Delaware River DIDYMO

[Walter H]

He may have experience and put you into fish but it is beyond comprehension that he never heard of it. Its been in fishing magazines, on all the fishing sites, fly shops have posted info on their sites, signs are up in many parking areas, ect. Boot manufacturers have stopped making felt soles and explained the reason why, ect. You would think he would have noticed it in the rivers and asked himself, what is this brown stuff. Its been a national problem not just local for a few years now. Thats like saying you never heard of West Nile Virus or hot low water is bad for trout because no one ever sent you a notification on it. I can understand the average guy on the street never hearing of it but not a guide on the D system with 20 years experience is unbelievable.

I agree that it's messed-up, and that the problem is generally pretty well talked about on a national scale. Persoanlly until this experience, I stayed far away from infected rivers as a way to stop the spread. (Although that's not going to be an option anymore unfortunately)

He (the guide)knew something about it ('Rock snot'), but frankly not enough. He had seen it for a number of years, and knew a little bit about it. He was aware that the NPS and DEC had recently started to put up signs along the mainstem warning people about transporting it. He did NOT know the precautions to take in order not to spread it. I'm probably not goingt to use the guy again, and I'm pretty irritated that he didn't know more about Didymo containment, but what's sad is that the guy knows about the area, and the policy issues affecting the main stem. (We talked about the controversies of gas drilling and water flows, quite a bit on the trip)

This was just my personal experience, and I wanted to share. In those post or pre fishing chat sessions that we as fishermen have with other fishermen that we randomly meet, I try to mention didymo in some non-invasive way just to get the word around. I'm often surprised by the responses. What bothers me is I fish currently uninfected waters, where word NEEDS to get out to hopefully stop the spread.

[uffdoc]

AK
I do in fact have several pair of waders(!) and boots for fishing other waters!
RAC