Milwaukee River Open House

Again, from the Milwaukee Riverkeeper:

Public Information Open House for the Lincoln Park and Milwaukee River Channels Sediment Remediation and Restoration Project

Please come to talk one-on-one with representatives from the US EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office, Wisconsin DNR, Milwaukee County and the State Health Department and learn more about how we can work together to clean Lincoln Park and the Milwaukee River Channels.
Stop by anytime between 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm. There is no formal program.
When	November 10th, 2009 3:00 PM through 7:00 PM
Location	1000 W. Hampton Ave. Milwaukee, WI United States
Contact	Phone: (414) 263-8708 Email: marsha.burzynski@wi.gov

Governor Doyle Heralds Kinnickinnic Cleanup Effort

From the Milwaukee Riverkeeper:

"Milwaukee Riverkeeper fought hard over the last couple of years to have the Kinnickinnic River recognized as one of the nation's "Most Endangered Rivers" and to advocate for an extensive cleanup effort. The first leg of the cleanup was the recent dredging effort between Beecher and 1st St. led by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources"

"Over the past four months federal, state and local agencies have worked together to remove 167,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment from the Kinnickinnic River between Becher Street and Kinnickinnic Avenue. A former brownfields site next to the river has sprouted a boater's lounge in a newly refurbished office building, a microbrewery, additional boat slips, moorings and fisherman wharves, riverwalks and a boat launch ramp."

"The river was cleaned up using $14.3 million from the Great Lakes Legacy Act fund and $7.7 million provided by Governor Doyle's "Grow Milwaukee" initiative. The project took place between June 3, 2009 and October 3, 2009. Dredging ended ahead of schedule.

The cleanup removed about 1,200 lbs. of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and 13,000 lbs. of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (a byproduct of petroleum) that were contaminating the river. The dredged material was transported by barge and disposed in a special cell within the Milwaukee Area Confined Disposal Facility at Jones Island, owned by the City of Milwaukee and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers."

Great stuff, something to be proud of for Milwaukee. It is certainly a good thing to see a city taking responsibility for decades of pollution and wastewater flowing directly into a Great Lakes drainage.

Hats off to the Milwaukee Riverkeeper as well for pushing for and keeping tabs on this project as well as other river projects in the district.

40,000 Atlantic Salmon Escape From B.C. Farm

This may not sound like bad news, but domesticated farm raised salmon escaping and mixing with the gene pool is never a good thing.

A pair of large holes was discovered by divers a couple of weeks back in one of the containment nets that hold in tens of thousands of Atlantic Salmon. Some 40,000 salmon escaped before divers were able to repair the holes. You can read the full article here.

Chicago Trout Bum Scores some Trout : Milwaukee River Fishing

Yesterday my friend David, who runs the Chicago Trout Bum, hit a personal best Lake Run Brown Trout on the Milwaukee river. Read his report here.

He also got 2 Steelhead, not a bad day out. He's back up there today, I hope he gets a repeat!

The Chicago River

Keeping tabs on the water and the city I live in. Shot this tonight on the walk to the train from work.

Kinzie Street Bridge

This Is Fly : E-Magazine : November Issue

Enough fish photographs and lines of text that paint photographs of their own.

Enjoy This is Fly.

Catch Magazine : E-Magazine : November Issue

A new issue of Catch Magazine has hit the... shelves?

Enjoy.

Kinnickinnic River Milwaukee : To Be Reengineered

This could be good for you, for me, and for every water loving Milwaukee going fisherman.

Straight from the Bay View Compass, this article details the acquisition of more than 80 properties to rebuild this concretized river. The plans call to divide the river in to three "phases"

Phase 3 : Collect : Emphasis on water collection and storm water management.

Phase 2 : Gather : Emphasis on community

Phase 1 : Grow : Emphasis on Urban Agriculture

They allow up to 10 years for property management, the project will cost the city about 49 million dollars and will widen the channel considerably, to allow for large runoff and to create space for community interaction.

Sounds like an interesting project, it's a nasty situation right now, and they will be improving it and replacing a bunch of beat up old bridges. Go Milwaukee, I hope they get things right here.

White Bear Lake : Winter Carnival : Ice Fishing Tournament is Back!

White Bear Lake will host what was an old tradition, the Winter Carnival Ice Fishing Tournament, and event that used to draw 10,000 people to the lake for a day of frozen knuckles, flopping fish, and prizes. They shut the tournament down in 1982, but now, for the first time in nearly 30 years, it's going to be back for the 2010 carnival this winter.

Photograph by Great Lakes Angler (on Lake Michigan, sorry I don't have any ice on WBL)

The full story at WCCO News.

Milwaukee Harbor Salmon Fishing Report : November 1st 2009

The Milwaukee harbor is starting to swell with Brown Trout and Steelhead, which will park themselves in the harbor until spring. This is great news for any angler who may be sick of reeling in zombie King Salmon.

The final count today was somewhere in the range of 1 king salmon, 5 brown trout, and 3 Steelhead. Mike, Keith and myself found ourselves hooking up every 10 minutes or so from first light until around 10:00, when things slowed down.

My first Brown Trout of the day.

Upon my arrival Keith and Mike had both already hooked up, Keith with a Brown on a tube jig, and mike with a King on Brown Trout spawn under a float. Things were encouraging, before I could finish stringing my line up mike hooked a King and Keith netted it. Before I could get a second cast in Keith lit up another brown trout, which he landed this time. I then plucked a brown of my own after something like 10 minutes. In the first 2 hours we had bagged 4 and lost at least as many more.

Using an blue/white x-rap I landed my first, my second hook up came on a super rooster tail, I then lost a 15 pound + brown trout who snapped my line and took my lucky x-rap with it into the depths. My big fat female brown was bagged on spawn under a float, as were the rest of the fish (except Mike's Steelhead, which he hit bouncing spawn along the bottom).

I didn't even plan on going out this weekend, it was a frigid, enjoyable morning, and I'm happy I went. All but 1 brown were released today to spawn, we had one nice female brown who took some spawn down deep, we will use those eggs this month in Milwaukee and Kenosha for more Brown Trout action.

Enjoy the rest of the photographs, and I'll see ya out there.