Fly Fish Nevada

I was up at Desert Creek the other day and I came across something that has always bugged me.  Dams!  Not the big hydroelectric variety or even the small irrigation or flood control kind.  These are just little rock dams.  For being so small they sure can create a lot of damage to a small trout stream.  I am not sure why people build these but I can guess.  Most are near the camp spots, so it is likely they are either to provide a place to swim or a place to fish.  Either way, those uses are short lived and the trout suffer in the long run.

A Large Rock Dam

As you can see in the above picture, these dams widen the stream bed.  This makes the stream both shallower and slower.  At first the pool created behind the dam is deep, but soon it will silt in and become a long shallow flat.  This warms the water and robs it of much needed oxygen.  These become neither good for swimming or good for fishing.

This dam also illustrates the next problem.  As the stream seeks to find a way around the dam it eats away at the softer banks and further widens the stream.  Another camper widens the dam and it happens all over again.  There is no way to get that bank back.  When that dam blows out, and it will, it will leave an area devoid of quality fish habitat.  It will also wash all that silt down stream all at once, choking the stream and covering gravel beds that grow insects the fish eat and provide spawning habitat.

Finally, these things prevent the passage of fish.  Fish need to move to feed, spawn and find places to over-winter.  They cannot do so easily with these in place.  I once removed a dam from a creek no wider than 2 feet that had formed a silted pool too wide to jump across.  My son and I watched a 14 inch brookie swim up through the new opening I had made not two minutes later.  It could not have done so otherwise.

Don’t build these things!! If you want to swim, find a lake.  If you want a fishing hole, hike a little.  There are plenty.  You may decide to remove these dams.  That is up to you and I am neither encouraging or discouraging the practice (though I have been known to tear a few out).  Be careful, however.  Removing a large one such as this could prove more damaging since you will release the silt downstream and leave barren banks on either side.  Better to remove a few rocks and arrange them to create a stair step series of pools in the middle of the stream so at least fish can pass.  This will also help prevent further bank erosion by letting the water freely flow in the center of the stream bed.  Also be advised that doing so may be technically illegal and never do it on private property or destroy anything that looks to serve a real purpose (stock watering, flood control, etc.)

Filed under: Conservation Tagged: | dams, Desert Creek, Fly Fish Nevada, trout stream