2015 was a unique year in the lateness of the run.  A sighting on Secret Ravine on December 17^th signaled the apparent start of the run.  Mike Healy of CDFW speculated that water temperature caused the delay and noted that runs were late in other watersheds also.

Because it was hard to know when fish would be present we weren’t able to recruit enough volunteers to cover many reaches, but we greatly appreciate those who did turn out and there were many others checking in by email. We focused on Secret Ravine and upper Dry Creek which are usually most productive.

In trying to compare this year to other recent years it looks like the total would have at least doubled if we had been able to cover more reaches.

Numbers from the Auburn Ravine volunteers have not been released but are reported to be very low also.  (CDFW didn’t survey this year.)  Dry Creek  and American River enter the Sacramento River in different locations so it’s likely the cause of the low numbers is at a higher system level than the individual creeks.  Completion of the fish screens on Pleasant Grove Canal should boost numbers in future years.

There is also a group surveying Arcade Creek this year and they report seeing several spawners.

[embeddoc url=”https://sarsas.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dry-creek-spawning-survey2010-2015.pdf”]