We ran downstream this week, covering almost 16 miles of water from Bellinger Landing (RM 19.0) to Armitage Park (RM 3.5). We found five of our fish; three in the immediate vicinity of the Bellinger ramp. Two others (Sven and Mike S.) have taken up residence at RM 17.3.
The combination of last week’s jet sled trip and this week’s drift have covered the majority of the Lower McKenzie. In total, we’ve searched from RM 3.5 up to RM 27.0. As you can see above, our fish are evenly dispersed in a relatively narrow band of river between RM 17.3 and RM 22.6.
Despite our recent searches, we’ve got five fish who are AWOL:
009 “Gil” – last seen 11/16 at RM 20.6
011 “Stanley” – last seen 11/30 at RM 22.3
014 “Finn” – last seen 11/24 at RM 22.6
015 “Dixie” – never located
020 “Harvey” – last seen 11/30 at RM 19.1
So where are they? The suspicion on the street is they’re tucked into side channels and/or locations (crevices?) which make getting a radio signal difficult. We have acquired a new receiver which may make detection easier, and plan to cover the area above the study section next week (week of 2/3).