Wednesday, November 19, 2008

11/17/08

SCHOONER CREEK FISH TRAP:

This in from Frank Stout............The work party for Schooner Creek is still on for tomorrow (Tuesday).
A special THANK YOU to Mike Samples for his work in making the trap operational after the big flood last week.

Hank, Butch, Brian and I went up to the Schooner Creek trap today. You could tell that Mike Samples did a lot of work because it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought that it would be. There was quite a build up of sand in both chambers of the trap. The water inside the trap was only about ankle deep so I was surprised to discover a wild coho male. He was pretty red with a well pronounced hook. He must have liked the trap because as soon as Brian released him upstream he made a U turn and swam right back down into the upper chamber of the trap. Brian had a fun time trying to net him by reaching through the upper bars. Brian was successful and he finally decided to head on upstream. Hank and Butch were able to install a new cable on the upper winch. ODFW has provided new locks and they did have some difficulty in getting the new padlock to fit through the hole of the metal rod securing the trap top lid but they got it to work.
The water level has dropped quite a bit but still a little brisk at mid stream. We placed a ladder in the stream and with someone holding the ladder steady from up on top of the bridge I don't think there will be any problem for tomorrow.
Take care, Frank

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