FISHWATCH 2024 MONTHLY REPORT
JUNE 2024
by Edward Kikumoto
DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions in this report are strictly my own, and do not reflect the views and opinions of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW), or The North Umpqua Foundation (TNUF).
Greetings from the Big Bend Pool, Steamboat Creek, in the Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild Steelhead Special Management Area (established March 12, 2019).
STEELHEAD EARLY! A FORECAST?
June 1 – Once again this year steelhead made their presence known in the Big Bend Pool with a big splash, followed by a leap out of the water at the head of the Pool. It could have been a very large cutthroat, but cutthroat generally do not leap out of the water. They usually make a slashing rise to the surface, causing a boiling disturbance on the surface. If they do leap out of the water, it is to “catch” a “bug” that has already come off of the water and is in flight.
I immediately started scanning the Pool with my binoculars and eventually saw 2 steelhead shapes in the main current just where the deepest part of the Pool begins to rise up into the shallow tailout. The steelhead were near the bottom and hard to see.
In these instances, what you are looking for is tails, which have a distinctive straight vertical back edge, a dark triangular shape, and movement side to side. A lighter, shadowy, torpedo shape can be seen in front of the tail. You have to know what to look for.
As I mentioned in my May report, there was a distinct possibility that I might see steelhead in the Pool early in June because of the low flow conditions at the end of May. But I wasn’t expecting them on the first day of June!
