Salmon Diving on the Eel - 10/11/14

I'm excited to get started with this season's salmon surveys along the Eel.  Yesterday I dove three holes near Fortuna with Eel River Recovery Project, and we swam with hundreds of big kings, summer steelhead to 30"+, half pounders, a good percentage of jacks, and two big sturgeon!

The Recovery Project is collecting data that has the NMFS saying it's better than any Eel fisheries info produced in recent years, and I'm proud to be helping out with that.  As the rains allow for more fish passage out of the lower river we'll be following them upstream to document spawners, redds, carcasses and other features of the run.  Last year I was the carcass-geek, and the biggest king I troughed was 47"!

I've attached info on the dives here as well as a schedule.  If you're a Humboldt local you should consider coming out to join us for what is a very cool wildlife encounter.  I did manage to contract swimmer's itch from some surface moss, and I'll be more careful about that next time...

Hoping for steady rains in the coming weeks, and I'll report back with more Chinookie.   

 

Wow, can't imagine what an experience that was. Very cool pics, especially the sturgeon. Thanks for sharing.

Keep posting Eric.  It's studies like this  that give us good solid information on the health of our fisheries. 

Thanks for sharing Eric and thanks for doing your part. Awesome.
Only if I was closer.
So, is there enough flow for fish to get up to the VD or Rio Dell now?

Does it piss you off knowing every one of those fish got past you at Shelter Cove?   

J/K...Keep us posted.

I'm glad they got past me, Mike, but I'd love to catch more of them too.   

Marcos - they can get up to RD, but the Duzen is dry again.  It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so they'll get on the move and go further than any of us expect.

I'm hoping to have another encounter like this this year: