American River Steelhead Salvaged/Salmon Spawning to Begin Tuesday, Nov. 3rd.

[STEELIES/26c3]

Just a couple of heads ups...

Thanks to the Feather River Hatchery which nursed much of this year's AR steelhead fry (when the Nimbus Hatchery water chillers failed...) truckloads of healthy juvenile steelies were transported back to the races (outdoor holding pens) at the Nimbus Hatchery and should at least make it till February if not March to be released to the river.

The ladder at Nimbus Hatchery will open on Monday, November 2nd at 9:30 am and the first day for egg-taking will be Tuesday November 3rd, at 8 am.

<))))><

[hwchubb]

Has the river cooled enough, or is it just getting that late in the year? Thought the water temps needed to be below 60 for them to start taking them in?

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

According to my FishHead app on my cell phone the Lower American River @ Fair Oaks is running 481 cfs and is 64.6 degrees.

I guess they got their water chillers fixed too?

[winxp_man]

So the gates open but not much fish from what I'm hearing and seen in the river.... We will see as weather continues to cool down...

[STEELIES/26c3]

There's a lot of salmon in the river.

NO, not nearly what there should be... but thousands for sure.

The ladder will open.

The chillers will allow spawning to take place.

Chillers cannot keep the water in the pens cold enough due to the high volume of water... That is why for the last 3 seasons, fry/smolts have been prematurely released into the river and as was the case for this year's steelhead, were sent to the Feather River Hatchery... but the incubation trays are relatively small and the chillers are ample to keep them cool enough until the eggs become alevin and the alevin become fry. By that time, the river water temps will be in the low 50's so the fish can be transferred to the holding pens and the chillers will no longer be necessary.

The steelies that came back from Feather are old enough to tolerate the current, mid-60's temps in the holding pens.

To successfully spawn in the river, kings prefer 52 degrees but can tolerate 56.

Right now the water in the river, near the Nimbus Hatchery is around 63-degrees but that doesn't matter as the eggs and milt collected and mixed will be placed in the chiller-cooled incubation trays where they will remain until they go to the nursery and then outside to the races (pens).

[SeanO]

STEELIES/26c3,

Thanks for the intel!

Your passion for that river comes through.

Best,

[winxp_man]

Well I hope enough to harvest some row for the 4 years from now generation :)

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I have spent thousands of mornings and evenings on the Lower American River because I worked in sporting goods stores and fly shops for over 50 years in that area just north of the river. On the way to work or on the way home I would stop for a few hours of relaxing angling.

Then about 20 years ago I was able to float the river in a Jon boat with Andy Guibord which was another completely new experience. In the good old days very few people floated the river for fly fishing. We always had rafting and even a canoe rental. In some stretches of the river folks would troll for salmon in small aluminum outboard skiff. Drift boats are a fairly new thing on the river. 30 years ago there were no fly fishing guides on the river.

We are so lucky to have our river........

.