02/17/2010

SILETZ TRAP RUN:

Wayde and Bill Sigler made the Wednesday Siletz Falls trap run. The Bohannon trap did not need to be checked so we left about 8:10 am and headed for Siletz. We stopped at the Palmer trap on the way up the gorge. The Palmer trap was taken out of service a few days ago. Most of the water was diverted back to the main stem of Palmer Creek. There were no fish below the trap or the weir. The water temperature was 44 degrees. We continued up river and arrived at the Siletz Falls trap at 10:00 am. We saw fish darting around as soon as we opened the access door.
There were a total of 24 Steelhead in the trap. The water was 43 degrees.
Wild --- 3 male 3 female
Hatchery ---- 11 male 7 female

15 hatchery fish were left in the trap to be taken to food share on Friday.
The wild fish were taken across the river and loaded in the truck at 11:30 am. We took them down to Sunshine Creek (near Buck Creek) and released them.

Next stop was Mill Creek, just upstream from the Logsden store, where we helped a crew of 3 others install a smolt recovery system. This is unique device with a 5 foot diameter baffled cone that turns in the water and deposits the small fish in a live catch tank to be counted, examined, marked, etc. The biologist, Chris, said up to 20,000 Coho smolt travel through this capture point annually. There are 3 other similar traps in the area and it would make a good LVHFC field trip to visit one while in operation. I let the others do all the heavy lifting so my back is still up for another day. We got back in town at 2:43 pm and did not see any wildlife of note.
Wayde