gee creek watershed restoration - WSU Clark County Extension ...

Salmon and Trout Use HistoryLittle information was found regarding the early history of salmon and trout use in GeeCreek. The only written reference suggesting salmon spawning in Gee Creek was in1951. 49 The earliest spawning reference is one oral history source which reported a fewdog (chum) salmon during fall in a tributary to Gee Creek in the late 1940’s. 25a Trout[mostly identified as cutthroat] have been reported anecdotally in the creek for manydecades. In the late 1990’s juvenile steelhead, coho, Chinook salmon, and cutthroat troutwere sampled by screw trap and electrofishing. 22,23,24 Electrofishing conducted mostrecently from 2002-2005 above the RNWR Carty Unit found only cutthroat trout andjuvenile coho. 56 The coho are of uncertain origin as school project releases have beenreported but are as yet undocumented. 56Anecdotal information:Roy Garrison reported that sometime in the fall of the year around 1946, 1947, or 1948he went with the Bottemiller boys to Gee Creek between Carty Road and Royle Road,along a tributary which extended up into the Bottemiller farm. Dog salmon came up thecreek. They set up a beet pulp feed sack (3X bigger than a normal burlap feed sack) about75-100 yards up the tributary from Gee Creek. One kid would be at the sack and theothers would walk up the tributary and push chum salmon up the creek into the sack.They would get one or 2 fish in the sack. There were only a limited number of dogsalmon in the creek at this time, but more than 1 or 2 fish. (Above paragraph) 25a Herecalls people fishing for cutthroat trout – for eating as late at the 1980’s - but for yearshas not seen fish greater than 12-14”.John Burrows, Ridgefield resident, was born on Bachelor Island in 1915 and moved offthe island at age 6 in 1921. The Burrows family had homesteaded on the island in 1850.John used to help milk cows for the Carty family and rode horseback with the Cartybrothers across the Carty farm - what is now the Carty Unit of the Ridgefield Refuge.John had no recollection or stories of spawning salmon, despite living for more than 80years in the Ridgefield area. He recalled “salmon trout” and “brook trout-little cutthroat”in the creek. They could keep 6” fish and larger. Some fish were 14-16 inches, and thesebigger fish were in the tidewater reach of Gee Creek. (Above paragraph) 6a‘Lefty’ Kraus, another long-time Ridgefield resident, reported fishing 1943-44 in thecreek but only saw trout: “Most were cutthroat”. He fished from Pioneer St. down towhat is now the Heron Drive Bridge. The winter size of the trout was up to 16-18”.(Above paragraph) 31A second-hand story was reported about coho salmon trying to get past a barrier nearRoyle Road “prior to the 1950’s”. This was told to Rich Batchert, NRCS, Brush Prairie,WA. by an area resident while Rich was working on a dairy project in the Royle Roadarea of Gee Creek several years ago. 422