February 21st: I can only hope Willy’s going through a couple of tropical downpours in Hawaii, just so we can feel better !! If anyone has a couple of hours to waste on Saturday, we’ll finish off the tanks that need a bit more support and get troughs#1 – 4 cleaned and ready for this year’s tenants. If it decides to let up on the rain, there’s a couple of other chores that could be tackled, but we’ll see what the weather’s like. See you on the weekend. Mel
February 5th: We’re getting close to ponding time and we need to get some prep work out of the way. Brian Meads and his sidekicks have been installing shelving in the storage rooms and there’s some work to do there as well, so it’s work-party time. Saturday, February 11, is the day and we’ll meet at the gate on Butler’s road at 8:30. It may or may not be locked, but someone will be standing by if it is. Lots of stuff to tackle – so if you can spare the day, come on out and have a free lunch. Hatching is pretty well over and went well, good survival. We got through the crappy weather with no problems, which is always nice. Don’t forget the general meeting coming up on Wednesday, Feb. 15 and the Derby meeting on the 14 th. Mel
January 6th: We’ll be shocking more trays next week on Thursday again, at the usual time. With any luck, it’ll be almost the end of the process for the year – next thing will be ponding time, still a ways away, but getting closer. Hope everybody had a great holiday. General meeting next Wednesday, by the way and the first Derby meeting the day before. Hope to see lots of you at both ! Mel
Dec 29th: Almost there – six trays left to shock. We’ll do a few more next Thursday, which should be Jan. 05, I think. Sometime next year, anyway ! The Nitinat Chinook are hatched, as are our own, but they’ll be a long time in the trays, yet. Quick reminder – our first derby meeting is set for January 10, Tuesday, at Gerry’s place at 7 p.m. It would be nice to see a couple of new faces this year, so, if you can spare some time to help out, come on out. Mel
Dec 22nd: It will be a few days before any trays are ready for shocking. We’ll be doing the next ones on Dec. 29, Thursday, next week, if you have an hour or two to spend staring into a bowl of eyes looking back at you. Dress warm – I’m still thawing my hands. Hatching is underway in the first Chinook trays, so that’s a good sign. Lots of time before they’re in the troughs, but things are on track. Hope Santa’s good to everyone and the food is good over the holiday. Mel
Dec 17th: The plan at the moment is to shock whatever trays are ready on Thursday, next week. It’ll probably be two or three trays, so if you’re up to your armpits in Xmas stuff, no real need for a lot of people. Any and all are welcome, of course. Butler’s gate at 8:30, as usual. Mel
Dec 15th: At the meeting last night, the “Fish Guru” decided that, due to really low water temperatures, there won’t be any trays to shock for at least a week. The next trays still need about 25 ATU’s and, at the snail rate of 2-3 degrees a day, it’ll be a while. We’ll keep an eye on things and pass along the status over the next while. I asked for volunteers to be ready for Xmas morning, but the response was what has to called “lackluster” at best. Hell – I didn’t even put my hand up !! Anyway – I’ll keep the loop open. While it’s still a ways away, we need to start thinking about the Feeder arrangements down the road. Mornings are pretty well filled, but we will need a few people to do afternoons. They’re pretty easy, since all the cleaning and “morting” has been dealt with – it’s just a matter of feeding for a few hours. If you have an afternoon that you can offer, let me know and we’ll work on a schedule. Have a great holiday and hope Santa’s good to everyone. Mel
Dec 3rd: Four trays of coho eggs were shocked this morning and there won’t be any more to deal with until next weekend. Probably Saturday, with the temperature dropping. T he water has been shut off to anything unneeded in the hatchery, so the office has no flow for the next while. If you want coffee, you’ll have to hike to the troughs to fill the kettle. When you do your daily temperature checks, keep an eye on flows in the Incubator room, just to be on the safe side. Quick reminder – General meeting on Dec. 14, Wednesday at the usual time and place. Mel
Nov 30th: We have officially finished with the harvest for this year, no more broodstock on site and lots of eggs waiting their turn. There will be a few trays of eggs to shock on Saturday morning, if anyone has a couple of hours and wants to see the process. We’ll meet at Butler’s gate at 8:30 and go from there. Mel
Nov 26th: The barriers were removed from the weir today, thanks to a great turnout of bodies. Turns out there wasn’t a lot of damage, but several weld let go and pipes were lost out of the frames – minor repairs will fix things. Five females were ready so we only have six fish to harvest and that part of the year’s chores is done. We’ll be looking at them again on Monday at the usual time, hopefully, for the last time. Mel
Nov 25th: Two more females were ready today, so we’re getting there. Still a dozen hold-outs, but they’re not far off. We hope to get the bars out of the weir on Saturday morning, while the cold weather has the water dropping a bit. They’ve suffered a bit of damage in the freshet, so it would be nice to remove them. We’ll meet at the weir at 8:30 and tackle the job, then go to the hatchery. Mel
Nov 24th: As most of you can guess, removing the bars at the weir wasn’t happening. Everything was underwater by a foot or so. None of the fish were ready at the hatchery, either, so the morning was mostly a social event around the coffeepot.We’ll be going through the fish again on Friday morning, usual time of 8:30. Mel
Nov 21st: We took eggs from one more coho this morning and shocked one coho tray. The next visit will be on Wednesday morning and there is another chore we hope to get out of the way. Since there aren’t any more fish coming up Demamiel that we need to intercept, the bars can come out at the weir. Hopefully, the water will be at a working level on Wednesday morning and the plan is to stop there first and deal with them. Its a job for as many bodies as possible, so – if you have an hour to spare, it would be nice to see some extra hands.We’ll meet at the Weir, not the gate, at 8:30 and load the bars into (hopefully) either Bryan or Les’s truck and go to the hatchery from there. Hope to see lots of you then. Mel
Nov 18th: There will be a check done on the females at the hatchery on Saturday morning and possibly a tray or two to be shocked. If you’re free and want to help out, be at the gate by 8:30 a.m. The gate may be open if the wood-cutters are in, if not – someone will be there to look after the gate. Mel
Nov 15th: We now have all the broodstock coho in the hatchery that we need to reach our target for the year – yaay! There are still a few fish coming up, so the trap has been opened to allow them to carry on and do their thing. The next visit to the maternity ward will be on Thursday morning. We have 19 females and a bunch of males pacing up and down the halls, waiting for the big moment, so we’ll go through them and do what we can
The trip to Nitinat went well, great weather and no bad jokes, since Phil couldn’t make it. We saw two or three trees the loggers missed on the way in, but, judging by the number of logging trucks on the road, it won’t be long before their number is up. Thanks to the people who went along, the work went really fast, we were home and done by four-ish
So – Thursday morning at the gate or the hatchery (if the gate’s open) and we’ll collect some eggs. Mel
Nov 11th: Still getting eggs – one or two fish at a time. Sunday will be the next day for going through the females, if you have an hour or two to lend a hand. 8:30 at the gate or the hatchery, if the gate is open. Mel
Nov 10th: It was nice to see a good turnout for the AGM last night – our new slate of officers has been installed and is ready to go for the year If you have a couple of hours to spare, we have some stuff that we need to deal with tomorrow (Friday). Our eggs are coming from Nitinat on Monday and we need to clean the stack of trays where they’ll be residing. We also should have some coho ready to harvest. It’s not a long list and shouldn’t take long, and the more people, the quicker it’ll go. SO – meeting at the gate at 8:30, if it’s open, just head on in to the hatchery – if not, someone will be there with a key.We took eggs from five females today and we have another fifteen in the tanks. Just over 75,000 eggs to date, so we’re getting there. There were six new females in the trap on Wednesday, a nice sign, but nothing today. Oh well, we’ll keep the hope alive for a while yet, maybe with some rain.
The plan for the Nitinat trip is to leave around 6:30 and hopefully be back at the hatchery around 4-ish. We could save time if we didn’t stop to eat, but all the whining from the backseat is worse than a holiday with little kids back there, so we’ll stop to let them gorge on junk food somewhere, I imagine. If anyone has some time on Monday afternoon, around that time, let me know and I’ll call when we’re getting close to Sooke to set a time at the gate. Mel
Nov 7th: The next day to check the fish will be on Wednesday. Remember the AGM on Wednesday and show up for the festivities. We’ll be going up to Nitinat for our eggs on Monday and there’s room for four or five in the truck. It’s an all-day event, we’re usually back at the hatchery around 3 or 4. It’ll be a bit later, this year, since we can’t get the coolers until Monday, on the way up. Hope to see lots of you at the meeting. Mel
Nov 4th The next coho session will be on Saturday. There’s still no sign of more fish at the weir, but keep your fingers crossed – we could use more stock. On Monday, we’ll be doing a check and shocking a few trays, if anyone is interested. Remember the AGM on Wednesday next week – usual place and time, the Hall at 7p.m.
The latest info I have on the Bill James dam issue is that DFO have been up there to remove the valve, or at least – they were going in with that in mind. Whether they got it done with the dam full is another story – haven’t heard the final chapter yet. Mel
Nov 1st: With the colder water, there wasn’t anything ready this morning and we’ll leave them alone until Thursday – so we’ll try again on Thursday morning at the usual time – 8:30. Mel
Oct 30th: One more female ready at the hatchery this morning. We’ll be doing checks every morning, for the foreseeable future and, with any luck and some more rain, there’ll be more fish at the weir. So – 8:30 at the hatchery will be a daily occurrence, if anyone wants to come up and join in. Mel
Oct 29th: One lonely female and one male in the trap – that rain didn’t do it’s magic, unfortunately. We harvested her and four other females, so the numbers are climbing, just slowly. Something in the region of 25,000 eggs (coho) to date. We’re going to take another look tomorrow, if anyone is free. 8:30 at the gate or the hatchery, if the gate’s open.
