A Beautiful Sight

[Tony Buzolich]

Yesterday I took my wife to Oroville for a late lunch/ early dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant Tong Fong Lo's. Along the way we stopped off at the Oroville hatchery to see if any salmon where stacking up at the dam yet.

As we walked over to the lookout area the first thing I noticed was the incredible amount of water flowing over the dam. Usually there is a good flow to keep the river moving but this is WAY above normal.

What a sight it was to see. Hundreds ? maybe thousands, of beautiful fresh salmon already here. Stopped by the dam and not yet ready to spawn these fish begin to pile up here. Still fresh in color and not marked and beat up they jump toward the raging water coming over the dam.

It won't be long and the hatchery will open it's gates and the salmon will find their way up the raceway to the holding ponds. By then most of the salmon have gotten dark and lots have wounds and blotches on them but still they move upstream to their final destination. I hope this is a good year for their return.

We didn't stop to look at the water coming out at Thermolito but it is usually really flowing here and the salmon pile up looking for another route upstream. With all of the massive amounts of water coming over the diversion dam at the hatchery, I was wondering if maybe a lot more of the salmon shoot straight upstream instead of waiting at the outlet?

I was also wondering how long they are going to keep this extra flow of water going? If they slow it down in another month or so the river will be full of dead and dying salmon trying to spawn in warm lake water, and those that have already spawned will leave eggs in the gravel that will also die from the warm water.

Hopefully things will work out okay and we'll have a good season at the hatchery and maybe a few more fish back in the river for next year. But for now, it's a great sight to see all these fresh fish.
Tony

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Sounds good Tony....

Heard the ocean fishing around Bodego Bay has been really good this summer for salmon.

I think the Feather River has the biggest run of salmon in California.

I also think it has the state record salmon at 85 pounds some years ago.

Our run on the American River trickles in all summer but does not really get going until October.

It is always fun to go to the Nimbus Fish Hatcher in the fall and see all the salmon.

.

[DAVID95670]

what a sight it was to see. Hundreds ? Maybe thousands, of beautiful fresh salmon already here. Stopped by the dam and not yet ready to spawn these fish begin to pile up here. Still fresh in color and not marked and beat up they jump toward the raging water coming over the dam.





game on!!~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[STEELIES/26c3]

There were 16,000 spring Chinook at the hatchery way back in June of this year.

Unfortunately, Oroville, like all of the major CA reservoirs is at WAY BELOW average capacity for this time of year.

To answer your question Tony... yes the current, high flows draws fish by the thousands away from Thermalito and into the low flow and to the hatchery.

Many long time salmon anglers who used to catch (mostly line) 10-30 fish a day at Thermalito are now lucky to even hook one or two. And as you know, the low flow is off limits so the fish are not being harvested from that entire stretch.

The good news is that there will be a surplus of unmolested salmon this year.

The sad news is that many spring and fall run fish which spawn naturally on the Feather, and to a lesser extent on the American River... will most likely spawn in redds which will be de-watered in the late fall/early winter.

I hate to be a pessimist but look at the reservoirs capacities (most are way under their historic average levels). Oroville is at 58% full and it is usually at 80% full on August 7 for example.

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/resapp/getResGraphsMain.action

People talk about rain and that is a joke as rain doesn't fill reservoirs, melted snow does.

Oh precious water........................................

[shawn kempkes]

I disagree what a sad sight. We have been reduced to seeing Salmon like zoo animals in a hatchery. I wish NOAA would grow some Balls and make them build fish passage on all the dams on feather and Sac.

[Darian]

Wishful thinking.... :confused: Unfortunately, there's little political will to make funding available to make construction of fish ladders, etc., happen. Also, for a lot of reasons, there doesn't seem to be any real move towards anything but increasing storage capacity (new reservoirs, water banking, etc.) in California. :(

Still, seeing Salmon in the river, natural or not, is better than seeing none at all.... :)

[Ryan]

Weather there is a hatchery on the river or not... I think seeing clean salmon in the river (in good numbers) is a positive thing. I've been fishing the river here and there lately and those salmon have started coming in good numbers quite some time ago. I agree with Tony on it being a beautiful sight. Good salmon numbers will mean good steelhead numbers hopefully. Hatchery politics aside, I'm happy to see the clean salmon in the river, especially considering the drought we're in and the warmer water temps all over the state.

[shawn kempkes]

Wishful thinking.... :confused: Unfortunately, there's little political will to make funding available to make construction of fish ladders, etc., happen. Also, for a lot of reasons, there doesn't seem to be any real move towards anything but increasing storage capacity (new reservoirs, water banking, etc.) in California. :(

Still, seeing Salmon in the river, natural or not, is better than seeing none at all.... :)


Isn't it funny that there is money to pay for whitewater parks but not fish passage when a dam is reliscenced.http://www.orovillemr.com/rss/ci_21100366?source=rss

[Darian]

In CA it seems inexplicable how we determine what we'll pay for at times. Many times the projects chosen for financial support appear to have cross purposes. Oh well.... That subject would make for a separate discussion. :cool: