Fishing on the White River

[Webmaster]

Greenwater is not known for it’s great sport fishing, but it is there. On various hikes I've seen a number of good sized fish in local streams and lakes. I've also come across a number of release ponds where the dept of Fish and Wildlife puts many small fish for several weeks and then releases the fish into the rivers.

I never spent time fishing in the past, but was inspired enough by my findings to get a Cabela’s catalog and enlist the guidance of some friends who are avid fly fishermen. I ordered some fly fishing gear and it showed up a few days after I ordered it. After that I contacted a local fly shop named the Puget Sound Fly Company, by email, and asked them to send me a bunch of their recommended flies. My favorites are the Wooly Buggers. The reason I like them is that I can see them as they float down the river.

Last year I was pretty busy and didn’t have much time for fishing. My goal for fishing was to bring the fly gear with me on my hikes, and use the opportunity to enhanse the hike. But it didn't work out that way.

Then came the massive rainfall in November. Along the White river and West Fork of the White river there is evidence of flood waters running up to 20 feet over the typical level of the river. Other local streams were not nearly as impacted. When I thought about fishing a few weeks ago, the sweeping changes to the major rivers here prompted me to contact the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. A while after that I was contacted by a fish biologist named Hal Michael. I asked Mr. Michael if the flooding in the area would create a negative impact on the volume of fish in the local waters. His response was that it would take a number of years before they can tell with certainty. He said: “We expect that the flooding destroyed a lot of eggs that were buried in the streambed. In extreme cases, all of the eggs in area may have been destroyed. The same goes for juveniles (primarily coho, steelhead, native char, rainbow, and cutthroat). If they could find some calm water, out of the main flood, they would survive.”

“The first real inkling we will have about the actual impact of the floods will be this fall. Some of the coho that were rearing in the watershed will migrate to the ocean next month and return to spawn in the fall. If the number of these jacks is substantially lower than we have seen before, it will suggest a large impact. In the fall of 2009 the adult coho and steelhead will return from this year's smolt migration. That will be our first "good" look at the impact.

“Because of the rather long life span for some salmon and steelhead, the full impact won't be tabulated until at least 2011, when 5-year old fish that were spawned last fall might return.”

Due to the flood, “sport fishing will probably be impacted some, and it will vary with the stream.” In a relatively intact stream (habitat intact) the fish will need to find new homes but should have done ok. If the stream channel migrated a lot, the mainstem White probably did this, then a whole lot will be changed. Fish may have been displaced or killed. They will need to find the new habitat and move into it.”

“At the same time, the spring spawning fish (native trouts) should probably have pretty successful spawning because of the re-sorted gravel.

“I think at least one of our release ponds is inaccessible. The others are, I believe, still useable. We do need to take the long-term view that a flood like this creates a lot of habitat. There will be short-term problems and long-term benefits.”

Due to the above information, this year I’ll spend some time on the White but will put most fishing time on other nearby streams and alpine lakes.

[Webmaster]

SUSAN GORDON
The News Tribune
Published: August 29th, 2007 12:04 PM

SUMMARY: A huge run of pink salmon is backed up behind a White River dam like a traffic jam on Interstate 5. The problem highlights a dispute over fish and river management.
The fish were so thick in the rivers you could walk across on their backs.

The old-timers’ oft-repeated tale sounds like a phenomenon never to be witnessed again because Puget Sound’s most-prized native salmon have nearly disappeared.

Yet a visit this week to the White River near Buckley brings the image to mind. Thousands of pink salmon have backed up behind Puget Sound Energy’s old wooden diversion dam, eager to head upstream and reproduce.

The presence of huge numbers of pinks has renewed a protracted dispute among the agencies and interests who control the river’s flow and the fish that inhabit it.

“They’ve got a fixed amount of energy and they’re just wasting it beating themselves against the dam,” said fish biologist Russ Ladley, the Puyallup Tribe’s resource protection manager.

He and other tribal biologists predict a massive salmon die-off if something isn’t done to allow the pinks to migrate upriver. A state fish biologist familiar with the scenario isn’t so sure.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is obligated to move the fish past its flood-control facility farther upstream, is ready to authorize an intervention.

