Wychus Creek was re-directed on Tuesday into it's new, steelhead ready channel. Winding through Polk Meadow, the restored creek once again has the pools and runs and ponds of its youth. There is still quite a bit of vegetation work to be done, but Polk is now on it's way to being a wet meadow and steelhead and chinook spawning ground. For a good summary, check out this link: http://www.ktvz.com/news/30564196/detail.html. The Bulletin also ran pretty thorough, front page write-ups on 2-29 and 3-1.After watching the first water rush into the restored channel, I spent the rest of Tuesday doing a fish rescue with about 30 other river rats, including volunteers, the USF&WS, ODFW, USFS, and the Deschutes Land Trust. As the water dropped in the old channel, Fish & Wildlife used portable shockers on the pools to stun the fish and make capture easier. Each team of two shockers had two netters who put the fish in buckets for the transporters (read young guys) to carry a hundred yards or so for release into the restored channel. Recorders kept track of the # and species rescued. I was part of another group of netters who picked up the stragglers missed in the initial shocking. We ended up rescuing a few hundred rainbow and brown trout, even more sculpin and long-nose dace, and countless nymphs, waterbugs, and crawdads. I have to say, I learned alot about local stream ecology and the food chain in my one day in a drying streambed. The variety of nymphs including salmon flies, stone flies, mayflies, and predatory caddis was amazing. Another big "Ah-ha" was the number of sculpin and dace in Wychus. Years ago, we twitched and hopped conehead bunny daces and Near'Nuff sculpin in the Deschutes for browns and the occasional big rainbow. Tuesday made me ask myself why we ever changed tactics, and I see stack-mending fast sinking lines in the Middle D in my future.
If you haven't volunteered for a hands-on restoration effort, I highly recommend it. Besides to supporting a cause near and dear to all of us that love the river, it was very educational from a fishing point of view. You'll spend the day with a bunch of good people from various agencies and non-profits who are putting in the time to make better fisheries. Tight lines - Jeff
To find out more about volunteer opportunities, check out the Deschutes Land Trust (www.deschuteslandtrust.org) and the Deschutes River Conservancy (www.deschutesriver.org).
