Public-access fishing on American military land holds lots of wild country, lots of rules and regulations, and hard-earned fish.

Since 1972, the Fort McCoy fisheries program has been keeping 71.2 miles of streams in good health, with 70% ranked as Class I trout water. Along with standard conservation practices like controlling erosion, monitoring water quality and doing fish surveys, the fisheries program has been keen to install over 400 L.U.N.K.E.R. structures, an acronym for Little Underwater Neighborhood Keepers Encompassing Rheotaxic Salmonids.

A positive "rheotaxic salmonid" is simply a trout that faces upstream; a negative rheotaxic fish faces downstream. These structures serve a dual purpose: to stabilize streambanks and to create a near-perfect hiding spot for trout.

Lunker structures are made of oak slabs that are wedged parallel into the bank and spiked into the streambed with steel rebar. Another slab is cantilevered over oak pylons and it forms a tunnel-like environment that funnels drifting food to the well-protected trout. The wood is covered with rock and dirt and seeded and, in the end, is the ultimate ambush point for a trout hunting its food and for an angler hunting the trout.

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Copyright © James Card.