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[Dave]

Hey bravo252 - thanks for the info.  How many of the ten Rocky Mountain Whitefish (RMW) you hooked were in the Vedder?  You were fishing for chinooks and caught whitefish; may I ask your lure or bait?
I am a big fan of RMW; love fishing them and want to learn more of their life history.   Greybark, Buck, Lew, and others, thanks for your comments.  I suspect the decline of RMW in the Chilliwack - Vedder is a combination of all the mentioned problems, but the fact the upper river is virtually immune to sedimentation and major high water events
makes me think there is something else happening here.   Just a few more comments:

I have worked on/fished an interior river nearly every fall for about 35 years - this river is absolutely loaded with RMW and I have caught many at an estimated 3 lbs;  measured 20". The largest always are a bronze colour, larger scaled and have a very noticeable hump at the base of the neck, just behind the gills, a feature I have attributed to old age (but have no data to defend).

Once, while crossing a bridge over this river, looking for sockeye, I was fortunate to observe a huge pod of RMW .... this group of fish, at least two layers ( perhaps more) deep covered an area of an estimated 500 square feet ... at least several hundred fish, more likely thousands .    Another time, on Elkin Creek, deep in Chilcotin, another pod was observed again near a bridge.   In this group there were probably 100 RMW and, in the middle was a very conspicuous individual  fish because it was a deep yellow colour ... same size, same traits as the others but stuck out big time due to its colour.

Rocky Mountain Whitefish, along with the invertebrates they depend on may well be the canary for our rivers; I fear we have may have lost that diversity on the Vedder




    

 

[Every Day]

Have you ever wondered that it may have alot to do with the extreme LOW water events we have been experiencing lately. I remember a few times in the last 4 year since I started fishing where tailouts were only inches deep and the water warms up very quickly.

A few years ago during the low water period and warm water I saw something that very much bothered me. Over the span of 2 weeks of the sun we were having I caught at least a dozen or so fish with large white blisters ALL over them, almost like you would see on a rotting fish, but parts of the fish were still bullet chrome, one of them even had sea lice still. I am wondering if these were burns from the sun coming through tailouts or just sitting in lower water that got too warm. I also observed these "blisters" on a bull trout and a residualized smolt.

I also caught a very large RMW on the Vedder last year - mid river on a colorado during Steelhead season... here are some pics from my cell phone. I too, noticed a bonzish colour on this one although it turned out pretty silver in the pics.

[jeff]

I have also caught white fish while fishing for reds in the summer on the vedder.

[bravo252]

Hey bravo252 - thanks for the info.  How many of the ten Rocky Mountain Whitefish (RMW) you hooked were in the Vedder?  You were fishing for chinooks and caught whitefish; may I ask your lure or bait?

I remember I hooked them around 7-8 on Vedder, and the bait was mostly salmon roe and blade.
This year I will try for them with 3wt fly!!!!


Cheers~!!

Bravo~

[Dave]

Hey ED - nice Pikeminnow!  I hope you can post some photos if you catch any more fish with "blisters".
Your theory of warm water being the culprit got me looking at some water temperature data I collected over the years.  Although my Chilliwack-Vedder data is limited (3 years) the warmest I recorded was 19.5°( Lickman Road area).  This temperature is stressfull for salmonids, especially over time.  In this case it was for one day, but the potential is there for compromising summer sockeye stocks, especially early Cultus sockeye which are in the Vedder in July.
The interior river loaded with RMW I mentioned, during low flow, regularly reaches 22° - 24°, and this often over extended periods of time.  This data set is much larger - close to 50 years.
So, although I don't think warming water caused the demise of Vedder whitefish, I do think it's possible the huge mass of fish I observed in that river were attracted to cooler, upwelling water.  I cannot think of another reason so many fish were in one spot.

[Every Day]

Is that a pikeminnow (I just realize now that I said pikeminnow, meant whitefish lol)?
Sure didnt look like it when I brought it in.... Way more silver than I've ever seen any pikeminnow hmmm....
Now that I look at the mouth though it does look more pointing forward than a whitefish would be.
Just looked it up, compared pics, def a RMW and not a pikeminnow, noticed the "hook" on the mouth.

The year I saw the fish with blisters was 2 years ago.
I have only ever seen this one other time since then, but it was also during summer on a spring.
It seemed to mostly be on the bigger fish, hence why I was wondering if they maybe got stuck in tailouts or got burned coming up with their backs in the sun?
Would be interesting to do a study on how water temps affect whitefish and salmon/trout species... maybe make it an experiment while I am in university 

When were your water temps taken on the Vedder?
Like I said I have only been fishing 4 years, would be intersting to compare data if I were to take temps this year.
I like your theory also of the schooling whitefish, does any one know if they are normally a schooling fish?

Here's a link to provide some info on water temps they like and how they spawn :
http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.flyfishusa.com/newsletter/062903/whitey.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flyfishusa.com/newsletter/062903/&usg=__NA6kDalI-9q9I0-6Hj1przLbjbs=&h=127&w=252&sz=9&hl=en&start=63&tbnid=4wAXZmPk23pN-M:&tbnh=56&tbnw=111&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drocky%2Bmountain%2Bwhitefish%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D54

[Dave]

Thankyou Everyday for the excellent link.   The lower Vedder River temperatures I mentioned were collected 04/24/99 to 12/01/01, using a pre-programmed Vemco data logger; the 19.5° day was Aug 13/01.  Obviously water temperatures could have been higher since then.
Upper river temperatures are always colder than the lower river; this data is available from the Chilliwack River Hatchery.