BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) – Instead of catch and release, members of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Fly Fishermen were strictly releasing.
The club teamed up on Thursday with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries & Parks to put 25,000 young bream into the Tchoutacabouffa River.
“What we’re trying to do as fly fishermen get the ecosystem back healthy again,” said Harry Lamey of the club.
Lamey said he’s been bugging the folks at the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries & Parks for several years about the decreasing bream population in the Biloxi and Tchoutacabouffa Rivers.
The state studied the rivers and agreed. Fisheries biologist Stephen Brown said their agency relies on local fishermen to help them assess the health of fish populations.
Those guys are really good advocates for these rivers down here, so they know what’s going on,” Brown said. “And we appreciate their help in stocking the fish today.”
Lamey said he’s watched the river change over the years.
“I’m 73 and I’ve been fishing this river all my life there used to be excellent fishing. But I just don’t think the fish spawn like they should, like they used to and so that’s the reason these rivers are in such bad shape they’re just not reproducing.”
Lamey said he thought the heavy recreational boater traffic on the rivers was the culprit. But there are many natural forces that could have hit the bream’s population.
“There’s all kind of environmental factors that you have to deal with when you’re talking about the reproduction of fish down here in the Coastal rivers,” Brown said.
Several members of the club helped distribute the fish in a few spots along the river. The fish will stay there and grow in size to either be caught or help make the bass and other fish in the river fatter.
“You know the bluegill and all your panfish are the first link in the food chain,” Lamey said. “So this will help for your bass fishermen as well as your catfishermen because everything feeds on bluegill.
“We’re trying to get some food in here for the bigger fish to feed on. Which I’m not a bass fisherman, but it should make the bass fishermen happy.”
Brown said his department tries to assess each river around once every three years.
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