W Sea Grant fisheries and aquatic invasive species expert Phil Moy is on his way to the Cabela’s Masters Walleye Circuit fishing tournament this weekend (April 27-29) at Lake Pueblo State Park in Colorado, there to help spread the word among anglers about preventing the spread of aquatic invasive species. He’ll be blogging his experiences throughout the weekend.
By Phil Moy
As part of a Great Lakes Sea Grant network project, UW Sea Grant is working with a couple national tournament organizers (Cabela’s Master Walleye Circuit and The Bass Federation) to help Sea Grant learn about how tournaments operate so we can help them implement aquatic invasive species prevention steps. I thought I would share with you my experiences for this trip.
On April 25, I departed New Glarus at about 7 am, on a morning where the temperature was something less than 40 degrees with rain. I headed south to Monroe, then west towards Dubuque through small mining towns settled in the early 1800s in the lead region of Southwest Wisconsin.
I headed southwest again towards Cedar Rapids, passing through the gently rolling hills and river valleys and stopped for fuel and coffee near Grinnell, Iowa. I wrapped my way around Des Moines somewhat after noon and headed towards Council Bluffs, snacking on dried apricots.
Driving west on I-80 through Omaha, Nebraska, I recalled the Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference I attended there in December, 2006. We convened an Asian carp researchers’ round table there, beginning an informal exchange about that problematic fish long before the formation of the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee.
From Omaha, I pushed west through Lincoln, where the terrain flattened out on towards North Platte, my destination for the evening. It was a little surprising to have the GPS inform me that the next turn on my trip was 260+ miles ahead.
Another surprise (for me, anyway) was the Great Platte River Archway Monument (http://www.archway.org/). It pops up as you approach from the east around a bend. The monument commemorates the arduous journey by pioneers and subsequent travelers across the plains.
I arrived in North Platte around 5:30 pm to discover that the weather had done a complete 180 since my morning departure—it was now sunny and 90 degrees. After checking online for dinner options I chose a restaurant just down the road. When I got there I saw it was all-you-can-eat prime rib night. Here I was in Nebraska, source of some of the best beef in the United States,and my physician’s cautionary words about lowering my cholesterol were still echoing in my ears. I opted for an herbed game hen.
Tomorrow, over a 6-hour trip, I’ll head southwest to Denver, then south to Pueblo State Park. There I will meet with Doug Youngers, AIS Coordinator for the park. Pueblo Reservoir is designated a “containment lake” as quagga mussel veligers have been found there. I am eager to see the prevention steps Colorado has in place to prevent the spread of quagga mussels. As I understand it, they inspect every boat going into or coming out of the park. I will have a display table at the MWC rules meeting and give a brief presentation to the tournament participants.