And a spokesman for Puget Sound Energy, which owns the dam, says they’re willing to step in and attempt a fix if they get the Corps OK and it’s safe to send workers into the river to do it.

Between 30,000 and 60,000 pinks are expected to head up the White River this season, said fish biologist Blake Smith, who also works for the Puyallups. Pinks – some call them humpbacks or humpies – are only two years old when they return to the rivers to spawn and die. They are the smallest and most numerous salmon species, the kind granddad may have grown up eating out of a can.

Those who have studied the pinks’ life history say they commonly colonize new habitats. And although pinks are relative newcomers to the White River, a run two years ago was similar in size, Smith said.

In the river near Buckley, the fins of the pinks look dark in contrast to the gray of the river, which picks up its color from the runoff of glaciers on Mount Rainier. As the fish seek passage through the roiling current, they are confronted by the dam.

Erected starting in 1911, the dam is a vestige of the utility’s White River hydropower generator, which shut down in 2004. The Corps now has a cooperative agreement with the utility to maintain the structure. But flooding in November 2006 floods damaged it so the dam no longer blocks the rushing river.

Even so, fish can’t get past without human intervention. Ordinarily, enough water would flow past the dam to attract fish to an adjacent ladder, where Corps workers trap the fish and truck them upstream. But it’s late August, typically the river’s driest month, and most of the water left in the river hurdles over the broken dam rather than rushing through the fish ladder.

Although hundreds of pinks have found their way up the ladder, the bulk of the run appears distracted by the river’s roiling current and hangs back.

“Amazing,” said Russ Rodrigues, assistant supervisor of the Muckleshoot Tribe’s hatchery, across the river from the trap and near where most of the fish were staging. “There’s probably 500 to 700 right there, waiting to get upstream,” he said.

Hundreds have tried to get upriver through a side channel that runs through the hatchery, Rodrigues said. While he and Smith watched, some of the pinks jumped on the edge of the wooden dam.

“They make it to the base, but you don’t see ‘em going up and over. They’re lost. They should be going to the fish ladder,” Smith said.

The Corps trucks 250 fish at a time to a spot about five miles above its flood-control structure, the Mud Mountain Dam outside of Enumclaw. From there, fish head towards spawning grounds in Huckleberry Creek, the Greenwater and Clearwater rivers and the White’s upper reaches, Smith said.

Ladley and Smith said the Corps has failed the fish.

“They knew months ago they would have a low flow and the trap is not working very effectively,” Smith said.

Jeff Dillon, a Corps fish biologist and environmental coordinator for Mud Mountain Dam, is unwilling to shoulder the blame and points the finger instead at tribal and state fish managers who he said were unwilling to make necessary repairs earlier in the year.

“The tribe chose to postpone the repairs until summer” after other juvenile fish had migrated downstream, he said.

Officials expected the river’s flow would drop down low enough for utility crews to work safely on the Buckley dam. Unlike previous years, the Corps can’t hold the river back at Mud Mountain Dam because of ongoing maintenance there, Dillon said.

Dillon said Corps officials last week asked Puget Sound Energy to repair the Buckley dam as soon as they are able. The Corps will pay whatever it costs, officials said.

“They’re going to do what they can,” Dillon said of the utility. “We have to get something done now to get the fish into the trap and move them upstream. If we can do something now to improve collection ability, we should be doing it,” Dillon said.

Roger Thompson, a Puget Sound Energy spokesman, said Tuesday the company’s crews have not received final approval from Corps officials, but are readying equipment.

The problem is that the river is still running too high to allow workers to safely traverse the dam.

“They’re trying to wait until the time is right,” Thompson said. “The dam was damaged in November. It’s been a long wait until now to get direction on this.”

Weather has compounded the problem, said Gary Sprague, a state Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist. “Our summer rains have delayed our plans to repair the dam,” he said. “There is an effort under way to do it. We just need a lot of cooperation from nature.”

As for the pinks, Sprague dismissed the prospect of a die-off. The fact that the river is running relatively high for August also means the water is oxygenated and cool, good for fish. And pinks usually don’t do much spawning until later in September, he said.

“They can hold in the river for a while,” Sprague said.

from: http://www.thenewstribune.com/front/topphoto/story/143547.html