Hi all,
We spent the day habitat mapping on the Duck yesterday and I thought I would pass along some things we saw.
Our work went from Normandy Dam downstream to the Three Forks Bridge Access. It was about 8.5 miles on the river. It was a lot of paddling and a few sections where we scraped the bottom, but we never had to get out and drag the boats (one canoe and one kayak, each loaded with gear). We did have to portage at Cortner Mill Dam.
We collected data on depth, habitat type, bottom composition, right and left bank geometry and condition, riparian condition, and water quality through the whole section. The data is not analyzed yet, so I will give you some impressions from what I saw.
Overall, it is a beautiful river and conditions changed from the dam to the takeout.
The water was very dark near the dam. I am not sure if Normandy Lake is turning over or if it is like that all the time. It cleared up a lot downstream a few miles and got very clear in one section. It looks like there were some spring fed areas. By the end of the section down by Three Forks Bridge, it started to turn green.
We were not sampling fish on this trip, but I spent a bunch of the day looking into the water noting type and size of the fish as we passed. The section near the dam had the fewest fish seen. We did not see many minnows or larger fish in this area. There were plenty of freshwater sponges. The overall size and numbers of fish increased as we moved downstream.
I saw a fair number of medium size smallmouth 10 - 13 inches and one big one. 90% of the smallmouth were at the tail end of pools right before you got into a fast water section. We saw a few largemouth bass with the best ones in the Cortner Mill Dam pool. In general, we saw many more fish below Cortner Mill Dam than above it.
Next trip should be from Three Forks Bridge to Shelbyville. It will be interesting to see the differences.
Hope that is of some use to you all,
Jim
|