FISHWATCH 2021 MONTHLY REPORT
May 2021
by Edward Kikumoto
Again this year, the U.S. Forest Service and The North Umpqua Foundation (TNUF) is asking the public to not visit the Pool due to Covid19 concerns, and to protect the health of the FishWatch Caretaker.
Greetings from the Big Bend Pool FishWatch 2021 Caretaker.
This is the first of my month-end reports until the end of the FishWatch season, which will be in late November, and possibly into December.
When the season ends will depend on the number of steelhead that are still in the Pool that late in the year.
I hope, for those of you who are new to this, that over the season I can provide you with background information on this site/page as to what these steelhead are about, which will help you understand why someone is here at the Pool from May through the end of the year.
No poaching activity, unlawful fishing, or harassment of the steelhead in the Pool observed in May.
At the end of May there were up to six-steelhead in the Pool.
There were 22 visitors to the Pool.
The Airstream trailer was brought up to the Big Bend Pool from its winter-over location on the U.S. Forest Service & Oregon Department of Transportation Compound at Steamboat on Saturday, May 15.
My first night staying over was on Sunday, May 16.
I expect to stay overnight at the Pool every night to the end of the season.
It takes a week or two to get the trailer and sight in order at the beginning of the season, which requires a lot of trips back and forth between home at Steamboat and the Pool, and shopping in Roseburg.
Steamboat is 11-miles from the Pool, and Roseburg is 39-miles from Steamboat in the opposite direction.
Luckily there are very few fish in the Pool to look after at this point, which allows me to spend more time away from the Pool while I do chores.
This year on Saturday, May 15, there were no steelhead in the Pool, the same as when I came up to do a site inspection on Tuesday, May 5, prior to moving the Airstream up.
I thought it was a bit unusual to not see any fish in the Pool by May 15.
On Sunday, May 16, at 19:30, I checked the water temperature in Big Bend Creek just above its confluence with Steamboat Creek.
The temperature was 48.5F (Fahrenheit) on my fisherman’s alcohol thermometer.
It seems a bit high for this early in the year.
On Saturday, May 22, I did a comprehensive water temperature check – Steamboat Creek above Big Bend Creek (SC above BBC), Big Bend Creek (BBC), and Bottom of the Pool – using two fisherman’s alcohol thermometers for a little better accuracy (I hope):
SC above BBC 47-50F,
BBC 42-44F,
Bottom of the Pool 44-46F.
I heard that at the end of the first week of May, steelhead were observed jumping the falls at Deadline at the bottom of the fly fishing only water, which is approximately 17-miles downstream from Steamboat, where Steamboat Creek meets the North Umpqua River, and its another 10.6-miles up Steamboat Creek from there to the Big Bend Pool.
The assumption is that these are “Spring” (first of the summer) steelhead, which are known to move very quickly upstream and don’t “hang around.”
On Saturday, May 29, the first three steelhead showed up in the Pool.
There was one steelhead in the Lower Bend Pool about 3/8-mile downstream.
Water temperatures that day around 15:40 were:
SC above BBC 58-60F,
BBC 51-54F,
Bottom of the Pool 54-56F.
On Sunday, May 30, there were four steelhead in the Pool.
On Monday, May 31, there were six steelhead in the Pool.
I did not look into the Pool on Tuesday, June 1 at noon because I had to go shopping in Roseburg.
On Tuesday, June 2, there were three steelhead in the Pool, which is to say that the water temperature throughout the stream is comfortable for the fish at the moment so they will be moving in and out of the Pool, until the hotter summer water temperatures restrict their movement, as they seek cooler water temperatures, i.e., under 64F.
At the moment the sun is at its zenith over the Pool at 13:15, which is the optimal time to look into the depths of the Pool.
The weather during the last two weeks of May started out cold at night (40s), with mild (60s & 70s) daytime temperatures.
There were a couple of days of rainfall that raised the stream a couple of inches at the end of the month.
The very end of the month saw the beginning of a heat wave with daytime temperatures reaching the 90s, and no precipitation.
The stream level seems to be at early summer lows, unusual for this time of year when there should still be some winter snow pack run-off.
The water is still a little green, and not “gin” clear as in mid to late summer.
22 people visited the Pool this month while I was there.
16 of those 22-visitors came over Memorial Day Weekend (3-days).
The barrier to the entrance to the viewing area has not been installed by the USFS yet, which will help deter people from going down to the viewing area…I hope.
Very few people have used the public portable toilet on-site in May.
I have reserved (locked) one of the two portable toilets for my personal use as a health safety precaution.
End of the FishWatch Monthly Report for May 2021.
