October 2001

Of primary importance at present to the security of the steelhead in the upper Steamboat Creek basin is the reality of the threat posed by November hunters camping on the upper creek. The OSP cadet who patrols this area is done at the end of this month, that is October. For some reason, budgetary or otherwise, the agencies seem to think that after the end of October "the fish can take care of themselves" to quote one of the things someone stated in a conversation with me about two years ago now. When hunting season arrives in the fall, the presence of people camping along the creek and driving the roads increases markedly. Several of the hunters camping places are next to pools which hold steelhead (and in the hearth of one of these camps last fall I found an empty package of fish hooks).

Just as the problem of poaching is not with the average or modal person, the problem is also not with the average or modal hunter. Not necessarily, the fish here at the pool, but the fish elsewhere on the creek are vulnerable, especially vulnerable in the absence of a regular patrol presence during November. If the incidence of poaching is in some fashion related to the presence of large numbers of steelhead kegged up in.

Drought Effects: other than the way that the group of steelhead bold in the pool, the apparent effects of the relatively dry winter have been negligible. Poaching may have increased and I will discuss this below.

The period of high creek temperatures lasted longer this year and the position of the front fish of the pod at the place (lower Area 4) where the almost pure plume of Big Bend Creek water strikes the right bank rocks may reflect this. And that's it. The condition of the fish in the pool was quite good all season and the population and the behavior dynamics of the steelhead appear to be the same as the previous two years.

Steelhead Entry and Numbers: The first summer steelhead were observed in the pool in late May, though fish did not appear to take up residence until mid to late June. During this early period of use, the pool seemed to be one of several important holds while the early fish were (possibly) examining the fluvial dynamics and the substrate characteristics of the upper basin.

While there has been some desultory jumping at Little Falls, I believe that most of the fish presently in the upper basin arrived here before the end of July. I could certainly be in error, but the big autumn influx of steelhead that is coincident with the first strong spate of the fall has yet to occur.

That said there was a high count of about 700 steelhead in the pool about two weeks ago. With this most recent high water raising the pool about a foot steelhead holding below the confluence of Big Bend Creek have begun to move higher in the basin are beginning to gather in pools well up the creek from here.

As of today, there are approximately 500 steelhead in the pool, at least 50 are present in the three upcreek pools examined in the last few days, and there are about 250 steelhead in Lower Bend Pool. There are between 300 and 400 steelhead in the main holding pools below Little Bend Pool and upcreek from the industrial camp.

Hatchery Fish Here: hatchery fish have been present in the pool this season though they come and go. Two fin clipped steelhead are in the pool right now. Unlike last year and the year before, a hatchery fish or two has not taken up long term residence in the pool. Other than stating that they have been and are present in the pool, little more can be said about the frequency of hatchery fish in the upper basin of Steamboat Creek than that they appear to remain at a low level.

Any level is an unacceptable level and constitutes a take in terms of the adaptivity and the evolutionary potential that has been developing since at least the end of the late Pleistocene Period, the point at which some form of complexly patterned and lower flows and "modem" flora and fauna became established in the North Umpqua Basin.

Spring Chinook: Again this season, 0. tshawytscha have been present. They have come and gone however and during the balance of the season do appear to prefer Lower Bend Pool as they did last year. In midSeptember, a hen chinook appeared and dug a redd below the pool on the stream left channel. This was where last season's hen chinook dug her redds as well.

This year there was no male chinook in the pool nor did one appear during the time the female held over her excavation. This hen disappeared during a time of large, loud, evening chumings of the pool as with a gigantic spoon. Some of this activity if not all of it - was associated with otters which I both saw and heard softly snorting on the rocks across the pool.

Shortly after the chinook's redd had been dug at least three male steelhead were seen courted the hen chinook with violent body quiverings along her flank. A steelhead smolt about a quarter the size of the hen was seen to quiveringly court her as well.

Steelhead Behavior Changes: as has been true in 1999 and 2000, by this time of the year there are a suite of changes apparent in steelhead behavior. The steelhead have begun to hold much closer to the surface of the pool with their fins actually and commonly showing above the surface. The steelhead are showing a much heightened interest in things floating through the pool, both over and under the surface. As usual, the things approached appear to have little to do with whether the item could serve reasonably as food, leaves provoking most of the observed interest. Dominance encounters have also begun among at least the male fish.

Otters: shortly after the disappearance of the hen chinook from the area of her redd and the pool and during a few days of continuing nocturnal chumings, four Big Bend Pool steelhead and eleven Lower Bend Pool steelhead showed fresh bite marks on their fins. An adult salmon size tall and backbone was observed on one of the Lower Bend Pool rocks where it was surrounded by otter seat. This otter behavior is, undoubtedly nothing new, though new to my time on the pool.

Otters, of course, are one of the positive factors Ms. Nature uses to ensure the strength and adaptive resilience and evolutionary potential of wild populations of fish. When an otter takes a fish it does not come under the heading of poaching.

As ever, thank you for the opportunity to sit on the pool with the wild steelhead.