****** A reminder for everyone – AGM on the 9 th. Society dues are due this month, as well, so – bring money. Mel
Oct 27th. We’re still waiting for enough rain to bring more coho up to the weir, so nothing’s changed on that front. There were three females at the hatchery ready for harvest this morning, so we now have approximately 15,000 coho eggs in the trays. We’ll be checking the rest again on Saturday morning, so come on out if you have an hour or two to spare, hopefully there will be a couple more ready. The gate will most likely be open for the woodcutters, failing that, there will be someone there at 8:30 a.m. Mel
Oct 25th. Nothing new to report from the weir – still waiting for the next rains to bring ( hopefully) the next run of coho. The fish in the hatchery are still playing coy, but it looks like there will be several ladies ready on Thursday, when we check them again. Usual time – 8:30 a.m.
I have a request from Tony for a copy of the video the Society had made several years ago, when we were still hoping to see action at the Falls. It was a commentary on the Sooke river and the possibilities for the future. The work was done by a company from Victoria. If anyone has a copy, could you let me know ? The copy I have is faulty and won’t play all the way through. Mel
Oct. 23rd. Tuesday will be the next session for going through the fish at the hatchery. Usual 8:30 start. We took eggs from two more coho this morning. If conditions pick up, we may have new fish at the weir later in the week, but that’s dependant on water in the creek. Mel
Oct. 19th. Good day, people; The coho were checked this morning, but none of the ladies was in the mood. So – next visit will be on Saturday morning. There should, with any luck, be one or two that are ready to donate to the cause. Usual time – 8:30 at the gate, or – if the gate is open, at the hatchery.
Oh yeah – I want to apologize to Tabitha, Duncan and Gray, the young people that worked so hard on the weekend, I thought those were your names, but didn’t want to stick my neck out until I checked, to make sure credit went where credit was due. Again, our thanks for the help, you made us old farts feel like we’d gotten our message out somewhere useful. Mel
Oct. 18th. Evening, everybody, The first coho eggs are in the maternity ward. One female was ready this morning and gave her all. We’ll check the ladies again on Wednesday. There’s no sign of any new fish with the water down in the creek, so that’s not an issue for now, until we see more rain. So – 8:30 on Wednesday, if you have a couple of hours you need to fill. The gate on Butler’s road has been open during the week, but, if it isn’t, we’ll meet there. If it’s open – first one in, make the coffee and light the fire. Mel
Oct. 15th. Evening, everybody; The trap & fence have been removed and stashed at the hatchery for another year. A large “well done” to everybody who put in a couple of busy hours at John’s. No-one went swimming, although there were quite a few damp people by the end, from fishing around in the river (and the water is getting VERY cold).
For those who worry about the next generation, if the three young people who came out and spent the whole morning in the river, working like crazy, are any indication – we don’t have a lot to worry about – the world should be in good hands. I was particularly impressed with the young lady, who’s name I have lost (ain’t age a terrible thing) but who was as wet as possible, by the time she finally crawled out. Well done, you three. Not much going on at the weir, the fish have either moved up or down, but there aren’t any in the pool at the moment. We’ll meet at the weir Monday morning at 8:30, just to check, then go up to check the fish in the hatchery. That’s all there is on the news front for the moment, hope to see you around the hatchery over the next while, for the egg-taking. Mel
Oct. 14th. Hello, all; The coho have arrived at the weir with a vengeance. We released over a thousand today and moved most of what we need for broodstock to the hatchery. If you want to see a amazing sight, come out to the weir tomorrow morning and see a body of coho that’s incredible. We’ll be tending the trap for most of the day and going through the fish at the hatchery to get an idea of close/not close in the females. Another busy day, I suspect. Still planning to pull the gear from the river at John’s on Saturday. Meet at the High School at 8:30 a.m. Mel
Oct. 13th. Evening, all; It’s time to haul the fence and trap out of the river. We’re hoping the weatherman is telling the truth and the river should be down by Saturday, so that’s the day. We’ll meet at the High School at 8:30 and go at it, as long as conditions allow. If you can possibly give a hand for a couple of hours, it would be appreciated. It’s a fairly easy job, with enough people, so try to make some time, if you can. Mel
Oct. 12th. Good morning, everybody; Well – we know the trap setup at John’s was put in with great expertise. It’s resisting the freshet quite nicely, so far. Isn’t doing much good as far as catching anything, but it’s staying in place real good !! We’ve called it a season at this point for Chinook harvest, unfortunately, since anything that was waiting at John’s is now busily looking for suitable nesting spots upriver. The magic number for this year is 116,000 eggs, rough count, much better than last year, but short of what we’d hoped for. Messing with Mother Nature has not been successful for us, again. Ah well – there’s always next year, right ?
We have Coho at the Demamiel weir this morning, just a few, but the first of the wave. The focus will be on that part of the annual harvest, for the next while. The weir and trap will have to be checked at least every morning, so we’ll call it 8:30 at the bridge, for now. That’s the bridge on Demamiel, by the trap. Harvest will depend on the fish and how far along they are. More on that as we go along. Water levels at the hatchery are back to normal for the time of year – no problems there. General meeting tonight, everybody – usual place and time. Hope to see you there. Mel
Oct. 7th. Hey, Gang; We currently have Chinook eggs in 10 trays, for a rough total of 70,000 eggs. Still a few females waiting their turn and, hopefully, a fair number of Chinook in the pools at John’s that we’ll get a chance at when the rains come ( if ever !!) We’re meeting every morning at 8:30 to check the trap – week days at the Soccer Pitch and week-ends at the High School, if you want to come out for the fun. The trap will stay in the water for now, in the hopes of taking more Chinook, but we’ll be watching things closely and may holler at a moment’s notice if we need to get it out in a hurry for weather. Stay tuned on that one.
There will be a regular General meeting next week on Wednesday at the hall, usual time – 7 p.m. It’s early days yet, but we will be looking for afternoon feeders in the Spring, once the fry are in the troughs and feeding. Keep it in mind, and, if you can spare an afternoon, one day a week, let me know. Mel
Oct. 4th. Me, again; Let’s call the start day for this year as Sunday, Oct. 08. There will be someone there every day for quite a while, during the broodstock process, but if we get into the routine now, we should be ahead of the curve. If there’s a problem for anyone, let me know. Mel
Oct. 4th. Hi, Group; I’ve attached the list for the morning checks. As usual, there will be a key at Jack McLeod’s house and the combination is the same. There will only be one key there for now, but there will be two once we start the feeding procedure in the Spring.
As in the past, the list will be in the office and if there is a question, call myself or Bill. If anyone has to be elsewhere for one of their days, just holler and we’ll find a fill-in. Thanks for your help, everyone. Mel
Oct. 3rd. Hey, People; Before the rains come in earnest, which will be sooner than later, we hope, we need to do some work at the Demamiel weir.The trap needs a little TLC and the aluminum gates need to be put in place. Anyone who’s been there for the chore knows what lovely things they are to deal with, so a few extra hands would be great. The plan is to check the trap at John’s on Tuesday morning, go up to the hatchery to check out the broodstock, then do the work at the weir. We’ll meet at the Soccer Pitch at 8:30 and kickstart the day from there. If you have a couple of hours that are in need of activity, we can help out with that. Hope to see you Tuesday.
We currently have about 20,000 eggs in the trays, so we’ve made a dent in the production plan. Pray for rain, not too much, just enough to tweek the fish. Mel
Oct. 2nd. Hi, everybody; Great turnout today, thanks for all the bodies. The first seine, for those who couldn’t make it, was great practise, but not a great harvest. The second one – in the upper pool – was a bumper crop. We actually had to release 40-50 nice Chinook that we don’t have the water to handle at the moment. Hopefully, they’ll show up in the trap in a few days, when we get some rain. At the moment, we have fairly good numbers on hand to work with.
The plan for tomorrow (Sunday) is to meet at the High School again and go to John’s to check the trap, pick up the trailer and the last of the gear, then go up to the hatchery and go through the fish there. We plan to move some of the fish in the pens at Young Lake to the hatchery, since our water flow has improved a bit. If you want to see the harvesting process and have a free morning, meet us at the School at 8:30.Again, thanks for the great turnout and all the help. Mel
OCTOBER
Sept. 27th. Good day; We now have seven Chinook in the hatchery. We are planning to do a seine for more on the weekend, Saturday, October 1st. If you can spare a morning on Friday, we will be rounding up all the gear and moving it to the river. Usual plan – meet at the gate on Butler road at 8:30. If you are free on Saturday, we will meet at the parking lot at the High School and try to keep the vehicles on John’s fields to a minimum. Meeting time – 8:30 . If you know anyone interested in seeing what we do and helping out, invite them along. It’s usually a fun morning and the more, the merrier.
Once we have eggs in the trays, it’s time for the daily checks to start, so – if you can spare an hour in the morning to go to the hatchery and do the daily checks, please let me know and I can come up with a schedule. Mel
Sept. 27th. Hi, everyone; Now that we’re seeing fish in the trap, we need to check it every morning. The plan is to meet at the Soccer Pitch parking lot at 8:30 and go from there. If you’re free and want to see what goes on and lend a hand, come on out. Mel
Sept. 26th. Hi , Everyone; On a positive note – we have two Chinook in the trap, as of this morning. Look like females. Good size. We’re going to move them to the hatchery this afternoon, in case the river rises as quickly as it did last year.
Tomorrow morning (Tuesday), we’re planning to do a clean-up on the Heath trays and the filter box, in preparation for the next phase, egg take. If a few people have a morning to spare, we’ll meet at the gate on Butler’s road at 8:30 and start. A couple of people will go down and check the trap and take any fish that show up overnight, assuming we don’t get a huge freshet by then. Mel
Sept. 25th Hello everyone..... Here is the latest
Completed Items :-
- Repair of the main water line into the Hatchery
- Modifications to the fish fence panels and rails
- removal of towers etc in lower hatchery tanks 8 through 11
- Installation of anchor for fish fence main cable
- Road base trucked in and graded on lower road at John Martin's
- Installation of fish fence on the Sooke River
- Inspection of dam at Bradford Swamp
- General site maintenance at the hatchery
Not a bad couple of weeks. I want to say a big thank you to all of you that helped out over the past two weeks to get all this work done. It was great to see some new faces join us in our efforts
As some of you may know, our president , Mel Hull , has been away on a cross country tour for the past few weeks. He is now back safe and sound and will once again lead the charge moving forward.
