Dave H
Well-Known Member
Some of you know I used to be somewhat active in a couple of NGO groups back in my younger days and one of those groups was the Haig-Brown Kingfisher Creek Society.
In 1998 and 1999 the society built was is now called the East Branch of Haig-Brown's Kingfisher Creek in partnership with the City of Campbell River and the late Barrie Brown, the owner of a lot of the land the creek was built on.
Salmon found the creek immediately and we had spawning Coho, Chum and Pink the first years the creek flowed free, which turned out to be few in number as Beavers found the creek and dammed off the ponds at the foot of 16th. Ave, blocking access to the creek above that point.
As the years passed it became apparent that the older West Branch of the creek had the better fish values as every year we would have a few Coho show up and spawn, usually in behind what is called Pease's Cabins, just up Quinsam Rd. a bit but sometimes all the way up the hill into the watershed flowing from way back above the logging road and the culvert that blocks any fish passage above there. Great habitat for both spawning and rearing up there but under-utilized a lot.
A dozen years of monitoring the creek and watching the changes led to the identification of a couple of problem areas that could easily be fixed with some judicious in-stream work during the summer period when that can be done so in August of 2015 one of the main problems was fixed just above the pond on the West Branch. The channel was dry then as it hadn't rained for quite some time, but it did rain five days after the job was finished and water immediately found the new channel and started recharging the pond.
And then the Beavers found the outlet of the pond and dammed it off.
I think I've shared a bit previously about the battle we waged with them last fall in order to get fish up past the pond with the result we actually had Chum salmon spawning up at Pease's which I'd never seen before.
In the end, after taking out their dam nine times they finally gave up and left for somewhere unknown.
But they came back this year and dammed off the outlet again, which created a large wetland area around and outside the pond itself. There were two channel draining from this wetland which we thought might provide an alternate route past the pond without having to remove the dam every day as before, so we explored them once the rains came earlier this month.
The left-hand channel looked much the more promising of the two and turned out to be the way as the run of Chum this year proved conclusively this past week.
One week ago today there were no Chum salmon in the creek at all, although there had been three or four pairs of spawning Pinks earlier, which was good to see.
Last Sunday morning I took my dog to Pease's Cabins with me, he to do his thing and me to check for any sign of salmon up that far.
There was no sign.
That night my pal Len called and asked if I'd seen all the salmon in the creek that day.
I hadn't, in fact I hadn't gone back to the creek after the early morning look as I'd been busy elsewhere the rest of the day.
Len told me there were at least a dozen Chum in their usual spot down next to the Haig-Brown House, where they have spawned previously and more seemed to be moving in.
We agreed to meet at 9:00 AM Monday and check things out.
To our great surprise there were numerous pairs of Chum in the lower part of the creek, a few pairs noisily spawning in the big culvert under the highway and several more paired off at the mouth of the West Branch where it enters the bigger East Branch, just upstream from the bridge over the creek near the highway.
We walked up the West towards the Beaver Pond and were stoked to see several more pairs moving up and holding in little niches out of the main current and a pair up the right side channel and more pushing up into the left side channel too.
In short, we were looking at more Chums than I have ever seen before in this creek, and I've been on it for 16 years or so.
We left with the idea we'd meet in the morning again to monitor the situation, which we did.
Here's one of the salmon that went up the wrong channel the previous night after the Bear found it.
I've found five Bear killed salmon the past couple of days and had a close-enough encounter with the beastie two nights ago too.
Len and I figured out where the best spot to enhance the grass-lined overgrown channel was and opened it up in a matter of a minute with the result that some Chum holding just downstream immediately shot up through the gap right at my feet.
Here's a vid taken a moment later.
Once they could get around the pond without requiring the dam to be removed it was like opening the flood-gates and they really started moving in and are spawning in the new gravel just put in this past summer behind Pease's Cabins, just up Quinsam Rd.
Further exploration has discovered some nearly a third of the way up the hill where I've never seen them before.
