Swift Creek restoration update from USFS

Corey Lewellen, fisheries biologist with the U.S. Forest Service came to the Trout Ulimited Chapter 678 meeting in Eugene, OR this week to update members on progress on the Swift Creek restoration project for bull trout habitat.

Trout Unlimited, USFS and ODFW have teamed up to build bull trout spawning habitat in the Willamette watershed. Swift Creek, a tributary of the Willamette River above Hills Creek would be an ideal location, but the river is steep and fast, so jamming the river with logs provides blockage that will lead to a less steep, winding riverbed and help in the recruitment of gravel which is important for spawning trout.

According to Lewellen, the USFS has accumulated 600-700 logs so far to jam up Swift Creek. He also reported that in 2005 a screw-trap on the Willamette captured 12 sexually mature bull trout, and in 2006 USFS recorded six additional adults. He also said USFS had recorded 15 sub adults and several hundred juveniles. These fish were transported from the McKenzie River stocks as fry.

Here are some photos from the restoration.

From MattStansberry

From MattStansberry

P.S. Keep an eye out for Trout Unlimited Chapter 678 upcoming events around Eugene.

Upcoming TU Winter/Spring Events

UPCOMING TROUT UNLIMITED AND FLY FISHING EVENTS

NEXT MEETING WED. JANUARY 10 AT EWEB MEETING ROOM, 7PM.

Map of 500 E 4th Ave
Eugene, OR 97401-2465, US.

Trout Unlimited Chapter 678 Fundraiser
Its time again for our fundraiser which will be held on Sunday, February 11th at 3:00pm. This time it will be held at Territorial Vineyards & Wine Company located at 907 West 3rd Avenue (Third and Adams) in downtown Eugene. Wine tasting and hors d’ oeuvre will be served beginning at 3:00pm. We have some really nice donations this year and will be updating our this website with the various items. If you would like to contribute items to the raffle or silent auction please contact Al Avey at (541) 431-0328. Raffle tickets may be purchased at the door for those who plan on attending the event. This is a great opportunity for all our members to get together and help support local activities that contribute to conserve, protect, and restore McKenzie and Upper Willamette trout and salmon fisheries and their watersheds (and win some great gifts to boot).

Major contributors to this year’s event include:

The Caddis Fly
The McKenzie Angler
HomeWaters Fly Shop
G.I. Joe's
Territorial Vineyards & Wine Company
The Angler's Book Shelf
Avenue Auto Works
L.L. Bean

Fly Fishing Film Tour
January 16 7:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at University of Oregon, Ball Room, Eugene OR

The Fly Fishing Film Tour is coming to Eugene! Some of the most innovative fly fishing film makers are touring the country with a 90-minute highlight reel featuring trips to Argentina, Mongolia, New Zealand and more.



UPCOMING TRIPS:

Steelhead Fishing Clinic: Our first trip of the new year will be a steelhead trip to one of the coastal rivers (Siuslaw, Siletz, or Alsea). The trip is planned for the latter part of January and the selection of river will depend on how the rivers are fishing and the river conditions. For this trip an 8wt rod is recommended along with egg patterns and streamer flies.

March Brown McKenzie Trip: Our next trips will be on the McKenzie river in late February and March. For these trips we will be assisting ODFW with Pit Tag recovery on the McKenzie River. Wand readers will be used to identify wild trout that have been pit tagged. For this trip 4 to 6 wt. rods are recommended with reels that match along with tippets from 4-6X. Floating lines are recommended along with some strike indicators for nymphing. Fly selection: McKenzie caddis (#12-14), pheasant tails (#14-18), hare’s ears (#10-14), prince nymphs (#12-16), blue winged olive dries (#16-20), parachute adams (#14-20), and of course march browns (#14).

We will be using our this website to update the details of these trips.

Meetings: The monthly meetings are held every second Wednesday of the month at 7:00 pm at EWEB in downtown Eugene in the Training Center overlooking the river.

Trout Unlimited/ODFW High Lakes Survey 2006

TU Chapter 678 members spent a lot of time in the Cascades high lakes last month. The chapter volunteered to help ODFW with trout survey work. The state stocks the remote high lakes with trout each year with a helicopter, but the biologists rely on anglers to keep them posted on how the planted fish are doing.

ODFW had appealed to the fishing community at large to step in, but was getting poor returns. So the chapter stepped in to help ODFW knock some unknown lakes off of its wish-list by hiking in and fishing for trout -- which is my kind of volunteering.

From MattStansberry

Labor Day weekend 2006: The first trip embarked from the Skookum Creek Campground off of the Aufderheide Scenic Byway (FS Road 19). Our crew (Todd and Lauri Mullen, Al Avey, Bill Laroux, and myself) hiked back to the campsite at Lower Erma Bell Lake with packs, rods, waders and float-tubes. After setting up camp, the team descended on Mud Lake, the upper, middle and lower Erma Bells and Otter Lake. All of the lakes had decent fish, aside from the aptly named Mud Lake. Members measured water temperature and clarity -- as well as several feisty trout.

The second trip took place over the last weekend of September. On Friday September 29, the crew of Al Avey, Bill Laroux and myself piled into Bill's truck to get a few more lakes. We picked up Register-Guard outdoors columnist John Rezell on the way.

Rezell wrote a great account of the trip in the Tuesday Oct 10th edition of the paper.

On the first night we hiked back to Helen Lake, a 1/3 mile trip from the Taylor Burn campground, north of the Waldo Lake wilderness. We found many nice trout in Helen Lake, but couldn’t convince any to bite. A giant fish was porpoising right near the bank as we walked back to camp dejected.

The next day we hiked from the campground to Moolack Lake, a 2.2 mile trek down a switch-backed mountain, across the headwaters of the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the Willamette and up another ridge to the Moolack Lake Spur trail.

From MattStansberry

When we first laid eyes on Moolack, it looked pretty dead -- still and a little filmy. But we made the trek, so we launched the float tubes into the lake. After a few minutes on the water, Al saw a rise near me and I cast at it. Less then a minute later I’d landed a giant cutthroat trout pushing 17 inches. We proceeded to catch Moolack’s down and deep cutthroats on weighted wooly buggers for the rest of the afternoon, including Bill’s monster 17.5” fish at the end of the day.

The trip back wasn’t as pleasant as the trip in, but we made it, knocking seven lakes off of ODFW’s list for the year. We will be including information on the lakes we’ve surveyed and the lakes that still need to be accounted for on the TU Chapter 678 Web site.

-Matt Stansberry