Iowa DNR News
Hunters in Iowa Harvested
More Than 750,000 Pheasants in 2004
BOONE - An estimated 756,184
rooster pheasants were harvested in Iowa during the 2004 season,
a 30 percent decline from the 1,080,466 harvested in 2003. The
number of resident and nonresident hunters also declined 8
percent and 7 percent, respectively.
Todd Bogenschutz, wildlife
biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said
for the sixth year in a row, Iowa cannot claim bragging rights
as the top pheasant state. South Dakota led the nation with a
harvest of 1.6 million roosters.
"This past seasons harvest was
27 percent below our 10-year average and 40 percent below the
historical average of 1.27 million roosters," he said. "This
downward trend can be linked back to when entire farm fields
enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program were returned to
production in the mid 1990s. We lost a lot of really good
nesting habitat, and habitat that gave pheasants protection from
the extremes of Iowa weather and from predators.
"We had fewer hunters because
of the results from our August roadside survey. The survey
showed fewer birds and we can trace that to weather impacts
during the nesting season," Bogenschutz said. "We had been in a
cycle of cool wet springs and had a hard winter in 2000 - 2001
that really impacted our pheasant population, but we bounced
back and had a decent harvest in 2003. So far this year, our
pheasant population is in pretty good shape and our harvest
should bounce back again."
Quail hunters harvested an
estimated 68,256 quail, which is a 40 percent decrease from the
114,067 estimate in 2003. Most of the quail harvest was in
southern and east central Iowa.
Partridge hunters harvested an
estimated 12,535 partridge, a 53 percent increase from 2003.
Cottontail rabbit hunters harvested nearly 260,000 rabbits in
2004, a 6 percent increase from 2003.
Tracking Flathead Catfish
by Joe Wilkinson
As we pushed upstream, fish
1702 was talking to us. Just above the new ramp on the Iowa
River at River Junction, our radio receiver on board sounded
clear, crisp 'beeps' to tell us we were closing in on the
five-pound flathead catfish.
Steering the boat toward a
jumble of trees on an inside bend, Department of Natural
Resources fisheries technician Greg Simmons was confident. "It's
in that logjam. As we get closer, the beeping will get louder,"
said Simmons. Unplugging the electronic box from the mast,
Simmons held it over the side of the boat. The beeps were loud
and sharp. "It's right below us," offered Simmons. "1702 was
tagged August 20 of last year. The last time we 'saw' it was
this May (probably moving up from its wintering area) just above
the mouth of the Cedar River. So it's moved up about ten miles
since then."
As Simmons recorded depth and
other details, it was easy to see why the fish was here. On the
inside bend there would be a couple nice holes. The tangle of
flood-carried trunks, stumps and limbs created blocked the
current, creating a calm area, good habitat for smaller river
fish...and the flathead catfish that would swallow them. Across
the river, the outside bend showed sloughed-away dirt banks, a
reminder of the changing nature of the stream and the multitude
of organisms it supports.
Crews last year caught and
implanted radio-transmitters in 35 flatheads. This trip was just
for telemetry. "The receiver here will pick up signals from the
fish," explains Simmons. "Each one is assigned a different
frequency. If the scanner doesn't pick up a frequency in the
two-second interval, it moves to the next one." It had been a
pretty good day. Starting at the Burlington Street Dam in Iowa
City on this day, Simmons had located 14 'electronic flatheads'
by the time he pulled out at River Junction, east of Riverside.
DNR biologist Greg Gelwicks had started there and was monitoring
downstream. The research crew, out of Manchester, spent the
night and completed their run down to the Mississippi the next
day.
On a different trip, they might
electroshock the same stretches; a method that brings up smaller
flatheads. Or, they would set underwater hoop nets, especially
during spawning, to get more of the monsters. They need to see a
representative sampling of the flatheads to gauge just how many
are out there. Concerns from anglers not seeing as many big
flatheads prompted the multi-stream survey. As the top predator,
a balanced flathead population is critical to a river's overall
health. And if you've ever wrestled a five--or 45--pound
flathead to the bank, you know why many river anglers prefer
them.
Similar work is underway in the
North Raccoon, Des Moines and Cedar River corridors in Iowa.
That includes some attention to tributaries. Just prior to
pushing off, Gelwicks talked by phone with a woman who had
caught one of the transmitter-fitted fish on the English River,
near North English. Though there is nothing illegal with taking
one home-they know of four caught--biologists urge anglers to
contact them to pin down location, movement and other data.
Plus, they'll stop searching for that frequency.
In its second year now, the
study is showing that habitat is critical...and that fish will
move to get to that habitat. For instance, why did 1702 swim
past 10 miles of the Iowa River to get back to that particular
logjam above River Junction? "A fish might do well for ten
months out of the year but if it lacks critical habitat, an
over-wintering area for instance, it is going to have to (search
for it)," cautions Simmons. "We just don't know a lot about
flatheads on our interior streams. We are looking at how far
they move at different times of the year. We want to learn about
population, growth rates, too; some simple parameters to tell us
more."
And through the implanted radio
transmitters, the catfish are talking.
Farm Ponds; Orders Being
Taken
Farm ponds offer some of the
best fishing in Iowa and with 80,000 ponds dotting Iowa, you're
never far from several of them. A well-managed pond, though,
takes some work and a little planning. Landowners expecting fish
from the DNR for stocking their new or renovated ponds
need to get busy in the next couple weeks to ensure 2005
delivery.
Pond owners face an August 15
deadline for having their application in the hands of the
fisheries management biologist in their area. Copies of the
DNR's Farm Pond booklet and the application for fish are
available from each fisheries office or on-line at http://www.iowadnr.com/fish/programs/farmpond.html
Deliveries of
bluegill--500-1,000 bluegill per acre--and channel catfish-about
100 per acre are made in late September or early October to
specified locations. Next June, largemouth bass, about 70 to the
acre, will come. Basic criteria for the stocking program require
a pond of at least a half acre in size, eight feet in depth,
fenced to exclude livestock and with a 60 foot buffer strip to
improve water quality. The DNR stocks about 500 ponds each year.
There is a $25/acre stocking fee. The pond should provide
keeper-sized fish in two to three years. There is NO requirement
that pond owners accepting DNR hatchery fish let others fish on
the property.
Pond owners are urged to talk
with their fisheries biologist before tinkering with the
bluegill, catfish, largemouth bass combination, as other species
of fish could upset the balance in the pond.
