STEELIE LOVE MAKING

No bait, but one of the eggs fell on the ground, so my son picked it up and took it home.  Out of curiosity we put the egg in my oldest son's fish tank.  One of his beta shark looking fish ate the egg.  My luck it will probably kill everything in the tank????? ooopppssss.  Dilbeck thanks for info.  It wasn't a stupid question to ask, it was stupid on my part for not asking the DFG guys.  I had the same thoughts?  I have a little video, I just need Mahi to help me do the hole youtube thing.

KB

Do all of the wild fish spawn on the Russian below Mendo?  Is there any activity above the lake?  And if so, are they using a ladder with the lake being so low.

I know Sean has posted underwater fish videos before but I don't remember them being of Mendo.

Man I got into the wrong field.  This stuff if fascinating.

Michael

Wild and hatchery fish spawn below and above the hatchery. The ones that spawn above the hatchery bypass the water that is released from the lake and head up the Russian River towards Willits. Sean will correct me I'm sure, but I believe most of the "wild" steelhead in the river are ancestors of the hatchery fish that chose not to return to the hatchery, or were not milked at the hatchery.

CHEERS!

Andy any idea who the guy in the red hat in the first shot is?

One of the creeks we work on is a tributary of Dry Creek.  As an example, we captured about 30 down-run adult steelhead in our downstream migrant traps from March through June.  About 5 of them were adipose clipped indicating their hatchery origin (as smolts).  The other 25 are considered wild based on the adipose fin being there.  As for how many hatchery fish run up other creeks, I think its pretty random.  Just because a creek is near a hatchery doesn't necessarily mean it will have a large proportion of hatchery fish.

I'll start posting spawning information and pictures on local Russian River creeks if people are interested.  I am currently taking a lot of video of steelhead trying to jump up a 6 foot waterfall, I'll post it at the end of the season when I have time to compile it.

That would be the all mighty NORM.  I think he volunteers with DFG, and the CSBA.  He is always at lake mendo.

Bluefin, I have often wondered if you or any of the hatcheries need volunteers.  Not that I need any court ordered community service, but I figured since I take some fish from the river system, maybe I can help put them back in.

Andy,
I'll definitely let you know if we need help.  I'll also let you know when we start seeing the steelhead spawn.

we captured about 30 down-run adult steelhead in our downstream

Joe if you trapped 30 what was the estimation of how many spawned in the creek?

I'll definitely let you know if we need help.  I'll also let you know when we start seeing the steelhead spawn.

me too

The ones that spawn above the hatchery bypass the water that is released from the lake and head up the Russian River towards Willits.

Dan, please excuse my ignorance as the only time I've been in the area was during BAMIII, but how do they bypass the water released from the lake.  I guess I thought they'd have to go through the lake to get to the upper section.

Maybe I just need to bust out a map.

Michael

they go up another fork of the river.  They do not go through lake mendo.  They take the fork to the left and up to Tomki Creek. i believe.

Good stuff right there!

they go up another fork of the river.  They do not go through lake mendo.  They take the fork to the left and up to Tomki Creek. i believe.

Thanks KB, for some odd reason I thought it forked above the lake and not below.  That solves a lot of my confusion.

Michael

Mike,
We saw 30 adults (down-run) in the downstream migrant trap.  Also we observed about 15 more steelhead in a large pool above our DSMT that we didn't trap because we took our trap out for a day because of high flow and they weren't there the next day, presumably making it out of the system. We saw 32 steelhead redds during spawning surveys along with 23 live steelhead (which could be some of the same fish that we ended up counting in with the 30 from the DSMT) from Mill creek and two tributaries Felta and Palmer.  We did not do spawner surveys on two other tributaires, Wallace or Angel creeks because of access issues. 

So I would estimate the steelhead run last year (2006-07) in the Mill Creek system (including four tributaries) to be about 45-60 fish making 35-45 redds.  I haven't finished all the data for this though and will let everyone know when the annual report is out.  Our other two annual reports are out on our website along with a coho flyer that I'll make a separate post about.

http://groups.ucanr.org/RRCSCBP/

Sorry about the thread jack Andy.

Thanks Joe        I remember when I was a kid my Grandpa took me to a small waterfall I think it was at the confluence of DC and MC  and half the town would turn out to watch the Steelies jump it, it was like a big tailgate party. We used to catch a few adults when those creeks opened up during Trout season pretty good fight on a 4/5 wt Flyrod.