So once again, thank you for your help and patience working with a short , aging , Vice President
See you all soon Cheers Robert Gamache , VP SSES
Sept. 21st. Let the Games begin............. Here is the latest confirmed work schedule
Friday Sept 23rd We will meet at the gate on Butler Main at 9 AM and go up to the hatchery and load up
all the bits and pieces for the fish fence and haul it down to John Martins. The fence panels and
railway irons are already down on the river bank.
Saturday Sept 24th We will meet at the parking lot at The high school and proceed from there by car pool
to John Martins and install the fish fence.
Fish are currently making there way into the lower reaches of the Sooke.
Water levels remain very low but we are supposed to get rain in varying
quantities over the next few days.
The only thing that may hold us up is if we have A VERY LARGE rainfall
that would not allow us to get in the river , but from the forecasts I can see that is not likely.
Keep an eye on your email for possible updates. If anyone has questions or concerns let me kno Thanks Robert
Sept. 17th. Good day fellow fish heads................
Another week gone by and some good things done Thank you to all who attended our first General meeting of the season.
All went well, Robert did not set off the alarm or burn the building to the ground on his first try at hosting a general meeting.
SSES would like to welcome potential new members that attended Tabitha Jones Azlyn Jones Duncan Morrison Gray Forbes
Good to see some new faces. During the week , Bill Pedneault , Glenn Bell and myself .........
Thursday,
Dam Beaver anyway ! , Still need to clear the grate on DeMamiel Spillway each day
That bit of Rain from the Day previous must have been more substantial in the hills
as the water flow was up considerably. Water flows in the Sooke were only up marginally.
Lent a hand down at Bohn's fabricating and got the balance of the modifications done to the fish fence panels and subsequently took them down to the river at John Martin's place, one less truck load to haul down there next Friday.
Friday,
Met 4M Bobcat Service at John Martin's ( way too early in the morning )With a good sized Excavator and haul truck we fixed up portions of the road
down to the river and also installed our new cable anchor at the river to help secure the cable that holds the fish fence in place. We believe this turned out
very well.
The three of us will be at the Hatchery Monday Morning to do a few minor chores and some
planning for next weekend fish fence install. If anyone want to pitch in on Monday let me
know and I will advise more specifics of what might be needed.
Everything being equal , Weather , Rain , ETC
We are still targeting Next Friday to Bring Components of the fish fence to the river
and install it in the river on Saturday.
Friday , We will meet at the gate on Butler Main at 9 AM
As far as Install day Saturday, we will try what we started last year by meeting at Edward Milne High School parking lot at 9 AM
and Car Pooling ( Truck Pool ? ) from there to John Martin's place in order to minimize the number of vehicles and commotion down at his place.
If anyone needs , Directions, More details , let me know We will confirm by Email mid week. I think that's it for now Cheers
Robert Gamache, VP SSES
Sept. 12th. Me again ........ On Sunday, a number of members got some great work done at the hatchery. We moved a bunch of road base around the site and ran a compacter over it. Hopefully it won't be as bone rattling experience on our site now that the pot holes have been filled. We also did a lot of weed trimming , pruning and chain saw work A big Thank you to ....
Andy, Bryan, Bill, Don, Les, Les and Tony. To those who could not attend WE HAD MILK AND COOKIES , SO THERE !
A couple of reminders General Meeting on the 14th, Sooke Town Hall , 7 pm
We are watching out for imminent rain to kick off our Brood Stock take. Still targeting install of the fish fence on the 23rd ( Muster of equipment ) and 24th to install in the river Details to follow as these projects get nearer. Cheers Robert Gamache
Sept. 8th. Howdy Y ' all, After a productive executive meeting yesterday we have the following news flash. We will have a work party at the hatchery on Sunday Sept 11th to .......... Spread some gravel into pot holes and a few other spots on our road and parking area, Do a bit more weed trimming and site maintenance. If you have a weed trimmer and want to get it out of the house we will supply the fuel. Install the towers in tanks 8 through 11. Perhaps a bit of PREP work to look at organizing items for installation of the fish fence in a couple of weeks.
So if you have some time to spare on Sunday we will meet at the gate at 9 AM
It is our intention to install the fish Fence on the Sooke River Sept 24 th. We will need to move a number of items down to John Martin's place on Friday Sept 23rd. I believe Bryan Meads is out of town so we may be a bit short on trucks.
Please reply back to me if you will be able to attend on the Friday or Saturday as we would like to ensure that we have the resources to make this happen. Details as to times and meeting places will be forthcoming.
F Y I , we are currently doing some modifications to the fence panels down at Bohns Fabricating in the hopes of making the installation and removal of the fish fence less of a chore. Next General meeting is at the Sooke community hall , Wednesday Sept 14th , 7 PM , be there or be square !
Thanks for your attention Robert Gamache , VP
August 31st. Hello all........ Yes there is a new Sheriff in town. Sadly he does not pay any higher than the other guy. Just a few quick notes
In the last few days, Jason has dumped some additional loads of road base up at the Hatchery, A small pile up where we installed the drain pipe, another small pile further down to be used for pot hole repair, a good pile on the road DOWN into the hatchery ( the road on the left ) and a bunch at the bottom where we made the area wider at the bottom, Yes it will take some work
to spread this around and possibly run a compactor on certain spots.
News forthcoming as to when we may undertake these chores, still a bit of trimming and clean up to do on the road as well etc...........
Bill , Glenn Bell and myself have moved components of the fish fence down to Bohn's Fabricating to have some upgrades ( we hope ) done to the set-up , hopefully this will help in the installation and more importantly the removal of the fish fence if we encounter high water.
Mel Hull is away for the next three weeks, so if anyone has questions, feel free to email me or call 250-642-1905.
There will be a directors meeting next week followed by our first general meeting of the season , Sept 14th , 7 PM at the Sooke Community Hall
I have just set up this list of recipients '' SSES MEMBERSHIP '' , If you can indulge me this first time around by sending me a reply that you received this email it will allow me to make sure I have entered all the email addresses correctly.
If you want to be removed from this list please let me know.
Fish are starting to show up in the harbour so we will be looking toward installing the fish fence near the third week of Sept
and of course taking brood stock first week of October, and the fun begins.........
Hope you are all having a great summer Cheers Robert Gamache, VP
August 18th. Afternoon, everybody; We had a busy day with Cristoph’s group, cleaning fish at their derby, on Saturday. Willy, Rob Gamache and me worked with three fellows from the Goldstream Hatchery. Cristoph, Dave and their committee put on a great day and we were the recipients of a cheque for a large sum of that stuff we all know and love – donated money for the hatchery.
We have to deal with the little dam builder again. He’s slowly raising his dam and we need to do some removal. If anyone can spare an hour on Tuesday morning (that’s Aug. 23) we’ll meet at the weir at 9 a.m. and go at it again. We’ve got a bunch of waders in Willy’s truck and tools, ready to go. If someone has a small rocket launcher, bring it along and we’ll saturation-bomb his house, if we can find it !! Mel
August 17th. Hi, everybody; First – thanks to everyone who worked so hard on Sunday, we got a huge amount of stuff done. A new culvert was put in near the gate to take the water off the road and the parking area at the foot of the hill was enlarged. That means more room for vehicles (hint-hint!) when we’re busy. Some additional road base will be brought in for pothole patching and the widened area by the gate will be gravelled. Bryan Meads went gonzo with his weed-whacker and improved visibility on the hill and Rob Gamache left the compound looking very tidy. Les Eve had to be restrained, finally, or he’d still be knocking down trees somewhere up Boneyard main. Good days work.
Everybody can plan the weekend for themselves, we’re not doing any work up there for awhile. It won’t be long before it’s time to go over the gear for Broodstock Harvest. There are some more wrinkles to iron out with the fence and trap. There’ll be a “think-tank” done to solve those problems at a later date.
The beaver is still doing battle with us at the weir – he (or they) are persistant, if nothing else. I figure we should sic Ken Wu on him, since he’s gnawing down a lot of trees to build his dam.
It appears that we made pretty much the same money this year, with the derby, as in past years, so all the effort was worthwhile. Huge thanks to the committee members and everyone who worked at the flats, another good one. Mel
August 9th. The tentative schedule is for the machine to come in Saturday morning, to start work on Sunday morning. That is Aug. 14. We may do some work on Saturday, but that is dependent on the operator and I won’t know that until Friday, so – for the moment, we’re planning for Sunday. Meeting at the gate at 9 a.m. Mel
August 8th.There seems to be some confusion regarding the work party times. We’re starting the work this weekend – Aug. 07 – Sunday and finishing on next Sunday – Aug. 14. Meeting at the gate at 9 a.m. Mel
August 6th. Morning, All; I’m sending this out to try and get everyone straight about the work planned. The machine guy had intended to start the road work today, work tomorrow and finish the work next Sunday. However, we realized that access to the hatchery would be impossible on Sunday, due to the Triathalon event. Sooo – we’ll start NEXT Sunday, Aug. 14th.
Sorry for the confusion – the fella doing the work for us had a change of plans that made THIS weekend a better one for him, until the Triathalon changed his new plan. We’re still planning to be at the weir on Monday morning, to do the dam removal at the grate. Mel
August 5th. If I’m reading the map and instructions right – we’re royally screwed for access on Sunday. Guess that puts paid to the work party ! We’ll have to go for the fo;;owing weekend and try to get as much done as we can. Mel
August 4th. Me, again; For some reason, my message about the weir didn’t go out to everybody. We’re planning to dig out the beaver’s handiwork on Monday at 9 a.m., before it becomes any worse. If you have an hour to spare, a few extra hands would be great. Mel
AUGUST 2011
July 19th Morning, all; We are running rather short of water for the hatchery and we’re going to evict our last tenants next week. Wednesday will be the day we put them on the street, so, if a couple of people feel like playing the “evil slumlord” , we’ll meet at the gate at 8:30 and do the deed. It shouldn’t take long, one trip to the upper Sooke.
