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[Dave]

Gwyn, Buck from this forum, Sidthedog and myself made our second trip counting spawning steelhead in the upper Chilliwack River today.  Our first trip to Centennial Channel was April 5 when we saw 0 fish and 0 redds.
Today was better as we saw lots of gravel movement, several obvious redds, and 15 steelhead, including 2 females actually spawning.  All fish appeared in top shape and a few males were a good 16-18 lbs.   Separate from the steelhead were 2 spawning trout, each about 16”. 
We checked the upper portion of Yukalup Channel but observed nothing, including coho fry.
We plan on continuing these limited steelhead enumerations and will post our future findings.

[norm_2]

Dave, thanks for the report.  I was just wondering if is good, average, or what?  Or how does this compare to prior years?  I will look forward to reading future findings.  I assume this Channel is in the hatchery area?

[steelie-slayer]

i found a spot in the upper river (main section) right on the side and counted 6 steelhead in spawning colours, also in a big deep calm pool counted many steelhead spawning and rested.this was on the weekend.
also caught 2  chromers and saw sevral more.

[Dave]

Dave, thanks for the report.  I was just wondering if is good, average, or what?  Or how does this compare to prior years?  I will look forward to reading future findings.  I assume this Channel is in the hatchery area?

The channel is in the closed to fishing section of the upper river, opposite the old Centre Creek Juvenile Detention Site, which of course is now under First Nation's jurisdiction. 
Unfortunately there is no historical enumeration data I am aware of, other than my own, to compare this to.  Before today the most I had seen at this, the most primo habitat in the upper river, was 14 and that was the last week in May, 2003.
Today, the majority of fish seemed to be staging; we believe we will see more next count, next week.

[buck]

         
Ken Peters and myself walked Centennial  channel on our third week count of spawning steelhead. Twenty live and 1 dead were observed along with numerous redds. It was felt that there
were more fish in the area but it appears they are spawning on the shallow riffles at night and dropping back into the deeper pools for cover during the day. Most fish were fairly large .
Dave and Sidthedog will do next weeks count.

[Dave]

        
Dave and Sidthedog will do next weeks count.

Yeah, I know it's a long walk for you old farts   Thanks for the update - any thoughts on how the dead fish died?

[buck]

 Dave, fish was a large spawned out male.

[firebird]

Dave, fish was a large spawned out male.

That sounds like Ken Peters  Hey Dave, you may or may not remember me ... Mike Willcox from IPSFC way back in the day - Horsefly in '78 or so. I've worked with provincial environment ministry for last couple of decades. Ken says we provincial people have our heads up our butts when it comes to managing fish  . Whatever, just thought I'd say hi. I've got the steelheading bug back big time this year thanks to healthy returns in some places. I'm sure that has nothing to do with the provincial fisheries though  Good to hear you old farts are out there doing what we should be doing. Cheers

[Dave]

Hey Mike - good to hear from you!  Yeah, I remember a few parties back then at Horsefly 
I don't blame the dedicated provincial people "for not doing their jobs" - hard to do anything when your budgets have been slashed to the bone.

[Dave]

The good news ....  :)Buck and I (no Sidthedog today) counted 32 steelhead and 1 trout this morning on our 4th trip to Centennial Channel this morning.  As Buck reported last week, we suspect this number is low as the fish are very spooky and are possibly holding in deeper water during the day.  All fish again appeared in excellent shape and large - one male looked about 20 lbs. On the way back we spotted 3 steelhead at the 3rd bridge, at the Middle Creek turnoff.

The bad news ...  >:(recently the Chilliwack River Hatchery released its annual batch of steelhead juveniles.  For the second straight year these juveniles were undersized – indeed I’m told these are the smallest juveniles ever released from this facility.  As a general rule, smaller juveniles means poorer survival and increased residualization.  As I understand the issue, DFO is mandated by the Province to produce 80g juveniles in one year.  This is doable if warmer well water is used to augment the cooler river water and if the fish are fed appropriately.
DFO is under major budget constraints and the steelhead program is suffering for it as again this year, to save money the fish were kept on mainly river water and fed app 60% of there optimum ration.
For those that like this steelhead hatchery program, you should be upset that many of these undersized juveniles will become merganser and heron food.  Future hatchery returns will be considerably smaller.
For those that are against this hatchery program, you should be seriously questioning the rationale of removing up to 80 wild fish from this system every year.

[paul1971]

 A real worry for all of us who care deeply about the fishery.

[bigblue]

to save money the fish were kept on mainly river water and fed app 60% of there optimum ration.

Sad to hear that steelhead fry are fed only 60% of optimum ration at the hatchery.
Would DFO take private donations so that they could be fed properly?
A foodbank for starving steelhead fry?

[Dave]

Would DFO take private donations so that they could be fed properly?
A foodbank for starving steelhead fry?

This past fall the Fraser Valley Salmon Society offered to pay the feed bill for chum fry, about $2000, which would have essentially doubled the Chilliwack adult chum production. A middle manager at DFO refused the money but said this year (2011) they will find the money to feed chums.  What isn't said is that would be at the expense of the coho program as I'm told coho production will be reduced by 200k.

Having said that, perhaps the Province is more progressive when it comes to accepting outside financial assistance to help with the steelhead program ... Rodney, Bederko, any thoughts??
My personal feeling is if the program is not going to be managed properly, scrap it and leave what's left of the wild steelhead alone.

[buck]

 Dave
             -- 62085 hits on Vedder River steelhead info and only 12 hits on steelhead counts and smolt release size. Can you say APATHY. Only when fish returns are poor  will the whining start.

[Rodney]

Dave
             -- 62085 hits on Vedder River steelhead info and only 12 hits on steelhead counts and smolt release size. Can you say APATHY. Only when fish returns are poor  will the whining start.

Actually Peter, it's 12 replies to 714 replies.

Having said that, perhaps the Province is more progressive when it comes to accepting outside financial assistance to help with the steelhead program ... Rodney, Bederko, any thoughts??
My personal feeling is if the program is not going to be managed properly, scrap it and leave what's left of the wild steelhead alone.

Dave, FFSBC indeed accepts support from private donors so that's definitely an option to look into. I believe FVSS has donated to FFSBC to cover the cost of some steelhead programs in the past (Stave River clippings)?