Buck, Emmathedog, and I made our first trip of the season into the upper Chilliwack River this morning to count early run steelhead. This is the 7th year we have done this and as always, we start with the caveat that this not meant to be a population estimate … we simply count fish at the same 3 sites at the approximate same date each year in the hopes of determining trends and spawning times. Along with the numbers we report, we add what we think are relevant observations.
First stop was Chilliwack Lake, still winter there; snow in the bush and shaded areas and no greenery at all. Amazing how 2000’ in elevation can make such a difference in plant growth. It was pouring rain and of course the Park gate was locked so we had to walk the 5 or so km (round trip) to the outlet. As like last year, this was a non issue for our 3rd crew member, but for Pete and I .…
It was pouring rain and as expected, the holding/staging area below the bridge across the river offered very poor visibility. Pete was finally able to see one fish. The new gravel at the outlet, partially funded by the Wally Hall Jr steelhead derby, was very easy to see and, we saw nothing. For some perspective on fish observed on past approximate dates; 2014 – 1, staging; 2015 -2, staging; 2016 – 7, staging.
On to Centennial Channel .. we were surprised how low the water level was in this, the biggest/most productive off channel habitat in the upper Chilliwack River. As usual, the only fish we saw (and conditions were such we believe we saw all that was there), were in the upper 1/3 of the channel. There we found a pair, apparently quite happy. The female was about 10 lbs, the male, a rainbow trout, about 2 lbs. Gotta think he was quite proud of himself!
No gravel disturbances were seen, indicating no spawning before this date. We have not seen any fish on this approximate date in the past six years, making this pairing the earliest we have observed. This is not the first time we have seen trout and steelhead paired up, and one wonders if it is simply a matter of fewer early run steelhead able to find mates, or opportunism by this trout. Whatever, pretty sure this will turn out with eggs in the gravel. DFO has been asked to increase water flows and we expect to see more water in this channel next week. Water temperature was 5° C
Last stop as usual was the Middle Creek Bridge, a site with holding/staging water and thanks to DFO”s Habitat Restoration Unit, a substantial gravel augmentation area. Here we saw 4 fish staging, none on the gravel. In 2015 at this site, on this approximate date, we saw 5 staging; in 2016 we saw 3, again staging/holding.
We think the next 2-4 weeks will give us a better idea of how these 3 sites correlate numbers of wild fish to the past 6 years; we all know hatchery returns this season were far below normal returns so it will be interesting to see if wild numbers are also less.