We’ll probably take a minute and get the tank out of the truck and load up some derby stuff, at the same time. Mel
July 10th. Morning, All; The society has been officially informed of the position of DFO regarding the status of Bill James Dam. We discussed the issue at the last general meeting, but, since it wasn’t well attended and a decision has to be made quickly, I’m going to give everyone a chance to give an opinion.
DFO has made their position very clear – they intend to decommission the dam starting at the end of July. They have a multitude of reasons why they feel the structure is unnecessary, and a lengthy meeting with three representatives served no real purpose towards changing their minds.
Currently, there are several outstanding requirements that need to be addressed, in order to save the structure. The main issues are as follows:
A service road that can handle vehicle traffic for emergency purposes must be built and maintained. Estimated cost would be 10-20 thousand dollars.
A Dam Safety Assessment would have to be done by a qualified engineer – estimated cost starts at 50 thousand dollars.
Major reconstruction is needed to install an approved control valve to replace the current one that no longer meets Dam Safety Regs.- estimated cost – 50-60 thousand dollars.
Our Society would have to assume total responsibility for the structure, all licenses related to same and all liability for any damages resulting from a failure (concerning downstream environmental and private property damages)
Our Society would have to cover all costs listed above and incurred in future in regards to maintenance to dam and road.
As can be seen, this is an estimated cost of 100 thousand dollars + and would (or could) be substantially higher, once work was started
The society would have to approach the province, the logging company and DFO to look at transfer of ownership and access rights to begin the process.
As current president of the Society, I cannot, in good faith, consider the option of taking over control and ownership of the Dam. The initial costs would beggar the Society, even should they cost the estimated figures and not escalate during the process. I honestly feel that DFO is so committed to the decommissioning of this system that, in all probability, we would be fighting an on-going obstructive process from DFO in any case. Spending a small fortune for an assessment, only to have the resulting report be negative, would be a waste of resources and see the DFO preferred result anyway.
My current position, and the one chosen by the members present at the last meeting, is that we only have one viable option and that is to officially inform DFO by end July that we are not in a position to assume ownership and responsibility for the Bill James Dam. If you have an opinion regarding the issue, please pass it along and I’ll keep you informed of what happens. I’ll hold off notification until July 20th. Mel
July 9th. Hi, Everybody; Still getting used to the quiet at the hatchery, with most of the water shut off. Eerie, to say the least. We’re still feeding the steelhead and they’re doing well. Might even make it to clippable size, some of them, anyway.
The re-wiring project is on track – the new lights are on order and the work should start in the next couple of weeks. We’ll be doing some upgrades to the parking area and driveway over the next month, mostly enlarging the parking and improving drainage on the road.
We’re hoping to get the intake for the emergency water system installed in the creek in August, if the paperwork gets through the maze. Gotta love the gov’t paper work !!!
We’ve received a letter from DFO in regards to the Bill James Dam and they don’t mince words. Unless we’re prepared to assume total responsibility and cost approaching $100,000.00 for initial maintenance and upgrades, the dam is toast. Not very helpful of them !
And finally – Derby time is at hand. Any volunteers to help at the weigh-in station or the Flats would be welcomed with open arms. Rob Gamache is looking after keeping things on track for the two days and would like to have a few names. His e-mail is : robg@propeltek.com, so fire him a note, if you can help out.
Again – my thanks to all the feeders who spent so much time doing their thing, and also the one’s who are still doing it for the steelhead. This years fry were in great shape and should make us proud in three years. Mel
JULY
JUNE 18th. Good Afternoon, all; The fry have been released and are happily swimming about in the River. My thanks to everyone for another successful season. The Derby is getting close and if you can offer some time at either the Weigh-in Station or the Flats, Rob Gamache is putting together a roster of chores and volunteers. You can e-mail him at: robg@propeltek.com and sign up. There are some plans for summer work and improvements at the Hatchery, but it won’t be for a while. I’m not going to give any dates, that’ll just let you come up with alternate plans, so I’ll just spring them on you and trap everybody. I won’t be here, of course, but I’ll put somebody in charge. Just kidding, but it IS a thought. A camping trip – yeah – that’s the ticket ! Have a good summer (assuming one is coming !!) and see you at the Derby. Mel
JUNE 18th. Hi, everybody; The last of the little ones were released this morning. The only fry left are the steelhead, and we`ll hold them as long as the water holds out. It will mean a morning trip to refill the feeders and do a quick clean.
Jack and Gerry – It`s not really worth wasting a morning for you guys to come all the way out here – I`ll look after Tuesday morning for you. Thanks for your time all winter. If anyone else has better use for their time, just let me know and we`ll deal with it. A huge thanks to all of you for a lot of effort. Have a good summer (assuming there`s one coming !!) and we`ll see you in the fall. Or at the Derby. Mel
JUNE 2nd. Hey, everybody; The preference of the guys at the hatchery today was to release the smolts on Saturday and leave the net to dry overnight, then haul everything back to the hatchery on Sunday morning. So – we’ll need a few hands on Saturday to haul the net onto the float, but the biggest job will be taking it all apart and loading on Sunday.
We will be thinning twice a week from now on, as well. Saturday morning will be the first day, then Thursday. So, if you’ve missed the trips because of work, you can see what it’s all about on Saturday mornings. Hope to see you there. Mel
JUNE 2nd. Morning, everyone; Just a couple of things on the go – First – the Sea-pen. We’ll be releasing the little fellas on Saturday evening, June 11th. We’ll meet at the wharf at 6 p.m. and do the deed. The plan is to get everything back to the hatchery that day, so as many hands as possible will make it a lot easier.
The general meeting on June 15th. will be the last one for the summer. We’ll start up again in September, to start the Fall process again, getting ready for broodstock. There will be a couple of work parties over the summer months, I’ll let everyone know about times. Mel
JUNE
MAY 30th. Good Afternoon, all; We had a very successful weekend at the clipping bench. 38, 600 Coho fry went through the spa and had some serious body work done. Who knew fish were that vain, having makeovers at their age !
A huge thanks to Dave and Cristoph for the assistance of all their friends. It would have been impossible to accomplish as much without their help. But – no more media – yeeech! Kidding, really, its always good to get the story out there. And – shame on you, Willy – you disobeyed a direct order from your president to get in front of the camera – shameful !
Anyway – the weather was kind, well – most of the time – and nobody died from the cooking (always a good thing) so it was a good two days. A big thanks to all the members who turned out. Oh yeah – a special thanks to Dr. Death aka: Dr. Kevorkian Glaum, and his faithful sidekick, Igor Bryan Meads, for all those sleepy little surgical subjects. Trust me, it ain’t hard to up the dose and see them all go belly-up and give you a cardiac event. Nice work, guys.
Next Thursday – more thinning and releases, if you have a couple of hours and want to see some great country. Mel
MAY 27th. Afternoon, everybody; I know you all have the weekend all marked on your calendars for the clipping, right ? Right ?? Great. We have also been asked to have our display and stuff at the arena (actually – the pool part) on Sunday, June 5th. for a couple of hours. Its an event about salmon. I can’t be there for it, another commitment that day, so I’m looking for a couple of people to take a couple of tables and the display board down to the arena and talk to visitors that day. We’ll sort out some pamphlets and stuff to go on the table, maybe a few shirts for sale, as well. Help me out here, people. Fire me your names and I’ll set it up.
Another 28,000 fry were released today and the sea-pen smolts are doing well. If anyone wants to visit the sea-pen, feel free, and toss a few scoops of food while you’re there. The more food, the bigger the fish, when we release them. MelMAY 22nd. Hello. All; First – for the Feeders – our phone is back in service. There was a corrosion problem waaaaay down the line, by Demamiel. The tech wasn’t thrilled at the walk, but – then – neither was I ! Anyway, you can phone for your pizza next week.Next – for Jack & Gerry – stop whining, I restocked the Pop for you. Geez, run out of one thing and waa, waa, waa. I know,it’s for the kids on Tuesday. Just kidding. We’ll be stocking up on food for the Clipping session, as well, during the week, for whoever is using the Dogs and Burgers. Its good to see that stuff getting used, ‘cause frozen, wizened old buns are not the best looking things. And no remarks about mine – they ain’t all that old ! One more tray of steelhead ponded – they’re growing nicely, just slowly. Kinda doubtful if we’ll get them big enough to clip, but we’ll have to see how water holds up.
Which brings up the Coho clipping – next weekend, Saturday and Sunday. I’d really like to see a good turnout, this year. We should, at least, have as many members as the great crowd Dave and Cristoph always muster. If you can spare one day, or – preferably – two, it would be appreciated. We’ll aim to gather around 8:30 and get organized. Hey – free food and great conversation – as good as it gets, right ? Remember – next weekend – don’t make me send the goon squad after you all – we know where you live. MelMAY 10th. Morning, everybody;
I just want to remind everybody about the lock-box at Jack’s. Please be sure the box is LATCHED before you scramble the combination, when you’re dropping off the key. The door’s been found open a couple of times and that kinda wrecks the whole principle of the box. The other thing to remember is to return the key. That’s also happened a couple of times. If we lose keys – two things happen. One – I have to request a new one. Two – we have to shell out $500 for the replacement. Timber West is not thrilled to know that one of their keys is floating around loose, as you can understand and they could just as easily tell us they want their keys back and let us hang in the wind. It’s a relatively important issue and everybody needs to treat it that way. Thanks - Mel
MAY 9th. Me, again; Just in case anybody didn’t get the gist of my earlier note – if anyone is free on Thursday – it would be great to have a couple of extra hands for the thinning work. I noticed that I didn’t actually extend the invite the first time, so consider yourselves invited. The main gate has been open during the day, for the last while, so just come on in. Usual time – 8:45 – 9 a.m. Mel
Morning, everybody; We are going to be pushing a bunch of the little ones out of the nest this week, on Thursday. Time to send them to the prom. There are nine tanks & troughs that have to be thinned. Not a lot, just a couple of buckets from each. It will be a weekly thing, from this week on, so keep that in mind. I’ll put out a notice a few days in advance, hopefully on each Monday, if the tiring gray cells manage to process the data in time.
