For those fishing the Russian...(more photos!)

Maybe someone could make this a sticky for the next month?

Just wanted to remind everyone fishing the Russian River for steelhead; there are still coho salmon in the system and they ARE adipose clipped.  I work for UC Cooperative Extension monitoring these fish and we just got our first coho of the year on X-mas day.  The creeks have so low that X-mas was the 1st opportunity the coho (or steelhead) have had to enter the streams.  So there is a good chance there are more out there.  There has already been one instance of a steelhead angler keeping a coho salmon because he either didn't check or didn't know the difference.  Please refer to page 73 (the back page) of CDFG's 2008-2009 Freshwater Regulations for ID of Chinook, steelhead and coho:

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/regulations/08-09-inland-fish-regs.pdf

Also here is a link to a flyer we gave sprtfishing shops in the area:

http://groups.ucanr.org/RRCSCBP/files/46124.pdf

Please do not be the 2nd angler to take a coho in the Russian this year!

Thanks for the warning Joe, I came across a school of Big Chinooks stuck below a rapid yesterday, they are sitting Ducks in the low water.
Still waiting for that Steelhead Video you have been promising us for the last 2 seasons???  Not enough rain?

Wouldn't it be smarter to not clip the fins then even guys that mis-ID them would release as Wild Steelhead? A lot of guys are just looking to see if they have a fin or not.

As far as the fin clipping, you are exactly right and I (along with a number of other biologists involved) have been trying to sway CDFG on this for 3 years.  The reason they do it is some sort of blanket rule that everything that comes out of a hatchery has to have an adipose fin clip for the indication of a coded-wire head tag (for commercial fisheries purposes, think AK, CA, OR, WA and Canada).  But what I've explained is that the odds of getting a Russian River coho from our program in commercial fisheries elsewhere are very low compared to someone catching one and mistakenly killing it in the Russian River.  Believe me, with evidence of someone already catching a killing a coho in the Russian this year it will be brought up again.

When the steelhead start running in the creeks I'll try to get a video this year.  The hard part is actually getting enough light for a video.  I'll try to edit some video footage of steelhead jumping a 6 foot waterfall very soon.

thanks Joe.  Sounds like the proverbial accident waiting to happen.

Allen

Thanks for the heads-up Joe.

Here is a link to the same discussion on Coastside: There are some good ID points people fishing North Coast rivers should read and know, also a little
more on what happened with an angler killing a coho on the Russian.

http://www.coastsidefishingclub.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=689785&Main=689492#Post689785

Here are a couple of photos of steelhead from a waterfall on one of our creeks and a coho carcass we found a couple of years ago.  We just hired a seasonal (you might have heard of him - the almighty freedivin' spearo seahunter) who has video editing skills so maybe we can get him to edit our lengthy videos of this waterfall down to all the fish jumping.

Awesome shots Joe now lets go fish

Mike, If you haven't seen this place before, maybe its time for a field trip when the fish come home.

Very cool shots Joe!  Are those only all natives that get back up into that creek?

Awesome shot of the waterfall.  What beauty!!

allen

Joe, how's the return on Austin Creek doing this year?

-Allen

I used to summer at Camp Royaneh, up on a creek off the Russian, I think it was called Cazadero Creek.

My older brothers would point out the big fish below the jumping boulder.  "Those are steelhead"

Anyone ever fish that creek, or remember that camp?


Allen

Most of the fish that do make it up the waterfall are natives, but every year we do see a few hatchery fish make it, probably something along the lines like 95% wild.  But since this creek is a tributary to Dry Creek (although I don't think it necessarily matters with the number of hatchery fish in the system), we do see more like 60% wild in the lower mile of the creek below the waterfall.

We don't survey Austin Creek proper but two creeks in the East Austin Creek drainage are coho broodstock streams, Gilliam and Grey.  Both creeks are very hard to get to in the winter, but we will have the chance to survey Grey on Thursday because of low water conditions.  Every time I do venture out along Austin in February and March, I see redds, carcasses and live fish though.

Great pics and info, Joe - please keep it coming.