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[Dave]

Buck, KP and I, old buggers with a combined age of close to 190 years and with some salmonid enumeration history, are into our third year of counting spawning steelhead in the upper Chilliwack River.  Today was our third count in 2013 of Centennial Channel , an off channel spawning and rearing area opposite the FN healing centre a few km below the Post Creek subdivision, and thanks to melted snow , our first count of the gravel pad at the outlet of Chilliwack Lake.
These counts are not a population estimate of steelhead spawners in the Chilliwack River, just simply a means of perhaps identifying trends in known spawning areas correlated to dates.  We attempt to count the same areas at roughly the same dates over an unknown but hopefully long time span
So, today we saw our first 3 steelhead in Centennial  Channel ..  one pair spawning and one digging female; no doubt a male was nearby but we couldn't locate it...  For some perspective on these numbers, in 2011 (April 26), we saw 15.  In 2012 (April 26), we saw 7.
The outlet of Chilliwack Lake was not counted in 2011 but today we observed 20 steelhead staging and spawning on that amazingly productive gravel pad.  We have 4 weeks data for this site in 2012, starting May 3, along with some older data from other observers.  We saw an additional 4 fish under the Middle Creek bridge, crossing the Chilliwack R, and will report on this site, Centennial Channel, and probably Angel wing, another off channel known steelhead spawning site, next week. Stay tuned.

[firebird]

Keep up the good work old buggers Do you record details of survey conditions? If you guys can keep this up for another 50 years we’ll have a great data set 

[Dave]

If you guys can keep this up for another 50 years we’ll have a great data set 

Lol!! 

[Pat AV]

Thanks for sharing that and I am glad someone is out there counting. Cheers to you guys!

I will follow this thread with interest for updates.

[BNF861]

Great work and thanks for the update Dave, Peter and others.

As appreciated of your time and efforts are by many of us, it is sad and uncomrehendable that these types of counts and enumerations as well as swim counts are not already carried out by the ministry.

The Chilliwack/Vedder is the most used river, most hatchery augmented, and with the highest returns of all lower mainland rivers. You would think an accurate account of fish populations would be a given as well on other all hatchery, all wild and hatchery/wild rivers to compare data between the different locations, hatchery scenarios and year to year changes to give a proper picture of fish health and populations as well as to take a look of how various aspects are trending.

It comes down to money and the lack there of but here's to hoping things one day change...

[Dave]

Thanks for the support.   The 3 of us do this because we all have spent our best days fishing or working on the C-V, have been involved with fish since we can remember, plan to do so for a while, and, having caught our share, want to give back whatever we can.  Plus, we love to see wild steelhead spawning...   after a while catching isn’t so important

[Pat AV]

Great work and thanks for the update Dave, Peter and others.

As appreciated of your time and efforts are by many of us, it is sad and uncomrehendable that these types of counts and enumerations as well as swim counts are not already carried out by the ministry.

The Chilliwack/Vedder is the most used river, most hatchery augmented, and with the highest returns of all lower mainland rivers. You would think an accurate account of fish populations would be a given as well on other all hatchery, all wild and hatchery/wild rivers to compare data between the different locations, hatchery scenarios and year to year changes to give a proper picture of fish health and populations as well as to take a look of how various aspects are trending.

It comes down to money and the lack there of but here's to hoping things one day change...

The provincial ministries responsible for fish and wildlife management have been gutted for a long time now. Hopefully we can get back on the right track next month.

In the mean time thank god for the great volunteers out there trying to pick up some of the slack.

[Dave]

The 3 of us along with local angler and friend Gord D. started our enumerations this morning at the outlet of Chilliwack Lake. Water (8.0 C) and weather conditions were excellent and between us we determined we saw 35 steelhead, both spawning and staging.  On roughly the same date in 2012 we saw 14; in 2006 an MOE employee at the time estimated 80.
Next site was Centennial Channel.  Here again observation conditions were excellent as well with 8.0 C water temperatures.   Today we saw 9, including one obviously moribund,  ...  same date in 2011, 20 and in 2012, 9.
Angel wing Channel was next and today we saw no fish but one very obvious redd.  Next was an encouraging site,  just downstream at the Middle Creek bridge across the Chilliwack R (last bridge before Chilliwack Lake) where there is an excellent spawning area just downstream and good holding/staging almost underneath ... here we saw 18, last week, 4
A few noteworthy observations, perhaps ...  the presence of trout, roughly 2- pounders, hanging with spawning steelhead at the lake outlet and in Centennial Channel; a large school of Rocky Mountain Whitefish at the lake outlet; and the consensual feeling that Centennial  Channel is the best spawning area anywhere in the upper Chilliwack but for some reason appears to be vastly under utilized by steelhead.
More coming next week.

