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Mike Holt
Member
USA
2807 Posts |
 Posted - 08/17/2006 : 7:20:38 PM
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Went to Madison today for some early morning Smallies and checked out the boat launch project.
Here are some pictures.
The ramps will be on the West Shore and access is by the Rod and Gun club road. There are two in the works and above them closer to the dam will be a set of stairs for hand carry access.
Just a note about the Madison Dam re-license process. Jeff Reardon can tell you more about it but if I rememeber correctly Madison Paper called everyone who might want to comment on the process together and held a meeting.
The theme - Hey, we want to do this and we don't want to fight about it - how can we make it work for everyone. And then they listened and worked with fishermen, white water people, IF&W and anyone else who had an interest. I wasn't at all of the meetings but the ones I attended were good meetings with good discussion by all parties. No fighting - reasonable requests got reasonable response.
All in all a model of how it should be done - IMHO
Anyway, in the pictures you can see the upper ram is right in the standing wave area - you have to want to be there to put in there – the water is fast.
The next set of pictures is from the lower ramp - still fast water but jet drives, Grand Lakers with experienced operators and guys like me poling canoes can make it back to it. A lot of props will be "tuned" finding the channel. :-)
The last couple of pictures are from below the second ramp looking back up river. Some good water there.
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Edited by - Mike Holt on 08/17/2006 7:21:51 PM |
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bkfish99
Contributor
USA
37 Posts |
Posted - 08/18/2006 : 08:18:54 AM
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My buddy in Marine Resources works closely with the Madison Paper people on an eel passage. He told me about this the other night. He also mentioned the gate will still be up and closed but not locked. Not sure which one of the Madison Paper people gave him the 2 dollar tour but they had asked for people to just shut the gate behind them ...
Forgot to ask ... Has anyone heard anything about opening up the Sandy and what effect it will have on the Fishery on the Kennebec in Madison? Do they anticipate some/a lot/most of the resident fish moving up into the Sandy? |
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Jeff Reardon
Frequent Contributor
906 Posts |
Posted - 08/18/2006 : 11:40:26 AM
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Mike has pretty accurately described the Madison Dam relicensing process. One of the more pleasant I ever participated in. Nobody yelled, nobody slammed the table and stormed out (well, except that once, sorry everyone ).
We ended up with a good outcome for recreational users, protection of some important riparian lands and islands from development, an agreement on when and how to build fish passage for Atlantic salmon many years down the road (Goal--open up the Sandy first. Once/if we get numbers back, think about the Kennebec above Madison.)
Madison gets to increase power production, and controlled its costs by spreading things out over several years rather than making all the changes at once.
Lots of other details, but if you care all that much you can go the FERC website and read them all. Nighty night . . . . .
Good deal all around.
It's good to hear the construction is going on. |
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Jeff Reardon
Frequent Contributor
906 Posts |
Posted - 08/18/2006 : 11:44:46 AM
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About the Sandy. Seen a couple questions about Kennebec browns going up the Sandy. I'm sure some of them will, but how many?
Take your best guess. I've asked a lot of folks how many fish move up into the Sandy now in the fall, and gotten mixed answers. Remember that the Sandy River dam is about a mile or so upstream of the Kennebec. That low in the watershed, the Sandy is WARM in mid summer, and I would expect the Kennebec is cooler. Some fish might run up the Sandy to get to the cooler water up in Farmington and above, though.
It seems more likely to me they'd try to make a run in the fall. But if they were going to do that, wouldn't they be doing it in the past and have ended up stacked up below the dam? Did anyone find any good fall-winter fishing there? |
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FJ40
Contributor
26 Posts |
Posted - 08/19/2006 : 5:45:22 PM
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I've spent countless days fishing the Sandy River stretch and the Madison stretch since 1980 or 1981. Back then, I'd catch bass after bass, but I'd hear of people catching an occasional salmon while trolling in the spring. Around 1990 or so, a friend and I started catching browns on flies in Madison, and every once in a while, we'd catch a brown below the Sandy River dam at the start of the season, but never during the summer because of warm water temps. (I used to fish the Madison section three or four times a week, but once word got out a few years ago and crowds started showing up, I cut back to once or twice a month. My friend Matt -- the true pioneer of fly-fishing for browns in Madison -- still fishes it regularly, however.)
My brother and I were both fortunate to be part of the Madison Paper relicensing process. For a week, we played the role of "wading anglers" -- and the biologists who also participated rewarded us with the names and locations of some not-so-well-known ponds.
I did not know about the new boat launches, but I am looking forward to trying them out with my wife's kayak.
BTW, the Sandy River dam is/was about six miles upriver from the confluence of the Sandy and the Kennebec.
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Edited by - FJ40 on 08/19/2006 8:57:18 PM |
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Mickfin
Contributor
USA
31 Posts |
Posted - 08/20/2006 : 08:15:17 AM
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| was there a way for the fish to get over the dam on the sandy before it was removed. because i have seen some nice salmon come out of the farmington streach in the spring. just curious i didn't know how much they moved around. has anybody seen any up in the strong area? |
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FJ40
Contributor
26 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2006 : 7:24:51 PM
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| No, there was no way for fish to get above the dam. I used to catch salmon under the bridge in New Sharon, but I've caught only browns (and bass) in Farmington. Maybe some salmon were stocked in Farmington or Phillips and have reproduced on their own. |
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