Pike disappearing?

[acabtp]

Originally Posted by Jigman13

One of the areas I fish has been significantly altered by the town/county/state. A majority of the blow downs, log jams, timber piles and other wooded structure forms have been removed from the water and piled high a good distance from the rivers edge. My assumption is that this has impacted the population of fish in this particular stretch negatively. Dozen pIke days were once common in this stretch with fish into the 30s. Not sure what's going on...

that's my assumption too. i think the "desnagging" of the rivers is a terrible idea... i'm all for taking out the garbage, toys, tires, and other man-made detritus that wash into the rivers during flood events, but all the downed trees and other organic materials should be left alone. mother nature has a use for them and will turn them to soil or send them downriver when she is ready.

what i really don't understand is why they are doing it at all. the reason they gave here in denville on the rockaway was so that when things flood, the water can flow out faster. speeding the water though here instead of letting it take its time makes it flood faster and higher on the lower passaic. we're just shuffling our problems to the communities downriver.