Our First Steelhead Sighting

After 22 years of releasing steelhead fingerlings into the Mark West Creek, I saw my first spawner today. I have been told by many old timers that spawners have been sighted throughout the years, but not by me. This is probably for two reasons. The first is the time of day that I take the students down to the creek. The fish are usually in hiding. The second is probably the water level. Normally the water level is much too high to see much. However, with the lack of rain the water is shallow and clear.

On this day, we were gathering our water monitoring data. While some of the students were checking on the deer carcus, I was watching Jonathan and Madalynn taking the final readings. As I look across the water, a large ripple started moving toward us. I assumed it was the otter that I have seen and excitedly pointed it out to the kids. As it came into view, we could see that it was a large colorful male steelhead. It circled a few times as the rest of the crew came running. We all watched as it shot the rapids back towards the sea. Ms. Hansen whiped out her phone and got a shot of the dorsal fin as it went by.

I know the chances of that fish being part of our program are very small. Only 3% of the eggs laid in the wild make it back to spawn. I still want to believe that it may be one or related to one of the 1,290 fish that my classes have released at that very spot.

Gary Graves