00:00:00Ellie: All right, just a quick thing, what is LECTU and how did it start?
Mike: Little Elkhart Chapter of Trout Unlimited and we've been in existence for
about ten years. It started as a group of fishermen who wanted to do something
with the Little Elkhart River. And it's a great little river and we're all
fishermen, we enjoy fishing it, but nobody was really taking care of it. There
was a real need and so we saw that need and we started a club. Basically it was
called Little Elkhart Restoration Association and we started with that for a few
years, and then realized, you know if we wanted to raise any money and be, you
know, that tax-deductible thing it was just easier to go with Trout Unlimited.
So we came a trial delimited chapter, and so yeah we've been doing it for ten years.
01:02
Ellie: And what were you doing today?
Mike: Well today we're doing some stream improvement. This section of the river
is kind of wide and flat and it's got a lot of sand in there. So what we're
trying to do is deepen the channel to try to constrict the flow and then that'll
scour out the bottom and it'll expose the gravel that's underneath the sand. And
then that gravel will harbor bug life that is instrumental for the trout
survival. And it also helps to create more oxygen in the water by increasing the
flow and it helps with the temperature, too. Our river is kind of marginal as
far as water temperature for trout, and they really need something at least
below 70 degrees, and most of the time we stay below 70 degrees--it's a spring
fed creek. Actually the Little Elkhart River is really a special river because
it is, it's actually one of the longest rivers in Indiana that's completely
spring fed. It's all cold water, there's no--it's not a warm water system so
it's all spring fed so the water stays cold. That's why we have trout here.
There's only a few rivers in Indiana that are able to support trout and this is,
in my opinion, this is the best one because it is spring fed. We're not
interfering with another fishery, either. A lot of times, other places that have
trout also have smallmouth bass, and they've got pan fish that people fish for,
and in this situation we don't have that. All we've got basically are our trout,
our trout, and other suckers and carp--trash fish--in here but we don't have the
game fish, really. So it's 18 miles of spring fed cold water from the beginning,
to the end, and that's something that's really special. And that's kind of why
we felt like it needed help. Nobody was really watching over it and we've made a
big strides in our 10 years. There was a guy that did a study that came out
of--the St. Joe River Valley study--they were studying the St. Joe River and
they found that the Little Elkhart was one of the largest contributors of E.Coli
into the St. Joe River. That came from livestock--you know cows and horses and
that kind of thing. Most of what saved this river, to this point, is that it's
mainly owned by private property owners who are Amish. And the Amish, when they
farm, they don't encroach upon the river, they stay back away from the river;
where a lot of the larger farmers clear the property--they put in tiles to drain
it so they can farm it--that sort of thing. And the Little Elkhart doesn't have
that going on. Thing they did have though was livestock right in the river, and
they had barnyards that washed right down into the river. A fella by name of
Dave Arrington did about a two thousand, two MILLION dollar project to clean the
river up. He fenced out the cattle, put in riparian zones to filter out the
water and that sort of thing, and now our water is very clean, I mean, it's
really great. So now we've got clean water, now we need to accentuate the river
and try to provide more trout habitat and colder water, more oxygen and that
sort of thing for a better survival.
04:24
Ellie: What were you cutting down the trees for?
04:26
Mike: Well the trees were cut down to--they were, they're dead trees to start with
04:29
okay. We had the emerald ash borer come through kill a lot of trees and so we're
getting these ash trees before they become rotten. We're gonna make a deflector
here so the current will come down and we're trying to put meanders back into
the river, okay. The river is kind of lost some of its meanders and so by
accentuating these curves, you speed up the water, you can you constrict the
current and that sort of thing
At high water there's no problem, in high water this River flows nicely, there's
no problem. It's that low water that you have an issue and then when the water
becomes low and the temperature becomes hot, that's when you start to lose
oxygen in the river because what warm water can't hold as much oxygen and trout
and need a lot of oxygen. So by constricting it, condensing it, you're holding
more oxygen in the water. Faster flows create more oxygen. So we, what we do is
we come in when the water is low and we do all this--all these curves and
bunkers and banks and some things like that--to try to accentuate that flow.
Then what happens is at high water is it goes right over the top of it and
there's no problem, but at low water, then we end up getting our meanders back
in and it really helps the trout out. Yeah right now, it's pretty low.
Ellie: Is this low water right now?
Mike: Yeah right now, it's pretty low.
Ellie: It seems kind of big and swollen to me.
Mike: Uh well it, we got rain last night so it did come up a little bit, but
it's, it's actually fairly low right now.
Ellie: Oh, so when it gets high water does it come out over here?
Mike: Yeah, I mean--
Ellie: It's kind of like a floodplain,
Mike: Yeah it'll flood this whole field, but it doesn't do that very often, you
know. But it does do that. In fact, if you go down, just down here, there's
another, we put a bunker in over there. You can see--
Ellie: Saw it, yeah.
Mike: And did you see the wall then along the side?
Ellie: Yeah.
