Since we are unable to fish most rivers because of the special regulation
closures, I went out snorkeling on the N.F. Stilly yesterday (Used my
SCUBA drysuit).
Started off at the Clay bank hole above Hazel, saw two steelhead in the
deep hole and then three smallish char and a small school of suckers in
the glide just below. Saw no fish all the way down to the Hazel Hole (by
highway).
In the Hazel hole was one steelhead (mid column depth) and one char. One
the float down to C-Post bridge I came across a large school of suckers
with about 6-10 char and one really nice cutthroat- It appeared that the
suckers may have been spawning because gravel in the area was disturbed.
This hypothesis also accounts for why the char and cutthroat were there!.
About 1/4 mile below this school of fish was a large school of mountain
whitefish (n=40-75). Below this, in the area where there were the
"engineered log jams" was a sole char. Below this and all the way down to
the C-post bridge were no fish, except for the pounds of lead, lots of
fishing line, corkies, flies and other angling paraphernalia. Oh, I
forgot that I picked up a "Leatherman tool" below the bridge!
My partner who drove down to C-Post to pick my up also had an exiting
observation. Before she got out of the car, a large Cougar strolled out
of the woods and walked down the road towards the car (within 75 ft).
Since she had a camcorder by her side, she filmed a few seconds before it
walked into the brush. It was a good thing, because I would not have
believed a cougar would be this bold during the day.
After C-Post, we went up to Fortson. At the head of the pool, in the
brush along the bank was a school of cutthroat of all sizes (n=10-15).
Below this were of course many steelhead, some of which had an adipose fin
(n=15-20), and one char. Snorkeled on down into the picnic table hole and
saw no fish.
Visibility was poor because of the bright sun, could see about 20ft.
In all, quite an exciting day on the N.F. Stilly!
p.s. I wonder if it would be worth trying to clean out the lost fishing
gear. With no flushing flows this winter, this stuff has really piled
up!
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Scott D. Craig The members of this genus (Salvelinus)
Fisheries/Aquatic Biologist are by far the most active and handsome
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service of the trout, they live in the coldest,
Lacey, WA. cleanest and most secluded waters.
Check out the homepage No higher praise can be given to a
http://www.eskimo.com/~craigs Salmonid than to say, it is a charr.
(Jordan and Evermann 1896)
