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Big Meadow Brook Conservation Project By Bill Curry, President Tusket River chapter, Trout Unlimited Canada With the help of the Nova Scotia Department of Inland Fisheries, the chapter will begin a formal monitoring of the system in April, with the goal in the near future of having a section of the stream become a Special Trout Management area. The chapter is going to do creel monitoring and fish health inventories including asking anglers details about the trout they catch along with measuring and taking scale samples of the trout chapter members catch.  The Tusket River chapter of Trout Unlimited Canada will be training participants through its River Watch program, which the chapter runs for the provinc. Over the course of this project special attention will be paid by showing people how to do a creel census and weigh and measure trout effectively. River Watch monitors in this area will record the catches of people who fish within the stream study area. The study focuses on the Big Meadow Brook, above (south of) the highway bridge on the 203 (near-N 44° 06.125 W 065° 45.838). The Big Meadow Brook is a productive stream that has a good population of trout already might become even more productive with special protection, such as a gear restriction of single hook, barbless artificial lures and flies, and a minimum size limit.  For the next two seasons (2012 and 2013) the chapter will study the current catches with the hope that by having the new regulations in place in the future, the Big Meadow Brook might begin to produce more and larger fish. The Tusket River chapter has the backing of people who attended a Regional Fisheries Advisory Committee meeting, several local landowners and businesses, as well as the Province and Trout Unlimited Canada, who are helping financially along with scientific assistance. During its annual meeting on March 30, 2012 in Port Maitland the Tusket River chapter will explain the details of the project and provide training to River Watch participants. |
The Tusket River chapter of Trout Unlimited Canada will undertake a significant and ambitious project in Yarmouth County beginning in the spring of 2012 on a tributary of the Tusket River. Chapter members have been monitoring informally the trout population of Big meadow Brook, near Kemptville and the old Tin Mine, for the last four years.