Stream Keepers April 2014-03-30
April is upon us, cherry and plums trees
flowering everywhere you look, buds on the trees and fish emerging from the
substrate. Soon all the Wild Chum fry will be gone from the streams and the
young wild Coho will be occupying the pools. Chums become free swimmers very
quick and once this takes place off they go to sea going on their great trek
around the north Pacific having the largest range of all the Salmon species.
According to records the largest Chum caught was in Edie Pass BC weighing in at
42 pounds and 44 inches long, now that is one big Chum. I have caught many in
the 10 to 20 pound range and believe me when you get a Chum on a light rod and
reel you have a good fight on to land the fish. If in the river you have no
chance if they decide to head down stream at a alarming rate of speed peeling
off your line until it breaks or if strong enough line the fish becomes
exhausted and then you can muscle them to shore so I can only imagine hooking
into a 42 pounder. One of the longest migrations back to the spawning grounds
takes place on the Yukon River, Mackenzie River and on the Amur River in Asia a
true marathon swimmer by any standard. Last week we placed our smolts’ counting
fence and box at Swan Lake to catch any early outgoing Coho. With the box in
place we will visit it twice a week until the main out migration begins in
earnest then every day to count and empty the box.
This last week we have had some torrential downpours that
have brought high levels of flow to all our streams and being a warm rain it
seems to be melting any snow still laying in the upper watersheds contributing
to flows.
From February to May is the spawning time
for Sea Run Cutthroat Trout often the unseen visitor to our streams. Wandering
into and out of the streams all year and sometimes to over winter within the
stream. The young can spend up to 3 years in the stream before heading out to
sea living for about 10 years if they can survive being over fished and habitat
loss due to urban planning placing many of there traditional small streams
within storm drains.
Lantzville had a very productive Cutthroat
trout stream, Slogar Brook flowing from Negrins farm down through the Kennel
property over Leyland Rd and Peterson, Sebastion roads finally flowing down the
beach into the Salish Sea. I doubt if many even spawn there any more, though
ever the optimist I expect there are some sneak in and spawn. There are some
resident trout and hopefully some will return to the sea as sea run. One local
who lives at the creek told of his son catching them on a regular basis and a
long time resident who used to live on the creek tells of listening to them at
night making there way upstream splashing along from pool to pool. Bloods Creek
has a good run and so does Knarston sometimes they can be confused with a late
run of Coho but chances are they are Cutthroat often seen in February heading
up to spawn.
This is a important time to be aware of
what you allow to enter the watershed via your septic tank, roadside ditch and
now the sewer which you may get the false sense of “Oh its okay we now have a
sewer so I can dump anything down the drain or toilet but and this is a big but
you must remember that all sewers lead to the Ocean as we still have this idea
that dumping sewage into the sea is out of sight out of mind. Our sewer system
flows to Hammond Bay Road pumping station and treatment facility where it
receives minimal treatment [chlorine injection and sedimentation] before being
pumped out to sea. If it was just human waste the ocean can easily break that
down but with modern living we tend to use all kinds of chemicals usually not
even knowing what they are hidden behind that appealing label or slick TV ad.
Even medical waste from medication [birth control pills] has been attributed to
gender bending among resident river fish where sewer is dumped into rivers.
Live smart and think about the bigger picture because we are the only animals
on the planet who have the arrogance and ability to effect often to there
detriment all other life as we know it on this planet we call Earth as it takes
its ever spinning journey through the universe.
No comments:
Post a Comment