Thanks to everybody that showed up at the Rotary fair and helped out. It was a good day, lots of interest. I wish I’d known what an attractor baby fish were, when I was a lot younger – might have worked on the dating scene – who knew ? Sales were rather surprising, hats and t-shirts sold better than any other fair. Thanks for the doughnuts, Amy, my sagging cholesterol level is safe once more !
Two quick reminders – Derby meeting at Gerry’s tomorrow night and a General meeting on Wednesday – same old, same old. Mel
MAY 5th. Hey, everybody; I had a call from Bruce Petrie this morning – he fed the fry and noticed a few morts about ten minutes later. I went down and fed, but didn’t see any fatalities from the feeding. Might have been a one-off thing or something in the harbour – but keep an eye onthe pen for a few minutes after you feed. If you see anything out of whack, let me know. Mel
MAY 4th. Evening, all; As most, if not all, of you are aware, the Chinook are in the sea-pen at the gov’t wharf. For the next few days, they should be fed about half the red bucket of food in the a.m. and p.m. Once they start feeding well, we’ll up the amount. Thanks - Mel
MAY 2nd. Morning, everyone; We’re going to be clipping coho on the weekend of May 28th & 29th. The target is 40,000 over the two days, so, hopefully a number of you can give us a day, at least. Dave and Cristoph have offered their help again this year, so we need to have lots of members there, to show them we are as dedicated as they were last year. Put it on the calendar and plan to come out. Mel
MAY 2011
April 28th. Morning, everyone; Quick reminder – we’ll need as many hands as possible on Saturday morning to set up the sea-pen. We’ll meet at the gate at 8:45 and load up the trucks, then off to the gov’t wharf. If Fred’s at the gate, just head in to the hatchery. Mel
April 28th. Hey, everybody;The Chinook from Nitinat will be arriving on Monday, due to a scheduling conflict with other deliveries. It should be around noon, so we’ll plan on being at the wharf to get everything set around 11 a.m. Come on out for the event, if you’re free. Mel.
April 22nd. Morning, all. We will be installing the Sea-pen on Saturday, April 30th. This year. The Chinook fry are tentatively planned for the 3rd. of May. Pretty much everything is ready to go and we just need to load up on Saturday morning and haul the gear to the wharf. The assembly is fairly involved and the more hands we get, the faster it will go.
Sooo – please, if you have a couple of hours you can spare, we’ll meet at the gate on Butler main at 8:45 and go from there.
The last of the Coho are now ponded and thinning has started with the Chinook, as they grow. The Steelhead are doing well and the first eggs are hatching, as we speak. Mel
April 16th. Afternoon, All; We have a tentative date for the sea-pen fry arrival – May 04th. Sooo – on Thursday, Apr. 21st, we’ll have a work party in the morning, with a couple of targets. First – there’ll be a couple of Coho trays to pond and second – we’ll go over the sea-pen gear to make sure everything’s up to snuff. Stanchions, connectors, weights and all the stuff we need (plus the stuff we’ll probably forget, as usual !!) I have to touch base with Linda at the wharf to set up a day, and I’m hoping that will be the weekend of April 30/May 1st. More on all that later.
If we have a couple of extra moments on Thursday, we may go through the Rotary stuff, just to get a head start on that. There may be a tray of steelhead ready for shocking that day, as well.
The fry are doing well, feeding like a teenager at a pizza place. We’ve trapped a very P/O’d Siamese cat, so far, but there is a mink sniffing around. So he’s next, I hope. Mel.
April 15th. Morning, everyone, there won’t be a ponding party this weekend, since the next trays are a bit behind, with the cold weather. Everybody can relax and watch the hockey game. We may just do the few trays left with the morning crews, since it’ll only be one or two trays at a time, over the next week. If it changes, I’ll let you know. For anyone who didn’t make the meeting and is interested, we’ll be doing the set-up at the arena for the Rotary Auction on Friday, May 6. The plan is to meet at the gate at 1 p.m., pick up what we need and go to the A&W for a coffee and lunch. The arena is open for set-up at 2 p.m. and we need to get the tank up and running, before we bring fry down, so it takes a while. If you can lend a hand, let me know, so I can figure out who’s doing what, as much as possible. Thanks. Mel.
April 8th. Morning; We’ll be checking the steelhead tomorrow morning and ponding a couple of coho trays. There may be a steelhead tray ready to shock as well. General meeting on Wednesday – usual time and place. Derby committee meeting on Tuesday at Gerry’s at 7 p.m. Mel
April 1st. Morning, All; My apologies for this last-minute note, but sometimes the memory has it’s lapses, these days. We’re going to check the steelhead tomorrow morning and most likely pond some Coho trays. If you have an hour to spare, come on out for coffee and cookies. Mel.
APRIL
March 28th. Morning, all; Got your attention didn’t it. Just a note to let anyone interested know that we’re going to check the steelhead on Wednesday morning. With any luck, at least one of the ladies will have motherhood on her mind. There may be a tray or two of coho ready, as well. Same old at the gate. 8:45, for those not up on the “same old”.
Rob Gamache’s idea about the plan to warm the water in the Inc. Rm. seems to be working a treat. The first tray of steelhead eggs are running about half the time span as usual. Looks as though they like the hot tub idea as much as everybody else. Mel
March 21st. Morning, Feeders; Here’s the list for this year – thank you all for your time. There are no fry in the lower tanks yet – everything went in the troughs. As they grow and we start thinning, we’ll load up the lower tanks.
There are still some steelhead broodstock in the round tanks and if you could check them every day, it would be a help. Hopefully they’ll be ready for harvest before too much longer. Mel
March 19th. Greetings, All; First and foremost - thanks to everybody who showed up this morning - it made short, easy work of the ponding. We're down to a few trays of Coho and our rather meager Sooke Chinook trays.
The feeding will start tomorrow (Sunday) with very light feedings for a few days, until the fry figure out just what the heck the stuff floating past them is. Once they get the idea of drive-through food, we'll bump the amount up slowly until they become typical junk-food teenagers.
We harvested one more steelhead female and she was very productive - roughly 2500-3000 eggs - so we're getting there, slowly, but we're getting there.
The plan at the moment is to pond a few trays next Saturday and check the steelhead at the same time. That pretty much covers current events, so - hope to see you next weekend. Mel
March 15th. Hi, All; This note is mainly for the Monday & Tuesday morning feeders. The group from the Options for Living place will be coming on Tuesday, after all. They have re-arranged things so they won’t miss Jack And Gerry. They will, however, be coming a bit later – closer to 11 a.m.
There will be food in one of the white totes under the desk, same as last year, and it’ll be marked. As always, go light for the first while and increase the food as they start eating. Mel
March 10th. Hi, Everybody; First – thanks for putting your hands up, once again. We thank you and the fry thank you.
We’ll start the feeding schedule on Sunday, March 20th. As usual, for the first week or so, the feeding will be very light, while they transition to outside food sources. A small pinch or two will be enough to give them the smell and taste, then larger amounts as they turn into the little pirhanas they grow to be.
Last year was a really good year for wasted food, you got the amounts pretty well perfect and there was almost no waste. As I’m sure you all noticed in the mornings, cleaning was a simple job compared to other years. The biggest trick is to keep an eye on what doesn’t get eaten – if a lot of food starts to show up on the bottom of the tank/trough – adjust accordingly. If there are any questions, just give either Willy or me a shout. Mel
March 9th. Hi, Everyone; Finally, the little ones are ready to leave the nest. It’s been like trying to get a teenager away from his I-phone. We’ll be ponding the first coho fry next Wednesday, March 16. It looks like three or four trays will be ready.
The following Saturday, we’ll be ponding the majority, if not all, of the Chinook. That will be the 19th. We’re looking at a lot of trays that day, so the more people, the better. What could be better, a morning of ponding, followed by another gourmet lunch of burgers and dogs. Come out if you can.
This Saturday will be another steelhead check. Due to an afternoon commitment, we’ll be getting through them as quick as possible, so it should be brief.
Hope to see a lot of you at the meeting tonight. There are still a couple of spots open for the feeding crew. Saturday afternoon and Monday afternoon. Mel
March 5th.. Evening, everybody; The steelhead were checked today with no luck. Definitely getting closer, but, typical women, they’re playing it coy. Maybe, but not just now. Kidding, ladies, just kidding, no bricks through my windows, please ! The water temp is slowly going up and that’s what will make things work.
Much the same story with the fry – temperature is slowing them down as well. We’ll check mid-week and, hopefully have better news. The ones that were ponded last weekend are doing well.
We have our regular meeting this week, Wednesday evening at 7 p.m., usual spot and a Derby meeting on Tuesday, if anyone would like to see what’s going on with the preparations. That meeting’s at Gerry Glaum’s at 7,as well. Hope to see you all at one or the other. Mel
March 2nd. Morning, All; We have our usual booth for the Rotary Club auction in the Spring, so keep it in mind. Volunteers will be appreciated for set-up, tear-down and minding the store that day. More later.
Saturday will be a steelhead checking day, again. Hopefully the water will have warmed up past the “damn, that’s cold !” stage, but probably not by much. It’s definitely slowing everything down, but we have to hope.
We’ll be looking at the Chinook, as well, with an eye to choosing a day for ponding later in the week. Again – the ATU’s are the sticking point. We need about 50 – 60 ATU’s for the fry to be ready, but they ain’t exactly piling up at a great rate. Temps of 0.7 kinda slow it down. It is warming up, but still a long way from sun-tanning time. Once we can start ponding, it will most likely be a fairly busy time, since the Chinook will all be ready at the same time and the Coho won’t be far behind.
