Nanticoke River

The annual young-of-the-year index for rockfish was announced yesterday as 59.3, the highest recorded in Maryland since the survey of spawning success began in 1954. (Related article, Page 1B.)But equally important is that the young-of-the-year indexes for virtually all other tidewater fish that spawn in the Chesapeake Bay's tributaries are up, as well."White perch, yellow perch, hickory shad, American shad -- all appear to be well-above the averages this year," said Don Cosden, who leads the Department of Natural Resources fisheries-service teams that complete the survey.

VIENNA -- Jill Stevenson is listening to fish. Headphones on, yellow data-recording book in hand, she is kneeling on a boat as she monitors the Nanticoke River's newest residents: 3,000 sturgeon born in New York, raised in Pennsylvania and -- as of yesterday -- Maryland residents."

VIENNA - About 4,500 rockfish were released into the Nanticoke River yesterday by Delmarva Power's fish hatchery.The average length of the fish, which were tagged for identification and tracking, was 6 to 8 inches, said Matt Likovich of Delmarva Power.The fish, which were taken from a pond at the power company's plant in Dorchester County on the Eastern Shore, were part of a study by Maryland fisheries officials of winter mortality rates. About 8,500 fish were put into the pond last fall, and the 4,500 that survived were released yesterday.

What would the world be, once bereft,of wet and of wildness? Let them be left.-- Gerard Manley Hopkins,Poems, No. 56BRIDGEVILLE, Del. -- Along a wooded stream off busy U.S. 13, some major digging equipment of the local farm conservation district is rearranging the scenery in pickup truck-sized bites.At first glance, this appears to be business as usual: work on the drainage system that has enabled farming across the low, flat Delmarva Peninsula for centuries and straightened thousands of miles of streams, now more akin to ditches.

QUANTICO -- Early last week, the stroll into the bright moonlight at Nanticoke River Wildlife Management Area had quickly become a trudge, the pace slowed by a bagful of duck decoys, a day bag crammed with chest waders, a couple of boxes of shot shells, gloves, sandwiches and drinks, and about seven pounds of shotgun.Yesterday morning, opening day of modern firearms deer season, the walking was easier.The bag of decoys, the two boxes of shells and the nine pounds of chest waders had been left behind, replaced with a small day bag packed with a box of deer slugs, a coil of quarter-inch braided line, a strong-backed knife, a water bottle and two sliced turkey sandwiches.

The state Board of Public Works approved yesterday spending nearly $5.4 million to buy more than 4,000 acres of marsh, shoreline and river-front land as the first step in a drive to protect natural lands.Of the six properties being acquired, five are on the Eastern Shore and have a blend of waterfowl and rare plants.Three, totaling 2,400 acres, border Fishing Bay in Dorchester County; a 335-acre property is on the Nanticoke River in Caroline County; and the fifth is a 990-acre farm in Kent County.

Vienna. -- Under gray skies occasionally spitting rain, surrounded by cold gray water and miles of winter-brown marsh, we're out on the Nanticoke River in a couple of small boats wondering about spring.It's here all right, though it's only early March and sure feels like winter to visiting outlanders. In the river the white perch know it's spring and are on the move. A trio of commercial fishermen, local people, know it too; a little below Vienna they're emptying big perch into their skiff from a fike net.Ospreys, who also fish for a living, obviously can tell it's spring.

Fishing has been slow to develop, with ice and snow and high water levels, but there has been sporadic yellow perch activity on Tuckahoe Creek at Hillsboro, below the dam at Tuckahoe State Park, in the Nanticoke River near Seaford, Del., the Blackwater and in the Patuxent near Wayson's Corner.But with water levels high, especially in the Potomac River, great care should be taken by shoreline fishermen, and boating in some areas remains out of the question.

In Maryland, the Nature Conservancy has set a tentative target of spending $10 million over four years to protect four key Chesapeake watershed tributaries:* Nanticoke River, on the Eastern Shore, one of the most unsullied tributaries of the Chesapeake. Its watershed supports almost a third of the state's tidal wetlands, with extensive habitat for waterfowl and threatened plants and animals such as the bald eagle, seaside alder and Delmarva fox squirrel. Governor William Donald Schaefer has identified the river as one of the three priorities of the Chesapeake Bay program.

The 1991 rockfish season has started. No, not the rockfish catching season, the rockfish spawning season.Water temperature in the Choptank hit the mid-60s earlier this week, and the mama rockfish started spewing out eggs.The stripers enter the Chesapeake in March and move toward the spawning reaches of their home river systems. Most biologists believe that if a rockfish was spawned in the Choptank River, it will spawn inthe Choptank when it reaches maturity. Some believe that the rockfish from one river system are genetically a little different than rockfish from other areas.