April Aerial Survey and Field Season Dates

Post date: Apr 24, 2014 9:57:35 PM

April's aerial survey went well, and our tagged fish remained in the same general areas as the previous flights. Several of the fish undertook short movements of up to 6 kilometers from their former overwintering locations.

The Susitna was still mostly frozen, although open leads have widened and flows have increased with the start of runoff. The Chulitna River was becoming more silty, while the Susitna remained fairly clear. Willow Creek was open in most places, although the water was high and turbid. Kashwitna and Sheep Creeks remained frozen over for the most part. Surprisingly, Montana Creek was fairly open and running very clear.

Weather was sunny and warm, with great views of Denali

Our next aerial survey will likely be mid-May, although we are kicking around the idea of doing two in May and two in June because the fish will probably be dispersing widely to spawn during this time.

Our first week of on-the-ground tracking at Willow and Deception will be May 13-16. Each week we will try to raft all of Willow from the canyon down to the mouth (provided the water isn't dangerously high), and will hike about 7 miles of Deception creek. We will be installing in-stream temperature loggers that week as well.

We won't start fishing bows (for work anyhow) until our ADFG permit opens on June 15. We will be out there pretty much every week this summer unless water/weather conditions prohibit conducting our work.

Looking forward to the field season and summer. Good luck to those of you who are already out fishing!

-Kevin