Thames River Watershed Report Cards

The new 2012 Upper Thames River Watershed Report Cards are now available! Every five years the UTRCA produces 28 report cards to assess local environmental conditions in the 28 watersheds within the upper Thames River watershed.

Each report card grades that watershed’s surface water quality and forest conditions, summarizes watershed features, provides recommended actions for improvement, and highlights progress made over five years. New information has been included on groundwater, connections to the Great Lakes and extreme weather.

Link to the Report

Thames River gets Cs and Ds

Thames River gets Cs and Ds
By Randy Richmond, The London Free Press

Most of the 28 watersheds in the Thames River system are holding their own, but not excelling, according to the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority report cards issued Thursday.

Based on water quality testing and analysis of forest conditions from 2006 to 2011, the 28 watersheds in the river system can be given C and D grades.

Read more...

Where Have All the Good Bass Gone - Part 2

The Upper Thames River Conservation Authority got back to me regarding the questions and comments I had sent them about the lack of smallmouth bass in the Thames River over the last few years. I'll copy their followup to me below.

"FYI - sampled two locations between Hwy 7 and St. Marys today - water temperature doesn't seem to have much effect on my fishing success. Sm bass were fairly abundant at both with at least 4 year classes observed. At one time we had at least 10 lbs. of bass in the bucket with three that would have been pushing 3 lb. Good news in terms of bass population but bad news in terms of water levels. We are normally only able to catch the smaller ones, while the bigger ones escape to deeper water that is non-existent this year, and it's not even the middle of July yet! This could make them vulnerable to a variety of types of predation."

It would seem, that the smallmouth populations are doing okay in the North Branch outside of the city. I'm still convinced there is a problem with bass inside the city limits. I'm going to continue to contact relevant groups to see about this.  I'd like to be able to land large bass within London again.

Where Have All the Good Bass Gone?

When I got back into fishing 6 years ago, smallmouth bass were abundant in the Thames River. I fished from Plover Mills to Komoka and every trip usually produced at least couple of small bass.  Sometimes we'd get 10 or more on a trip. Sometimes was would get larger smallmouth upwards of 16 inches. Bass were abundant in both branches of the river.  Excellent areas in town included Highbury Ave and the North Branch, the dog park on Hamilton Road and Thames Park downtown.

For the first couple of all areas of river produced bass. As time went on there were less and less bass to be had.  Since 2010 I've only been able to catch less than 10 bass in the river and they were all small (8 inches or less). I fish the Thames River at minimum 50 times per year and usually more. I try a variety of locations, techniques and tackle. I've been successful in other locations where bass are present. There is a problem with the bass population in the Thames River within the London City limits.

To address my concerns I emailed one of the aquatic biologists at the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority. The person I emailed returned my email right way, acknowledged my concerns and shared with me that he has received additional concerns from other anglers.  In addition he said he was going to start gathering some baseline data. He shared that water quality bethos sampling had remained stable and good for the last decade or so.  It does not seem to be a water quality issue. Also they have not "noticed any significant habitat changes, which fish communities tend be more responsive to and indicative of."

When I receive more feed back I will post for everyone to see.