01/21/09

SCHOONER CREEK FISH TRAP:

Greetings everyone,

Schooner Creek trap looks fantastic with good water flow and no silt. Great job ODFW. No fish today but none the less, it was a nice day at the trap.

I am putting out a call for assistance for the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately I will be out of town on a vacation, and Caribbean cruise for a couple of weeks. Just trying to take one for the team. There was a business card at the shed in the clipboard for Mike Poley. I don't know when he put it there, but I just saw it today. Mike is local resident of Lincoln City and used to work the trap on a regular basis. In fact he was involved for approx. 15 years. I know Mike and have for a number of yeas. He has a desire to volunteer once again. This might be a good time to contact him and ask for his help. Additionally, he has others who would like to volunteer with him. I would at least like to ask for his help one day a week then I can still go one day a week. I will leave the decision up to James and Casey. If this is something you would like to pursue let me know and I will call Mike or give you his number. I would like to take Wednesdays if he will take Fridays.

Mike

01/16/09

SILETZ FISH TRAP:

This was in from Hank Bryson on Friday.........................................


Today John Spangler, myself and Casey went to Palmer Creek to check the trap and flow of water because of previous Beaver dam problems, no fish in the trap because the Siletz is low enough that the fish are not leaving the big river. Then we went on to the Siletz trap which had four Steelhead, all nice fish, one was a hatchery fish the rest were marked and sent back down the fish ladder. Casey was holding another eight Steelhead, four female and four males to be used for brood stock which he transported to the Alsea Hatchery. We saw two deer on the return trip and kept warm as long as we were in the sun, the frost was everywhere else. Was a nice day and good company made it all worthwhile.
Hank

01/19/09

SCHOONER CREEK FISH TRAP:

This in from Frank Stout....................

Hank Bryson and I worked the Schooner Creek Trap this morning and it looked better than I've seen it in a long time. James Ray and crew really did a good job last Friday. There were no fish but the trap was clean and running clear. There was no debris in the upper gate and only a few inches of gravel built up on the concrete floor of the trap. We cleaned the trap down to concrete. There is still some buildup of gravel at the turns of the ladder but not bad enough to cause any problems for the fish to swimming up. . Frank

01/12/09

SCHOONER CREEK FISH TRAP:

SCHOONER CREEK FISH TRAP REPORT ( 12 January 2009 ) (Team Chinook ><>

WE HAVE A PROBLEM HOUSTON !!!!!!!!!! ( SCHOONER FISH TRAP IS OUT OF COMMISSION )

When we arrived, we did not find any fish in the Trap >><<>>>>>>>>>

There was very minimal flow from the creek onto the Trap Head Gate. It was packed solid, with about 5 feet of silt & debris. This condition was level all of the way out the front of the Trap & into the creek. The bottom of the Trap contained about 18 inches of Silt with a very limited water flow of 6 to 8 inches. We were able to open the Tail Gate of the Trap & Bill went under & down the Fish Ladder. He found Heavy Gravel/Silt build-up at all of the Angel Changes in the Ladder, making it virtually impossible, with the severely restricted water flow & build up, for any possible up stream movement of fish.

We worked for about 2 hours ><>

The Present Condition of the Trap is that >>Upon our departure<<>

JCS for Team Chinook Members

From: James Ray [mailto:James.Ray@state.or.us]
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 4:05 PM
To: John Spangler
Subject: RE: SCHOONER CREEK TRAP REPORT (12 JAN. 09)

John,

Thanks for the report. Obviously this is not good. I need to speak with Casey about when our soonest response can be. I'll be in touch.

James

01/09/09

SCHOONER CREEK FISH TRAP:

Good afternoon,

I just returned from Schooner Creek. Both the Schooner Creek Road and the road to the trap are clear (no slides, and no downed trees or debris in either road). No fish today because the trap was again silted in pretty bad. I cleaned quite a bit of silt and gravel out and once again we have a good flow about two feet deep. If the creek has peaked we may have good flow for a couple of days. I will go back up to the creek either Saturday when I return or Sunday morning. Have a good weekend as I will be out of town.

