Yumi and I patrol Byrne Creek every Wednesday to find spawning salmon. Today's bottom line: 10 dead chum processed, 3 live chum seen, 1 dead cutthroat processed.
The details:
Area covered: John Mathews confluence (Tag 506) to bottom of ravine stairs (Tag 521)
Started at 10:00 a.m. overcast and foggy, cleared steadily as the day went on.
1 dead chum, E-T 56cm N-F est. 67cm (nose partly gone), likely female, internal organs all eaten, 10m d/s of Byrne Bridge, Tag 507.
1 dead chum, E-T 61cm N-F 73cm, all fins, female, spawned, right below lower side of Byrne Bridge, Tag 507.
1 dead chum, E-T 57cm N-F 65cm, all fins, female, spawned with a few dozen eggs left, 8m u/s of Tag 510 in the habitat.
1 dead chum, E-T 54cm N-F 63cm, all fins, female, spawned with a couple of eggs left, 3m d/s of Tag 512 in the habitat.
1 dead chum, E-T 58cm N-F 68cm, all fins, female, spawned, 3m u/s Tag 513 in the habitat.
1 dead chum, E-T 55cm N-F 66cm, all fins, male, spawned, 3m u/s of stop log at the upper end of the Sediment Pond, Tag 514.
1 dead chum, E-T 57cm N-F 69cm, all fins, male, spawned, in pool right below the stop log at the upper end of the Sediment Pond, Tag 514.
We took the two above fish and planted them in the ravine between Tags 517 and 519.
1 dead chum, E-T 59cm N-F 73cm, all fins, male, spawned, 30m d/s of the footbridge, Tag 516, in the ravine.
1 dead chum, E-T 65cm N-F 80cm, all fins, male, spawned, 10m u/s of Tag 517 in the ravine.
1 dead chum, E-T 59cm N-F 69cm, all fins, female, mostly spawned with a few hundred eggs left, right at Tag 520 in the ravine.
3 live chum in the Sediment Pond
I believe that brings the total number of chum confirmed to 47 and sighted to 50.
We could not find the female coho that had been hanging around the slide. Her time is probably about up, and there was a strong fishy smell just d/s of the footbridge, but we couldn't find anything in that area.
We found 1 dead cutthroat about 65m d/s of Byrne Bridge. N-F 38cm, male. He had a stab wound in his side, likely a heron, though I wonder if a heron could swallow a fish that big!
Posted by Paul at November 10, 2004 07:24 PM