survey (HDFS) techniques to numerous streams and rivers. The HDSS sampling method gathers detailed multi-attribute streambank and channel data each second, allowing rapid surveys of complete stream channels. The results of the HDSS approach are highly valuable for stream channel assessments, water quality and quantity studies, habitat assessments, and community outreach. The HDFS approach uses geo-referenced underwater video to rapidly document fish populations in clear water streams. We surveyed the Caney Fork River from Center Hill Dam downstream to the Cumberland River to assess river channel conditions prior to changes in the flow schedule associated with new power generation turbines at the dam. In addition to the 28 mile survey, we also surveyed the upper segment from the dam to Happy Hollow at three different flows to better understand the impacts of the power peaking discharges. While we were surveying the habitat, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) was conducting their trout sampling. We added video and GPS to their electro-fishing boat and were able to capture the exact location of their sampling effort.

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TWRA’s Barry Cross came out to make a Tennessee WildCast video on the project. If you haven’t seen it, check it out here: Mapping Our Rivers in High Definition - https://vimeo.com/jamesparham/caneyforkhdss Thanks to the Cumberland Chapter of Trout Unlimited for funding the work, Jason Henegar, Brandon Simcox, and the Trout Sampling crew at TWRA for their support on this project. This summer, I joined Will Collier and Mark Thurman with TWRA during their musky surveys on the Collins River. While they were surveying fish, I used the HDSS kayak system to continuous map instream habitat for almost 30 miles over 2 days. The combination of the instream habitat maps and TWRA musky survey information resulted in a very clear depiction of the quality, amount, and location of musky habitat in the Collins River. Thanks to Mark and Will for allowing me to working with them during their musky surveys. In response to TWRA’s plans to remove a small dam in order to provide a migratory pathway for the fish to use the upper river areas of the Roaring River, we surveyed 7 miles centered around the dam. We started at the mouth of Blackburn Fork Creek and ended at the USACE boat ramp in Cordell Hull Reservoir. In addition to helping meet the requirements for permits needed to remove the dam, the data collected will be used in conjunction with data collected after the dam removal to determine the extent and distribution of instream habitat before and after dam removal, locations of upstream spawning shoals, and the overall ecological lift of the dam removal project. Thanks to Pandy English and Brandon Simcox for their support and help on the project Our work hasn’t been limited to just fisheries related

projects. We also completed several HDSS projects aimed at improving river management by documenting river corridor conditions, identifying problem areas and restoration potential, recording water quality conditions and providing high quality data for water management modeling. We surveyed 78 miles of the Harpeth River (Figure 1), 23 miles of the Falling Water River, 8 miles of Pigeon’s Roost and Hudgen’s Creeks, and 9 miles of Oostanaula and North Mouse Creeks. Thanks to TDEC and the City of Athens for funding these projects. To highlight one of several projects outside of Tennessee, the State of Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) has purchased our equipment, undergone training and is using HDSS and HDFS as a standard method. Hawaii DAR, recently completed an instream flow survey at multiple flows on Waimea River, Kauai and with our help had the full project from field survey to final report completed in 15 days. Instead of a setting up and measuring stream conditions at 5 or 10 transects (representing a 1.6 mile dewatered river section), they had the complete segment surveyed in high definition video at multiple flows allowing the direct comparison of habitat changes in more than 300 distinct riffle, runs and pools. They also completed extensive underwater geo-referenced fish surveys using the HDFS setup. All of this allowed DAR to develop an instream flow response curve for ‘o’opu nōpili (a native stream goby) to determine the adequate flow restoration amount for Waimea River (Figure 2). We are moving into 2017 with some exciting projects in the works and look forward to continued collaboration with many agencies and groups here in Tennessee. Jim Parham

Figures next page

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Figure 1 Figure 1. A screen capture of a prime smallmouth bass spawning area on the Harpeth River and showing an example of the HDSS video output.

Figure 2. Backpack HDSS video (top), ‘O’opu nōpili on rock in cascade (bottom left) and suitable habitat vs discharge (bottom right) for Waimea River, Kauai.