Still a couple of afternoons free for feeding, if anyone has a few hours to run the drive-through. Open times are : Sunday A.M., Monday P.M., Friday P.M., and Saturday P.M. If you’re reading this, Gary G., I’ve slotted you in for Thursday P.M., let me know if that works for you. Thanks to everybody who’s filled a slot. Mel.
MARCH
February 27th. Morning, All; We have our first fry in the troughs. The Chinook fry that were in the plastic tube are now in Trough 5A and doing nicely. They seem to be a few days ahead of their siblings in the Heath trays, maybe due to the heat lamp near them. They won’t be needing much in the way of food for a while, but, if you’re up there to do water checks, there’s a bowl in the freezer with really fine-grain food. If you want to give them a TINY pinch of food, it’ll give them a taste in the water to think about. Sorta like walking past a bakery and sucking up the smell
The steelhead are still holding out – not too surprising, since the water temp. was 0.7 yesterday. Damned if I’d want to get romanced when it’s that cold – save it for a warmer day. I’ll put out the word when we’re going to harass them again.
The rest of the fry are about 50 ATU’s from ponding, at least, the Chinook fry, so, until it warms up a tad, it’ll be a while. If anyone can do an afternoon feeding, Tuesday & Wednesday are the only ones booked, so far. Thousands of hungry fry are looking for a friend, so think about it. Mel
February 24th. Good Morning from the snow-capped hill; We plan to do a steelhead check on Saturday morning, but access to the hatchery is a bit of an issue. Boy – there’s news !! Anyway, the plan is to meet at the power-line on Young Lake road and pile in whatever 4X4’s are there. I know my truck would have as much chance as getting in to the hatchery as my chances of a hot date with Angelina Jolie. We’ll plan to gather at the crossroads around 8:45 and go from there. Don’t feel bad if you’d rather put your feet up at the fire, but come out if you can. Mel
February 23rd. Morning; A quick note before I leave for Arizona !! If anyone was headed for the hatchery – don’t. We’ll pass on the steelhead check, not a good day for trying to get in there. Build a snowman or something. I’m not even going to try to get off the mountain. See you in the Spring !! Mel
February 19th. Greetings; First – a huge thanks to everybody who made it to the work party today. Great turnout and a huge amount of work accomplished. The hatchery looks all spiffy and tidy for spring. All the troughs are spruced up and ready for the fry and the grounds haven’t looked this good since the fall. The info sign was put up at the weir and looks great. Les and Rob fed the horde and everybody left on a high note.
The ponding may be a tad late, with the colder temperatures we’re seeing. Looks like mid-week, first week of March, at the earliest, unless it warms up a whole bunch. We will check the steelhead on Wednesday,again. Usual time at the gate, 8:30 – 9 a.m. Again, thanks, everyone, it was a productive (and, for this winter, a beautiful) day. Mel
February 15th. Hi, Everybody; Just a reminder that we’re having a work party on Saturday, Feb. 19, to get the tanks and troughs ready for fry. The ponding will most likely be the following weekend or so. Both weekends will be fairly busy, so anyone who can spare some time will be very welcome. Free food – that’s always a good bribe !
Along the same lines – we’re close to needing feeders again. The mornings are filled, but anyone who can do an afternoon, please wave your hand in the air. Afternoons are rather simple, just feeding. The cleaning is usually done by shift change, and this year it will be simplified, since we don’t have as many Chinook on hand, about half the normal number, sadly. Let me know if you can do one afternoon a week. Mel
February 10th. Morning, everyone; There’s going to be a work party on Saturday, Feb. 19. We’re getting close to ponding fry and all the tanks and troughs need to be cleaned out and set up. Weather permitting, we may do some burning, as well, and general cleanup. If enough people show up, it would be nice to get the info sign up at the Demamiel weir, if it’s a decent day.
There’s been a good response, so far, on the Derby front, from sponsors. To be honest, it would be a treat if we got as good a response from our members. There are a couple of new faces at the meetings, which is nice, but a few more would take some of the work off the “old faithfuls”.
The first steelhead eggs were harvested on Wednesday from one female. We’ll be doing another check next Wednesday, if anyone wants to see what’s involved in the process. Butler’s gate at 8:45 a.m. Mel
February 1st. Morning, all; First – a reminder that there will be a general meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 09 – usual place and time. We will be going through the steelhead on the same day, in the morning. Meet at the gate around 8:45, as usual.
There will be a Derby Committee meeting at Gerry’s on Feb. 08, 7 p.m. and I hope to see some new faces on hand. It would be nice to pass some of the chores to new people and ease the load on the old faithful ones. Mel
FEBRUARYJanuary 27th. - Morning, gang; We’ll be going through the steelhead on Saturday to see where they are as far as being ready. Usual time at the gate – 8:45 – if you have an hour to kill. Mel
Morning, everyone; We’ll be checking the steelhead at the hatchery on Wednesday morning, to see where the females are for ripening. If anyone is interested, meet at the gate around 8:45 in the morning. Should only take an hour, unless one is ready, by luck. Mel
A crew from the Charter’s Creek project are going to be at the hatchery on Wednesday morning to pick up some pipe we’re donating to their work. If we could get a couple of people to lend a hand to deal with the loading, it would be great. If you’re free and available, it would be appreciated. Mel
January 8th. - Morning, everyone; Finally – the last trays were shocked on Friday morning. The Chinook eggs are hatching quite happily and looking good. The new incubation tube is full of little swimmers, although the tubes, at this point, seem like a poor relation to the trays, as far as efficiency goes. We’ll have to wait for the entire process to evolve before we can make a final statement, but I suspect we won’t be seeing any major changes. They are interesting, from the visibility point of view.
Ponding is weeks away, so it’s just a case of morning checks for now. As we get closer to ponding, we’ll have to do a big clean-up in the tanks and troughs. The call will go out on the work-party.General meeting, this week, same old – same old, and the first meeting of the Derby group is set for Tuesday at Gerry Glaum’s, 7 p.m. It would be a treat to see a couple of new faces around the table to help out the old faithful bunch. Maureen spends hours baking up a storm, so the goodies are always great. They need to buy some CAFFIENE bearing coffee, though !! Hard to keep the burn going without the jolt.
A big thank-you to the people who spent so many hours with cold hands around the table, picking away. Mel
January 5th. - Greetings; We will be doing a few more trays on Friday, if anyone would like to lend a hand. Usual time at the gate – 8:30’ish. Mel
January 3rd. - Gerry Glaum has agreed to open his home to us once again for the first meeting of the yearly derby crew. The meeting will be on Tuesday, January 11 at 7 p.m. New faces are always very welcome. Hell, bring the whole body along, we’re pretty easy to get along with. Seriously, if you can offer a hand, it would be great. If you can come out and need directions, let me know and I’ll try to get you there without too many detours. MelJanuary 2nd. - Hey, everyone; Haven’t passed any news along since last year – figured it was time. We’re down to about three trays of coho eggs to shock, but, with temperatures the way they are at the moment, it looks like late in the week for that chore. I’ll pass along plans when it gets closer. We currently have three Steelhead at the hatchery, hoping for more as the month passes, of course.
The new sign for the weir at Demamiel is pretty well ready to go up. A warmer weather chore, I think. I’d like to thank all the die-hards that have been spending so much time at shocking and picking. We’ve missed Bryan, lately, but he’s been using a little thing like the Flu to spend more time at home where it’s warmer. What a wuss !! I’m sure his enthusiasm will go up with the temperature. Kidding, Bryan, I suspect you probably did us all a favor, sharing the germ with just Mike, Molly and Sally. Hope you feel better soon, Dude. We will be gathering at Gerry G’s later in the month to kick off the Derby for this year. If you have some time to offer, it would be great to see some new faces in the group. I’ll pass along the date in a few days.
First general meeting on January 12 at the Hall. Put it on your calendar and come on out. Hope the new year is off to a good start for everyone. Mel
JANUARY 2011
December 29th. - Morning, all; Since my lap-top is in the clinic, I hope this note gets to everyone. I'm using my old e-mail list on another computer, which may be a bit out of date. We'll be shocking a few trays on Friday, the 31st. and that is almost all of the coho trays. Couple more in the first week of January and we're done. Me
December 20th. - Ho, Ho, everybody; We shocked four (or was it five ?) trays today and several sets of hands along with them. Damn, why can’t eggs evolve for a summer season for this stuff ? We’ll be doing a few more trays on Friday morning, and – yes- its Xmas eve, but needs must, that’ll hold us until late next week. Anyone with a couple of hours to kill is most welcome to join us at the gate at the usual time – 8:30 to 9 a.m. and pick a few morts. Think of it as a Xmas gift to the coho population. Hope everybody has a great Xmas and way too much good food. Mel
December 12th. - Good Morning; Just a reminder that there will be a meeting this week on Wednesday at the usual time & place. There’s an issue we need to discuss and make a decision on, so if you’re free, try to make it. We’re part way through the Coho shocking, but it’s a slow process – a few trays at a time, a reflection of how slow the females were as they ripened. No – I’ll skip the “slow ladies” joke, as tempting as it may be. We’re doing a few trays tomorrow (Monday) if anyone’s free. We may have to hire a ferry to get to the hatchery, if the damn rain doesn’t let up. Mel
December 6th. - Good day; We’ll be shocking a batch of trays on Monday, Dec. 13th. It looks like seven trays will be ready, so – if you have a free morning, we’ll meet at the gate at the usual time, 8:45 – 9 a.m. There will be a general meeting that week, as well. Mel
December 4th. - Hey, everyone; There is one tray ready to shock, so Willy and I will do it Monday and repair the busted valve while we’re there. The next trays (3) will be ready in a few days. I’ll send out a notice when the day draws near. Mel
December 2nd. - Ho, Ho, Ho, everybody; I know, I’ve been quiet, lately. Things are in the holding pattern at the Hatchery, at the moment, so I’ve been busy in the workshop, catching up on orders that were piled up. Now I’m caught up and I can take it easy for a bit. I’ll be looking at the current temp. with the computer on Saturday and Willy and I will be looking at the next date for Shocking. The call will go out for hands when we have an idea.