Mike: We put up that that seawall. We
built that whole thing last year, so that's kind of what we're planning to do.
This is kind of Phase two of the meadow project, and we're doing this for two
reasons. One for the trout of course, and to help the river, but also that we're
getting an awful lot of erosion. The banks are starting to cave in and that sort
of thing, which widens the river, flattens it out, and we don't want that
happening. We're working with a property owner to enforce the banks so they
don't cave in and we're doing it in a trout friendly manner.
Ellie: And last question, so you're a fisherman, were you a fisherman before
LECTU started?
Mike: Oh yes.
Ellie: So LECTU sort of started out of your love for fishing?
Mike: Well exactly. I mean, I've been fishing this river since I was about six
years old. And back when I was a kid, my dad was a trout fisherman, so I kind of
became a
trout fisherman as well. He used to bring me out before work. You know, he'd go
to work at like seven o'clock. So he dropped me off at 6:00, and I'd fish all
day down through here and he come back and pick me up at night when I was a
little kid. Because I mean, I just love doing this kind of fishing. Stream
fishing is really a lot of fun and like I say, trout--it's really special to
this area. I mean you just don't find trout any other place, I mean, there's a
few places in Indiana to have trout--most of them are in northern
Indiana. But as far as a natural trout stream like this, it's actually spring
fed water coming in, it's kind of rare.
Ellie: How do you think fishing has sort of changed your life on a trajectory
going forward?
Mike: Change my life?
Ellie: yeah how does it change your perspective on things?
Mike: Yeah you may want to talk to my wife about that 'cause it's changed my
life a lot. I mean, I've always been a fisherman so I've always fished, but I
started fly-fishing maybe 20 years ago. And once I started fly-fishing, that
kind of, I saw the light go so to speak, okay-- from fishing with bait to
fishing with something that looks like a bait. It's a good way to fish because
you can let the fish go. I mean I kill very few, I don't kill any trout, I try
not to anyway. But you know, other fish, I keep it. Trout I want to let them
back in.
Ellie: Is that because you've worked so hard to get them back in?
Mike: Yeah, yeah! I mean, this river, you see how small it is. If I kept every
trout I caught out of here there wouldn't be any fish to fish for. So this
section is a catch and release section. We've got two miles of catch and release
where you can't use bait. Because if they eat bait they swallow it and then
trying to get them off, you're gonna kill them anyway. So there's no bait in
here and it's improved the fishing drastically. You can come out here any time
of the year and catch trout. Didn't used to be able to do that before we had
catch and release. The other thing that we're doing is we're focusing on brown
trout. In our chapter there's two different kinds of trout that they see that
are in here. Rainbows and browns. The rainbow trout are kind of marginal for the
water temperature and so they don't last all that long. Occasionally you'll get
some holdovers, but it's kind of rare. So the brown trout can survive in this
water and can thrive and actually they're reproducing. So we started stocking
brown trout.
Ellie: Are they native?
Mike: No, no the rainbow, neither are rainbows. The only native trout we have in
the US are Brook Trout, and I believe cutthroats.
Ellie: Are those out West?
Mike: Yeah brook trout are out east and cutthroats are out West. But they've
transported them. They're all over the place now. The Browns came from Germany
and I'm not sure where the rainbows came from--Europe someplace. Brown trout can
live in a little bit warmer water with a little less oxygen, so they thrive in
here. They're doing really well. So after we've stocked it now, when you come
out to fish--I catch probably three to one brows to rainbows. And then brown
trout last all year round, so I fish out here in the wintertime and catch
Browns. Yeah, so it's really nice and it's that's why we're trying to help them
out, you know. We put in as many trout as we can in the catch and release area
to build up a breeding population, and now that we've got that kind of maxed
out. What we need to do is provide more habitat to hold more fish. The more fish
you have in an area, it's kind of playing the matchmaker. You know, when it's
time to spawn, they can find a partner and they can successfully spawn. If they
were spread out all over the place, they'd have a hard time doing that.
Ellie: How has it sort of changed your way of--you saw the light--
Mike: Well, my whole life revolves around fishing. I mean it really does, but
that's the kind of guy am. I fish year-round. I fish trout a lot and I fish all
over the country, you know. I very rarely go on any vacation that I can't fish
while I'm there, and I've always taken fishing stuff with me. So it's just kind
of the way it is.
Ellie: Just you.
Mike: Yeah, just me. but you know whether or not we had trout unlimited I would
probably still be that way, but this definitely gives me an outlet. I mean like
today, I'm not fishing today, but I feel good about what I'm doing, you know?
This is worth worthwhile to me to do this kind of work. So yeah, yeah I spend a
lot of time at it, I'd have to say.
11:44
Ellie: It's really awesome, thanks for letting me come do this.
Mike: No, I'm glad you're here.
Ellie: and if you're ever cooking up a big batch of fish and want me to come--
Mike: [Laughter]. All right.
Ellie: Well thanks for letting me take some of your time away.
Mike: Sure, thank you.
12:12