Here they are, doing their thing.
Now we're looking for Coho..............still to come.
Take care.
In 1998 and 1999 the society built was is now called the East Branch of Haig-Brown's Kingfisher Creek in partnership with the City of Campbell River and the late Barrie Brown, the owner of a lot of the land the creek was built on.
Salmon found the creek immediately and we had spawning Coho, Chum and Pink the first years the creek flowed free, which turned out to be few in number as Beavers found the creek and dammed off the ponds at the foot of 16th. Ave, blocking access to the creek above that point.
As the years passed it became apparent that the older West Branch of the creek had the better fish values as every year we would have a few Coho show up and spawn, usually in behind what is called Pease's Cabins, just up Quinsam Rd. a bit but sometimes all the way up the hill into the watershed flowing from way back above the logging road and the culvert that blocks any fish passage above there. Great habitat for both spawning and rearing up there but under-utilized a lot.
A dozen years of monitoring the creek and watching the changes led to the identification of a couple of problem areas that could easily be fixed with some judicious in-stream work during the summer period when that can be done so in August of 2015 one of the main problems was fixed just above the pond on the West Branch. The channel was dry then as it hadn't rained for quite some time, but it did rain five days after the job was finished and water immediately found the new channel and started recharging the pond.
And then the Beavers found the outlet of the pond and dammed it off.
I think I've shared a bit previously about the battle we waged with them last fall in order to get fish up past the pond with the result we actually had Chum salmon spawning up at Pease's which I'd never seen before.
In the end, after taking out their dam nine times they finally gave up and left for somewhere unknown.
But they came back this year and dammed off the outlet again, which created a large wetland area around and outside the pond itself. There were two channel draining from this wetland which we thought might provide an alternate route past the pond without having to remove the dam every day as before, so we explored them once the rains came earlier this month.
The left-hand channel looked much the more promising of the two and turned out to be the way as the run of Chum this year proved conclusively this past week.
One week ago today there were no Chum salmon in the creek at all, although there had been three or four pairs of spawning Pinks earlier, which was good to see.
Last Sunday morning I took my dog to Pease's Cabins with me, he to do his thing and me to check for any sign of salmon up that far.
There was no sign.
That night my pal Len called and asked if I'd seen all the salmon in the creek that day.
I hadn't, in fact I hadn't gone back to the creek after the early morning look as I'd been busy elsewhere the rest of the day.
Len told me there were at least a dozen Chum in their usual spot down next to the Haig-Brown House, where they have spawned previously and more seemed to be moving in.
We agreed to meet at 9:00 AM Monday and check things out.
To our great surprise there were numerous pairs of Chum in the lower part of the creek, a few pairs noisily spawning in the big culvert under the highway and several more paired off at the mouth of the West Branch where it enters the bigger East Branch, just upstream from the bridge over the creek near the highway.
We walked up the West towards the Beaver Pond and were stoked to see several more pairs moving up and holding in little niches out of the main current and a pair up the right side channel and more pushing up into the left side channel too.
In short, we were looking at more Chums than I have ever seen before in this creek, and I've been on it for 16 years or so.
We left with the idea we'd meet in the morning again to monitor the situation, which we did.
Here's one of the salmon that went up the wrong channel the previous night after the Bear found it.
I've found five Bear killed salmon the past couple of days and had a close-enough encounter with the beastie two nights ago too.
Len and I figured out where the best spot to enhance the grass-lined overgrown channel was and opened it up in a matter of a minute with the result that some Chum holding just downstream immediately shot up through the gap right at my feet.
Here's a vid taken a moment later.
Once they could get around the pond without requiring the dam to be removed it was like opening the flood-gates and they really started moving in and are spawning in the new gravel just put in this past summer behind Pease's Cabins, just up Quinsam Rd.
Further exploration has discovered some nearly a third of the way up the hill where I've never seen them before.
Here they are, doing their thing.
Now we're looking for Coho..............still to come.
Take care.