There will be a General Meeting on Dec.15 at the usual place and time. I heard a rumor that Gerry Glaum was going to come as Santa and give us all neat stuff, but it’s just a rumor. Okay, it’s my own rumor, but hinting always worked as a kid. Who knows ?? I’m actually still amazed that he and Maureen even got off the plane when they arrived from Hawaii in the midst of all that crappy weather – it would have taken a truck winch to get me out of my seat. See you all at the meeting or over the mort bucket. Mel
DECEMBER
November 27th. - Morning, All; That’s enough snow for the year, right ?? Damn stuff looks good on mountains and post-cards, not piled up at the hatchery ! All the adult coho are either egg-donors or released into Young Lake and that stage is over. We shocked the first four trays of coho eggs on Friday and the survival is good. It looks like a week or so before the next trays will be ready, I’ll let everyone know when we’re close.
Can’t remember if I passed along the Nitinat news, but we did the trip and brought 250,000 eggs back. It was a good trip, for once. Roads were relly good and we were back in Sooke by 1 p.m., good time. That about covers the news to date, enjoy the nice, warm rain. Mel
November 24th. - Evening, All; We took the last Coho eggs today, finally. Lots of ice and snow around the hatchery, makes it cold work, but the stove works well, so we survived. We’ll be doing the first three trays of coho shocking on Friday, if anyone hasn’t been part of the process and has some spare time. We’ll also release the surviving males into Young lake, in case there’s any lonely females swimming around, looking for a date. Usual time at the gate – 8:30 – 9 a.m. Mel
November 18th. - The Chinook eggs have been collected from Nitinat and we only have three remaining Coho's to harvest, which should ensure we have our full quota for this year. November 14th. - Following the recent AGM we have two new board members (Robert Gamache and
Ron Neitsch).Our current egg count is, Chinook - Which we shocked yesterday. Out of 10,600 eggs we had only 104 morts.
Coho - So far we have taken 148,000 eggs and should have all the eggs done by the end of the week.
November 12th. - Morning, All; Our Chinook eggs from Nitinat hatchery will be ready for pick-up on Wednesday, November 17th. We’ll be leaving Sooke around 6 a.m. and, God willing and the road ain’t too bad, be back here around mid-afternoon. So far, there are three people going along and there’s room for two more. If anyone’s interested in seeing the hatchery, or just wants to take a drive, let me know and I’ll get back to you. It usually takes an hour or so to load the eggs and get away from Nitinat. If you have rain gear, it can be a bit wet loading the eggs. Mel
November 8th. - Morning; Final notice – AGM this week – Wednesday at the Hall. Annual dues are up for renewal, so bring the chequebook.We have a total of 60,000 + coho eggs to date and we’re getting a couple of females a day. Come on out and have a coffee and see what’s going on. Mel
November 5th. - Morning, everyone; The Coho are finally getting antsy and we’re harvesting a few each day. Currently around 50,000 eggs in trays. Checks will be done every day for the foreseeable future, so, if you would like to take part, feel free. We’ll meet at Butler’s gate between 8:30 and 9 every morning. It takes about 1-2 hours. Mel
November 1st. - Morning, All; The next pre-natal check on the ladies will be on Thursday, Nov. o4. Usual time at Butler’s gate. We did two females today – slow process, hopefully it will pick up as they get riper. Just a quick reminder – AGM next week on Wednesday, hope to see lots of faces in the crowd. Mel
NOVEMBER October 29th. - Morning, all; We will be going through the females on Monday, Nov. 01. Usual time – 8:30 to 9 a.m. at Butler’s gate. 7 females harvested to date for a total of 17, 700 eggs, with lots of ladies still getting into their romantic mode at a rather slow pace. Must be a genetic thing – keeping the guys waiting in the wings, ’til they figure the times right to make the big entrance. Ah well, always worth the wait, right? Just a reminder, the AGM is coming up – the second Wednesday of November. We have a couple of new directors to seat, so come on out and join the voting. Mel October 28th. - Hi, Members; We have all our Coho broodstock in the hatchery and the trap is retired for the season. The pipe guards were removed from the weir today and some of the boards pulled as well. Thought Les Eve was gonna head downriver at one point, which would have scared the bejesus out of the spawners waiting in the pool, but he made it back. Amazing how much water pours through the gap when you pull a board or two ! The first eggs were taken yesterday and we’ll be doing another fitness check at the spa tomorrow. Hopefully a few more ladies in the mood. If you’re free and want to see what it’s about, we’ll be at the gate on Butler Main at the usual time – 9 a.m. It’s always a question as to whether or not anybody’s ready to harvest, so we can’t predict the day’s events. Mel October 25th. - Hi, Everyone; The coho have arrived at the weir on Demamiel. We took a couple this morning and went back at 3 p.m. to see what was happening. The trap was under water when we got there and the creek was running rather exuberantly. Fish in big numbers trying to get over the fence. We couldn’t get near the trap, but we took a bunch of fish out of the raceway below the trap. The plan is to go back around 7:30 in the morning and hope the creek drops overnight enough to let us get to the trap. If you’re free and want to come up for the fun, feel free. We’ll be at the weir on Young Lake rd. by the bridge near the Scout Camp, for those who may not be aware of where the trap is. Sorry for the short notice, but it’s been a painful wait with nothing showing up until today. Me
October 20th. - Hi, Everybody; We have a tour group of Cubs coming to the Hatchery on Saturday. They’ll be arriving around 3 p.m., about 24 kids and adults. If there are 3 or 4 members who could come up to herd crowds, it would be good. The plan is to go through the Coho and check for any that are getting close to ripe. Not much else to show the kids, unfortunately. If you could be available, let me know and I’ll tee it up.
No new fish at the weir for the last few days, the creek is actually dropping. We need rain, so stop asking for this nice weather, dammit !!! Mel
October 10th - Good Morning, feeders; Attached is the list of people who have signed up for the daily water checks at the hatchery. I’ll wait til we are closer to feeding time to ask for volunteers to feed in the Spring. Mel
October 14th. - Happy Thanksgiving, all; Not much to give thanks for, hatchery-wise. Our efforts on Saturday were not appreciated by the objects of our work. We netted both the upper and lower pools at John’s for the rather lame numbers of ten Chinook. The one bright thing was the huge (in size, anyway) coho. Beautiful fish, so we don’t have to worry about that return, anyway. Chum numbers are rather grim, as well. Apparently things aren’t a whole lot better at Nitinat for numbers, so we’re not alone in our misery, if that’s any consolation.
We’ll keep an eye on things in the river, but the likelihood of more fish is a bit slim. The best hope at this point is the coho. We’ll keep everybody up to date on arrivals at the weir on Demamiel.The trap and fence were hauled out on Saturday, as much because of the lousy forecast, as the paucity of fish. That turned into the usual swimming party, of course. Why is it that a bunch of grown men turn into kids when they get near running water. Too damn cold for me, but whatever turns ‘em on. Somebody could make a few bucks next year renting dry clothes, though. File that away.General meeting this week, usual time and place. Well – usual time, anyway. If there’s no-one else using the dining room, we’ll go there for the quiet. If the boardroom door is shut, try the dining room. Sorry, Bill.
Hope to see you all there. Mel
October 4th. - Morning, all; We drifted the pools at John’s today and saw enough Chinook to warrant a seine day. We’ll go for the gold on Saturday morning. If we can meet at the High School parking lot around 8:30 – 9 a.m., we’ll try to car pool as much as possible, to keep the vehicles at John’s to a minimum. Anyone who has a wet suit (or dry suit) is very welcome, since swimmers make the process a lot easier. The plan is to do two pools and hope for good numbers. Hope to see you on Saturday morning. Mel
October 3rd. - Hi, everybody; I’m not sure if I passed the latest info along this week or not. DFO swam the river after the big freshet this week and counted a couple of hundred Chinook above John’s that made it past the fence while it was underwater. At least we know there are a few in the river, even if we missed them. They saw about 600 chum as well and a few coho.
The gear survived pretty well. The “plan de jour” is to do a seine on the weekend, Saturday morning, to try and scare up some Chinook for the hatchery. We’re going to float the river from the fence down to the lower pools during the week, to see if there are any fish around. I’ll keep you posted on things.
If we’ve missed them as a result of the flood, we may end up with very few eggs from the river, this year. Netting fish up by the potholes isn’t generally very successful and what we do get are often half-spawned, anyway. Plus we have to work in spawning beds, never a great idea. We’ve been watching the upper pools and, so far, there’s only a few Chinook showing up at the top end. Certainly not enough to justify netting. As I said – I’ll keep everybody posted on what transpires during the week. Oh yeah – nothing in the trap yet, either. Mel
OCTOBER
September - 29th Hey, everybody; Things seem to be back to normal, for the moment. The fish that moved in with all the rain seem to have gone back for another look at things. At least at John’s. So we may have a few days before they take another run at the river. Hope springs eternal !!
