Eel Spawner Show & Tell w/ video

Two NCKA non-fishing hookups in a row for me in 24 hours!  Yesterday I met up with FishinMike from Oakland and his wife, Kristin as they're in town visiting some Humboldt friends.  We had time for a late afternoon jaunt along a small tributary of a creek near Arcata looking for an early Coho as this little trib clears quickly and has a nice little run that's relatively easy to observe in the creek.  We didn't see any fish, but we had a great visit.

Today it was myself and one of our newest members, Domenic, who, so ironically, has an X-Factor, has been going fishing almost a year by himself at Shelter Cove, Trinidad and all over the Mouth of the Eel, and we live less than a 1/4 mile from one another in little ol' Loleta - population 1000!  We met up a couple of months ago and are enjoying partnering up for the Madness whenever possible.  This morning's destination was a killer old growth creek on the South Fork of the Eel to see if we could document some spawning activity.  We crossed the muddy South Fork in the tandem, testing first to see that we could paddle upstream against all but the worst areas of current before we committed to cruising the few hundred yards downstream to the mouth of our target stream.  We landed at the mouth of one of the most beautiful creeks anywhere and stowed the yak, paddles and pfd's way up on the bank.  I then proceeded with my obligatory speech about where and when to set foot in the creek that we'd be hiking up, but Domenic grew up around here too and has a great knowledge and respect for the land and resources - that is greatly appreciated and is so consistent with all of my other NCKA hookups.  This is a slightly larger creek than I usually hang out on, and the gravel bars are relatively easy to traverse - there are however dozens of huge old growth redwoods that fall in piles like some gargantuan game of Pick-up Sticks across the small stream canyon and create interesting obstacles to traverse as we scan the riffles, pools and tail-outs for fish, redds or carcasses.  I have never seen a fish on the lowest couple hundred yards of this stream, but Domenic spotted one right off the bat today - a nice king in the 15-20# class with the typical yellowing back, fins and tail of a nearly spawned-out fish.  She was hanging in her redd alone, and as we hiked further I really hoped it wouldn't be the only fish we'd see.

We ended up finding one meatless carcass that measured 37" and saw 5 or 6 more fish, mostly in one spot with the big one being a huge one of around 35 pounds or more.  I got quite a bit of video of the big one and smaller ones around it, but no still shot.  I'll try to get a little highlights video produced this evening so I can share the shots of the big girl (we figured it for a female with smaller males around her that seemed to be competing for her affection...).

The paddle back up river felt great and we Roleezed back to the truck for a brew before getting home to the wives and kids.  We're determined to fish soon too, but today's activities were top-notch nature appreciation therapy, and later fishing is all the better because of it.   

Thanks for the hookup, Domenic. 

Here's a little video: 

Magnificent photos, great write-up. You should organize a trip to go see some redds (OK maybe not your most secret spot but let's see some coho spawning.)  I checked it out in Lagunitas Creek last winter.  A must-see for Bay Area salmon lovers.  My buddy and I thought about the reception we would get if we walked up to join the protective crowd of gawkers holding our 7-weight fly rods!  (Ouch! Just kidding).  A magical experience...

Pete 

Beautiful creek. Thanks for sharing.

The video is fantastic!

Eric,
As always sweet report of spawner watching.  I'm deeply entrenched with coordinating spawner surveys on 7 creeks right now and honestly I can't get enough seeing redds, carcasses, fish and the creeks themselves.  Something not everyone gets to see.  The weather sucks, its too cold, its late, its early, when are we going to see something, are we going to see something...then maybe its not for you.  Keep these reports coming.  We always had good luck with the smaller Humboldt bay tribs. around mid January, sometimes you could see them from your car!  I'll start posting pics when they really start coming in.

Sweet pics Abby...looks like a fun day.

Magical....thanks for sharing. Great photos!

Thanks for the pictures Abking, makes me long for the north cost.

I love that country.  Great pictures!  It makes me really miss the coast.  Maybe one day I can talk the misses into letting me transfer over to Eureka.  As always, the video is great Abking!

ERic, as usual nothing short of amazing. Papermill creek in Marin has similar looking spots. The creek that comes out of Kent lake has a spawning run thats just awesome to watch.New friends and new beginnings for 09!

It is sad to see only 3 fish up there.  Hopefully they spawned ok.

OMG...an actual fish porn video!   

Beautiful and enlightening as always.  Thanks for sharing.

HobieBlue

Thanks, Guys.  There are few activities that rank up there with kayak fishing, and this is one of them for me.   

It is sad to see only 3 fish up there.  Hopefully they spawned ok.

This is a good observation, Troy.  (we did see 6 live fish though)  Some good news:  the number of unattended redds we saw indicates that a good number of additional fish did spawn on this creek - they're rotted and washed out/eaten by local critters.  Not so good news:  I've never seen many fish on this creek even though it flows out of nearly all old growth forest.  I know there used to be many more fish competing for these spawning areas (and there were plenty of good areas where there was no sign of spawning), but it seems that it's a precarious balance even on this and other old growth creeks that you'd think would be teaming with fish.  I do hope for the day when I'll see dozens if not hundreds of fish in a creek like this, but I really don't know if it's realistic.  Hope.   

I have seen dozens (on just a few occassions) of spawning fish on a smaller creek than this, and it's surprising how many fish only come in when it's very high and turbulent/muddy.  I know there's always more activity going on than I can see, and that's a big reason for being hyper-vigilant about where to step etc...

Great vid Abbie. Beautiful country you got in your backyard. But on the next edit, when the fish spawn you need that BOOM CHIKA WAAW WAAAW music!

Z

Blimey, how did I miss this? Great stuff!

SWEET VID. and hope for the future up there. here and everywhere for that matter.....Thanks for opening the door and educating people, like myself, on this phenomenon of nature.
love that Horse with no name song!...and I'm waiting for that dessert to turn to sea too.....*LEARNtoSWIM!