Quote Originally Posted by cajunwannabe View Post
I believe that FERC relicensing has aided in mandating a reliable CFS in the Saluda river to maintain a certain amount of dissolved oxygen to support a trout fishery. I don't believe there is much evidence supporting the spawning of hatchery fish tho. The spawning striper run, believe it or not....largemouth bass and river otters, herons, etc lead to massive predation of Saluda river stocked trout. It's a put and take fishery and holdover fish are very, very few but some have grown into very nice trout.

Barbless / catch and release is a nice idea and worth a try to protect large holdover fish and may be worth a try to increase numbers of holdover fish. I'd bet nearly all Trout Unlimited members that fish that area in mention practice catch and release already.
SCE&G has implemented most of the measures implemented in the license agreement (improving dissolved oxygen and flow characteristics) while waiting over 9 years for the new license to be issued. FERC awaits a biological opinion from NMFS on diadromous fish before issuing the new license. Gotta love the federal government.