by Scott | Oct 24, 2012 | News, Radio Telemetry Pilot Study
Thanks to the efforts of a dedicated group of volunteer anglers and the ODFW staff, we’ve tagged 20 rainbow trout with radio transmitters. The first tag was deployed on October 13th, and the last tag on October 22nd. The trout ranged from 248m (9.8″) to 525mm (20.7″) fork length. The distribution of sizes as shown below should provide an excellent cross-section of age classes. This completes the first step of the Radio Telemetry Pilot Study. Meet the stars of the show at Meet Our...
by Scott | Oct 8, 2012 | News, Radio Telemetry Pilot Study
Thanks to the generosity of the University of Idaho, the Oregon Council of the FFF, The McKenzie Flyfishers, and Trout Unlimited Chapter 678, we are adding a radio telemetry component to the study in October, 2012. Little is known about the seasonal movement of rainbow trout in the McKenzie River. This study will attempt to document the movement of several fish over the course of a calendar year. For more information, please visit our Radio Telemetry Pilot Study page....
by Scott | Aug 12, 2012 | Five Year Mark & Recapture Study, News
The end of the 2012 Mark & Recapture Study season was marked by two passes of electrofishing from the ODFW Springfield crew on August 8th, 2012. Nearly 200 fish were captured over the course of the day. I had the pleasure of joining the ODFW crew (Jeff, Kelly, Shannon, Matt) for a day of electrofishing on the Hendricks-Bellinger stretch. The ODFW driftboat contains a generator which powers two ‘squids’ at the end of retractable poles. The squids are outset slightly from the front of the boat. The electrical current stuns the fish, which come up to the surface. Two people in the front of the boat have dip nets and gather up the fish.It all seems simple enough, until you add in the dimensions of moving water, confined space, 10’ long nets, fish that are only stunned for a very brief instant, and loud noise of the generator which makes communication nearly impossible. It requires an impressive amount of skill on the part of the rower, as well as quick reaction from the dipnetters. Jeff manned the sticks for the entirety of our two runs. The four of the rest of us rotated on net for the first run (the other two following in my boat). Kelly and Shannon went back to the office for the second run, leaving the greenhorns (Matt and myself) to learn on the fly. Our first pass down the left side of the river yielded only a half-dozen or so trout that met the 150mm criteria. The second run down the right bank was more productive, and we ended up with 25ish trout in the book,...