Mike

01/07/09

SCHOONER CREEK FISH TRAP:

Good afternoon everyone,

I just returned from Schooner Creek. Three fish in the trap. All three were wild male Coho. Two of the fish were in good shape but it is doubtful the third will survive. The water is on the rise and it looks like it will be for the next day or two. I worked on the trap for a little while and we currently have over 24" of depth in the trap with pretty clean silt free flow at this point. I will go back to the trap on Thursday to check again (I am out of town on Friday) and again on Saturday. Schooner Creek Road is clear all the way to the gate and from the gate to the trap. I have been walking in for the past couple of years so I try to remove any limbs or rocks from the road on the way up. See you in the morning for breakfast.

Mike

01.05.09

SCHOONER CREEK FISH TRAP:

This in from Wayde Dudley......................

Wayde, Barb, Lee and Candy (Lee's wife) visited the trap on Monday. Cool with a few showers. I put lube in the gate lock and the trap lock. There were no fish in the trap. The water was a little high with a foot of water in the trap. The water was high enough to make it difficult to clean the debris from the front grate but we did some. We left with 18" of water flowing in the trap. The water was a little dark but not bad. I would expect fish there later this week. Frank left me a phone message saying that a pick or polaski type tool was needed to be able to raise the front gate. Good idea as we could not get it up. Will take something next time. As always, it was a nice drive. The roads were fine. No trees or slides.

Wayde

01/04/08

SCHOONER CREEK TRAP:
Good afternoon,

I just returned from Schooner creek a few minutes ago. The slide I mentioned in my last report which was just below the road to the trap has been cleared. There are no impediments to travel either up Schooner Creek Road or on the road to the trap.

No fish in the trap either yesterday or today. I removed another foot or so of silt and gravel but still unable to raise the upper gate. The flow is good today but as the stream continues to drop it will require more silt removal. Most of the sand bags are gone but I was able to snag a couple from the middle of the creek and place them by the entrance to the trap to divert more water into the trap. This will work for today but by tomorrow they may have outlived their usefulness. Hope you have a good trip tomorrow.

Thanks for the thoughts about sending someone with me Wayne. Because I live so close to the creek it is always easy for me to jump in the truck and go check the trap. However, the next time we have extremely high water or a major wind storm I may call and see if someone would be available to go with me. Thanks again.

Mike

01/02/08

SCHOONER CREEK FISH TRAP:

This in from Mike Samples...................Note to Mike: Be sure to let us know if the trap needs attention. We could round up some help if you need it.


Good morning,

I apologize for not providing a report for a few days but my internet has been down and I am just now getting service again. I was unable to access the trap on Wednesday this week due to some other priorities that came up.

Schooner Creek road is passable with three small slides in the road. Only one of the slides makes passing a little dicey. However, I was able to get up to the trap road with very little problems. By Monday the slides should be cleaned up and the road clear.The road up to the trap is very good. I cleared out some limbs and at this point there is nothing to hinder access.

When I arrived at the trap I found it completely silted in with only about 1" of water in the trap. There were no fish. The water was above my head in the upper chamber (a little creepy). I was able to break quite a bit of the debris loose and dropped the water about 2 feet. When I left there was good flow through the trap and down the ladder. I am going back up this morning and on Sunday morning to do more work on it. I expect to see some fish today. I will send an email on Sunday just to give everyone an update and let the Monday team know what to expect.

Mike

01/02/08

PALMER AND BOHANAN FISH TRAP (SILETZ):

This in from Hank Bryson............If you would like to go with him next Friday, give him a call............

Howdy:
We left a 8:00 AM for the Palmer Creek Trap, We being Casey and Bill who has been helping Casey this winter on various projects and myself. The road into Palmer Creek is passable, barely, because of road slides and lots of water coming off the mountain and found the water backed up behind the trap which allowed us to get into the trap and pull out one female Coho and four hatchery Steelhead, the weir was still up on the creek except for one corner which was cleaned along with the trap. The Siletz river was dropping and Casey expects to see a good amount of fish with the lower flow of water, the steelhead were very bright fish with one having a green back like right out of the ocean.

Next stop was Bohanan which had a lot of fish, 22 Coho, 16 Males and 6 Females. Steelhead was one Jack and two hatchery fish. We spent some time cleaning out the silt and debris in and on top of the trap. The fish ladder was active while we were there, we could see them climbing for the trap and again Casey expects a lot more fish as the water drops.

The Siletz was over flood stage so we did not get to that trap.

Hank