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[cammer]

I thought this important enough to start a new topic,  Like Steelhawk and WA fisher have mentioned , the old Chehalis was a wonderful fishful place where large numbers of fisherman could be expected and also expect to  be successful thus lessening the burden on the vedder and other taxed systems. My last outing there I took some pictures to possibly build a case for a scenario I thought of to deflect the river towards the hatchery. However, a very wise fisherman has informed me of a very possible fix that im sure would very much help in increasing holding times of fish in the main river thus increasing catch rates and "brood stock opportunities" for steelhead. Here is an old pic from when the Hatchery had water , as you can see the Fishermans Trail in red is superimposed over the pic ,  the Blue is the new(todays) channel and the pink circles was the very fishy original flow. Ive then painted over pics to show you a idea of what I think would be a permanent solution to moving water like it has been done numerous times on Vedder. The most likely permanent fix is to deflect the channel from Bible camp/Healing House to the channel that was dug out and been dry for over many years, this would involve large rip rap similar to the rip rap used under the Vedder crossing bridge and slowly angle river to dry channel where water would scour that channel on way to hatchery,  However another way to Brilliantly change the fortunes of this river in short term would to take current Outflow from the hatchery discharge and direct that to main river which is now very close to hatchery (guessing 400 meters) .Currently the hatchery outflow meanders a long way through bush to almost near the Harrison. Now fish entering the main river would have to swim all the way up to just below the Bible run to get to hatchery water they so desperately seek. This would create great fishing now in main river and the areas just below and above the confluence would be a great place to capture brood stock for steelhead(winters and summers)          PICTURES TO FOLLOW

[cammer]

need a member with photobucket to upload my pics  email me camaronetz@hotmail.com

[CohoJake]

[Old Blue]

And what would stop the Chehalis FN from changing the flow again.  I'd rather it left as is...keeps the number of people down and the trash too. The Chilliwack/Vedder can handle the volume of fisherman and other goof balls holding a rod and the Chehalis cannot

[CohoJake]

And what would stop the Chehalis FN from changing the flow again.  I'd rather it left as is...keeps the number of people down and the trash too. The Chilliwack/Vedder can handle the volume of fisherman and other goof balls holding a rod and the Chehalis cannot

I agree that moving the whole river channel is difficult both physically and politically, but Cammer's other idea, re-routing the hatchery outlet, actually makes a good deal of sense. 

[cammer]

Um Old Blue??? how did the first nation band move it?? please tell me??   the only thing first nations had done was to build a rip rap road wall to prevent continuous flooding of their reservation,  they had never moved it.  The whole point of moving the river is too create fishing opportunity, presently brood stock captures for steelhead are very very low due to position of river and difficulty gettingfish to hatchery and secondly  the fish can swim directly in the hatchery channel and straight into hatchery resulting in no opportunity,  the Chehalis is a wasted resource right now and needs changing

[Steelhawk]

I agree with Cammer. Where else you ever see a hatchery with a dry up channel in front of it. What is wrong with putting the river back to its former state with fish able to access the hatchery? If the Bible Camp has a rock wall there, the rock war can extend further downstream and then bend toward the hatchery to cause the river to go back to its old channel. We have seen much greater earth moving efforts to build a bridge to an island on the Fraser for gravel extraction. So why can't DFO do such enhancement on a much smaller scale for one of its own federal funded hatcheries?

[cammer]

Well said

[RalphH]

I'd rather it left as is...keeps the number of people down and the trash too. The Chilliwack/Vedder can handle the volume of fisherman and other goof balls holding a rod and the Chehalis cannot

I agree that moving the whole river channel is difficult both physically and politically, but Cammer's other idea, re-routing the hatchery outlet, actually makes a good deal of sense.

and no one even mentions where will the money come from?

[clarkii]

Or how about the river is not altered by man at all and in the future allowed to move where it pleases.  Ive seen a river i loved fishing practically become straight over 1 year due to natural circumstances.

[joshhowat]

You guys are forgetting one thing. The government does not give a Crap about recreational fishing.

[cammer]

I'm a realist as well,   the deflection of the river won't happen this year, this is the Chehalis not the vedder,  which means a whole lot. But to dig the existing hatchery outlet to the main river is a relatively simple easy fix in short term, I suggest looking at Google Earth and seeing how close the hatchery outflow is to main river, this would substantially improve holding times in main river near this confluence and allow opportunity to get some brood to the hatchery a hell of a lot easier

[cammer]

If anyone has been involved in large scale rip rap work I'd love to know what was involved . I work in a city and we do fisheries work at way smaller scales but similar planning processes
 

[CohoJake]

I'm a realist as well,   the deflection of the river won't happen this year, this is the Chehalis not the vedder,  which means a whole lot. But to dig the existing hatchery outlet to the main river is a relatively simple easy fix in short term, I suggest looking at Google Earth and seeing how close the hatchery outflow is to main river, this would substantially improve holding times in main river near this confluence and allow opportunity to get some brood to the hatchery a hell of a lot easier

I wonder how you could re-route the hatchery channel across the old riverbed without it wanting to go down the old riverbed instead?  Water goes where it wants to go.  Perhaps even this would require rip-rap.  Of course, I wonder if you could fund the project by offering gravel extraction in return?  i.e., we have some gravel for you, all you have to do for us is dig this nice little channel over here?

[cammer]

the water flow out of hatchery is minimal , its what they use to feed the channels in the hatchery only ,  its flow doesn't have much velocity/scour potential to effectively move gravel , it would be an extremely easy correction as long as there is grade to the river.