[firebird]

... and the consensual feeling that Centennial  Channel is the best spawning area anywhere in the upper Chilliwack but for some reason appears to be vastly under utilized by steelhead.

I guess the fish know something about the channel conditions that you old timers don't Dave  . Perhaps it's related to movement of water within the gravels of the man-made channel (e.g. unsuitable upwelling or downwelling). A quick search on Google Scholar indicates that there has been very little investigation of factors influencing spawning habitat selection by steelhead.

[Dave]

I guess the fish know something about the channel conditions that you old timers don't Dave  . Perhaps it's related to movement of water within the gravels of the man-made channel (e.g. unsuitable upwelling or downwelling). A quick search on Google Scholar indicates that there has been very little investigation of factors influencing spawning habitat selection by steelhead.

I suppose that's possible but up to 50,000 pinks every other year seem to like it.  I have always maintained the entrance to this channel is a bit too gnarly but it is not much different from the entrance to Angelwing, which is heavily used by coho.
Strange.

[kingpin]

im not surprised there was 80 in 2006... I highly doubt any of us will ever see a return that big again for the vedder...

[Dave]

We 4 again started our weekly steelhead count at the outlet of Chilliwack Lake this morning.  Water conditions were acceptable for viewing fish but considerably higher and a bit more turbid than previous dates, water temp was 8.5 C.  Today we observed 21 mostly spawning steelhead (in 2012, May 10, we saw 30); included in this mix were a few trout, again hanging out with spawning steelhead, and one 6-7 lb char, just looking happy and healthy
Next up was Centennial Channel; water temp 9.5 C.  We were happy to see much more gravel movement and redd production from last week and today we counted 18 (in 2011, 32 and in 2012, 7) along with one 3-4 lb trout. Conditions for observations were compromised due to the increased riparian growth and sunlight overhead of branches creating shadows.  We all agreed we did not see all the fish in the channel today, and suspect the fish we saw today were not last week's ... a theory we wish we could quantify.
 Angelwing Channel was next walked with no fish or fresh redds observed; last year on this date we saw 7 fish.
The water at the 3rd bridge where we saw 18 last week was too high for observations.
 All in all this was a good day with good friends, doing something we enjoy.   Lots of coho fry showing in Centennial, no sign of poaching or predation anywhere, other than a few morons falling trees and leaving their usual garbage. We find it interesting that we are seeing more resident trout hanging out with spawning steelhead...  Most likely this is common on coastal rivers but we are happy to be documenting this for the Chilliwack.  More next week.

[Bavarian Raven]

Cool. This reminds me of doing field work for school projects. 
I enjoy reading your observations. Keep them coming if you can

[Dave]

Buck, Gord D and I started our enumerations today at the outlet of Chilliwack Lake.  Water conditions were poor as the lake is turbid (something we had not seen before), and quite high.  No fish were observed today but in 2012 on May 17 we saw 31.

Much better results, but not optimum conditions for observations, at Centennial Channel, where we again saw 18, along with 2 resident trout.  In 2011 on May 19 we saw 19 steelhead; in 2012 on May 17 we saw 4.  Water temperature was 9.5C.   We were happy to see the road into Centennial is again gated so hopefully the area won't be trashed this long weekend.

No fish were seen in Angelwing channel and the river is still too high for observations at the spawning area at the Middle Creek bridge.  More next week.

[Dave]

Yesterday Buck and I completed this years steelhead counts. We started at Chilliwack Lake where again, water conditions were not acceptable for observations. Only 1 fish was seen but we have no doubt others were present.  In 2012 on May24 we saw 8.  Next up was Centennial Channel where 1large battle scarred and fungused male was observed.  In 2011 on May  19 we saw 19; in 2012 on May 24 we saw 8.  Angelwing channel was not walked and the spawning area below the Middle Creek bridge was still too high and turbid for counts.
Although only into this for 3 years we think we are getting a feel for residence time on redds, and whether or not we were observing the same fish from week to week.  We are fairly confident steelhead spawn quickly, and perhaps because they don't necessarily die after spawning, spend less time actually spawning than the other salmon species we are more familiar with.  For example, we have never seen a female guarding her redd, a common occurrence with other salmon. In Centennial Channel, with the one exception of the fish seen yesterday, we believe we are seeing different fish each outing; if so it seems logical the same argument can be used for the fish seen at the outlet of Chilliwack Lake.
In our opinion the single limiting factor for wild steelhead productivity in the upper Chilliwack River is the lack of quality spawning gravel.  This issue was addressed today when we joined a few DFO bios and NGO’s in a search for suitable places to augment this area with stockpiled gravel taken from the lower reaches.  There are a few political hurdles to overcome as not everyone locally wants to see gravel actually put back into a river, but the people out today recognize the importance of this and are confident it will come to pass and on a regular basis.   Great to have people who care about fish in the field again.