For now, we’ll be checking the trap every morning and keeping an eye on the situation. If you’re free and want to see what’s up, we’ll meet at the Soccer Field at 9 a.m. and run up to John’s from there. Other than that, I’ll keep everybody up to date with e-mail notes. Mel
September - 27th. Hey, gang; We survived the flood at John’s. The work was done well, believe me. I was down on Sunday morning and it wasn’t pretty. The river was about 10 in. down from the TOP of the trap and the overhead wire was almost in the water. The gangplank was under the surface, so I tied a line to it, just in case. The fence was underwater and there was a lot of strain on things. The water came up around five feet overnight and it looked pretty grim. By late afternoon, it had dropped a few inches and looked a bit better. Whole different world today. River’s down about 3 feet and clear again. We managed to tighten up the top wire and clear the leaves off the web.The fence hadn’t really moved all that much and we got things patched together pretty well. And we even had a couple of fish in the trap. They turned out to be bright, shiny new Coho, big ones and two little coho jacks. Not a lot of sign of Chinook or Chum, yet. When we went up to the Hatchery to get the tank on the truck rigged up, we stopped at the weir on Demamiel and guess what ?? We already have coho jumping over the boards and lining up below the trap ! It’s the earliest I can remember them being up that far. Big ones, too. Shiny bright fish, as well. Soooo – looks like we’re going to be getting underway any time.Here’s the deal – we’ll be meeting at the Soccer Field on Wednesday at 9 a.m., if you have some time. There’s some work to do at John’s, if the river has dropped a bit more and we can finish patching up the minor damage and changes. Might even be a fish or two to deal with. Then it’s off to the hatchery to load up the beach seine and stuff to move to John’s. Last – we’ll load the aluminum stoppers and put them in at the weir, so we have a measure of control on what’s happening there. The coho are way too fresh to catch, yet, so we’ll just open the trap and let them go by, for now.At the moment – it’s a case of “probably” not much work to do, but on the off chance that things change, having a few bodies could be important. So- if you have a couple of hours, come on out and, if nothing else, you’ll get an idea of what’s going on. Besides the usual organized chaos, that is. Again – my thanks to everybody who helped on the weekend, you all did good work. Mel
September - 25th. Good Afternoon, Members; A huge thanks to everybody who made it out to the river. The trap and fence are in place and now we wait for the fish. The job went well, despite the usual delay while some people just HAD to frolick around and waste time swimming. It was Willy’s turn this year, but he doesn’t really cut it as a spawner. He toughed it out, though it may be a day or two before things south of the border are much use !! He wasn’t alone, just did it better than the rest of us.If any of you who were there can see any steps that will make it simpler, don’t hold back – let us know, we’d love to make the process a bit easier. Maybe something that will eliminate the annual “ How did we do this last year” head-scratching. We could make a video, but we’d waste too much time laughing at the struggle we go through every time.It was great to see so many new faces and they were very welcome – especially the tall dude, for hanging the net. You’ve got a permanent job, Julian, besides all the other stuff.We’ll go up to the Hatchery one day this week and load up the beach seine stuff and move it to John’s. Wednesday, that’s a good day, we’ll meet at the gate at 9 a.m. and get that done.
Oh yeah – if you use a set of hatchery waders and they leak, like mine did, let me know and mark them with tape or something, so they can be looked at. Not a pleasant feeling, once you’re in the water and can’t run away !! And the old – “ I’ll leave them and watch the next sucker’s eyes go wide” is really a dirty trick. A good trick, but a dirty one.
September - 20th. Morning, All; I think we can safely say Fall has arrived. At least I assume that’s what was running down my neck on the weekend. There’s no real showing of fish yet in the river. No seals, either, which is a sure sign the fish aren’t around in any numbers. We moved the gear for the Trap and Fence to Martin’s on Saturday. Now it’s a matter of when it all goes in the water. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t blown away by the lack of response for the work party, people. I realize we all have lives beyond the hatchery, but this time of year is when we really need the numbers. It’s not just showing up to catch fish, it’s all the effort needed to get to the stage of netting. The old thinking – “Oh well, there’ll be lots of people, I need to do whatever” isn’t working very well. If you’re truly interested in the survival of the Hatchery and what we do, come on out and give us a hand.
Having said that – we’re aiming at next Saturday for putting the trap & fence in the river. That is very labor intensive and warm bodies will be a huge help. At this point, the plan is to meet at the High School parking lot around 9 a.m. and see if we can cut down the number of vehicles going down to John’s. Turning his place into a Walmart parking lot isn’t good for the property, so we’d like to thin out the convoy, if we can. On the assumption that a vast number of people will be there – we may run up to the Hatchery afterward and sort out the Beach Seine gear and get it ready. Sort that one out when we see how time goes.
If weather plays a different game, we may have to consider getting the trap in a bit sooner, before we’re working in water up to our waists. It’s all very well for Les Bagley to play in the water, but most of us prefer dry and warm. He’s just a lot tougher. If conditions dictate a time change, there will be an e-mail to let everybody know. So—if you can be available next weekend, see you on Saturday. MelSeptember - 16th. Morning, everyone; There will be a work party on the weekend, Saturday, Sept. 18. Meeting at the gate at 9 a.m. as usual. We’ll be rounding up the gear for broodstock and checking it out and repairing a spot on the cement deck by Tank #2. General cleanup as well, if enough people show up. Hope to see you there.
There are fish showing up at Martin’s on the high waters, mostly chum, but it’s a start. Mel
September - 1st. Hi, Everybody; Its that time again – our first general meeting of the Fall will be on Sept. 15, Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Hall. We’ll chew on the broodstock subject and go over what needs to be done.
A work party made the trip into Bradford Swamp and brushed out the dam last weekend. Nice day for the chore and a lot got done. There’s still some work that can be done, but nothing pressing. When you have to listen to Phil’s jokes for that long, you don’t want to make the trip too often, anyway. Between that and Les wanting to stop and cut firewood every mile or so, it can be a trying drive !! It really is sad to see that much wasted wood laying around, though.
Anyway, thanks for the effort, guys, it made a big difference. Hope to see everybody on the 15th. Mel. Mel
August . - 26th. Hey, there; Just a reminder for anyone who wants to take a field trip and see the Bradford Swamp dam on Saturday. We need to brush out the dam for DFO and do a general check of condition, so we’re heading up to tackle it this weekend. Free lunch and a fun-filled day in the woods, what else could one ask for ? We’ll meet at the gate at 9 a.m. to collect the truck and some tools. Hope to see some of you there. Mel
August . - 21st. Hey, everybody; Thanks to everyone who pitched in on Saturday – we now have nice, new beds ready for this years little ones – we changed out the stacks in the Incubation room, looks very tiddly. Did a raft of other chores that were on the list, as well, so things are looking better around the ranch. Jack picked up the slack for Bryan and did a whack of brush-clearing along the road.
Next weekend, we’re going into Bradford Swamp dam to clear the brush off the Dam, something we have to do occasionally to maintain the site. If you’ve never been in there or want another look, or whatever – we’re meeting at the gate on Butler’s at 9 a.m. on Saturday, to pick up some tools and the hatchery truck before heading in. If you can make it, bring gloves and any implements of destruction you’ve got that will hack down Broom and small Alders. A permission slip isn’t necessary, we’ll assume the better-half will be glad to chuck you out the door for the day ! Mel
August 9th. - Morning, everyone; There will be a workparty on Saturday, August 21st. We have the new Heath trays to install and a repair job to do beside trough #2. The repair job is more “assessment” at this point, to decide what we need to actually do and round up material. There are several small chores to tackle as well, but the focus will be on those two jobs. Free lunch will be provided, the usual delicious fare. I’ll remind everyone closer to the date, but this is just so lots of you mark the date ahead of time. Mel
August 2nd. - Morning, all; The annual Hatchery Fogfest is over for another year. It was, in my estimation, another great one. The Society owes a huge thanks to everyone on the committee and all the volunteers who worked so hard for the two days to keep it going so smoothly. The shift to the Flats was seamless and quick, so much so that we left the Lion’s in our dust this year and were set up a few minutes before they were ready to serve. Their food was as good as ever and apparently the steaks were really good. I’ll get one yet, really I will !
A real loud Thank you to Gerry Glaum, his tireless weekend of “puting keeps everything beautifully organized and really cuts down on the head-scratching. The committee acquired a new laptop and he’s using it well, believe me. Brian Meads didn’t quite wear the tires off his truck, but he gave it a good shot, dealing with ticket sales. They went well, by the way – we sold just over three hundred. Down a bit, but as good or maybe a tad better than some other derbies, with the economy and stuff. Thanks, Brian.Sally Manning did her usual fine work on the printing and found local sources to do the work, which is always nice. Ta, Sally. Brian, Mike and George fended off the unwashed hordes overnight and baby-sat the Weigh-in site, as he does every year. One of those “watch the paint dry” jobs, but I can imagine what would be left if we didn’t post the guard.Willy Pedneault, as usual, sat quietly back and did a little of everything and dealt with a whack of issues that made life simple for most of the rest of us. We notice, Willy, we really do.Amy – what can we say about Amy ?? She works hard, no question, but we’re hoping she stops using a little thing like a broken leg as an excuse and picks up the pace. It’s great to see all the work you do, girl, just do it quicker – really !! Seriously, Amy, you keep us smiling and that’s something we thank you for, even if we give you a hard time.I really want to thank all the members who pop by and help at the Derby, if it’s for five minutes or five hours. By showing up, you let the committee people know you’re aware of what’s going on and interested. I’d like to thank Gerry’s better half, Maureen, for all her help this weekend. She could sell fur coats in the Tropics, that girl. Watching Jack and Jean McLeod stroll off in the blazing sun in matching Hoodies was worth the moment. Maureen tells a pretty good dirty joke, too.Anyway – it was a good weekend, fog or no fog, we made some serious loot and had some fun. Eldon Smith won the big one with a 38 + lb. fish. We had 57 (right, Gerry?) fish weighed in, nice sizes and apparentyl had bigger numbers than a lot of other derbies this year. Again – thanks everybody, great effort.Other matters : We will be doing some maintenance work over the next couple of months and we have to think about getting some work done on traps and fence stuff. We also have a bunch of new Heath Tray stacks to install. So – there will be e-mails coming down the pipe for work parties. If you can spare a few hours, please come out and pitch in. No real heavy stuff to do, but necessary stuff, in order to have a successful winter again.
That pretty much catches it up, I think. Once we have a wind-up session re: the derby, I’ll pass along the bottom line on how we did. Have a great August. Mel
AUGUST
July 27th. - Hi, everyone; I neglected to give a time for Friday’s load-up at the Hatchery. If anyone has an hour or two, we’ll meet at the gate at 9 a.m. to load the stuff in the truck. The porta-potty is the big one – getting it into the truck for the move. Mel
July 26th. - Hi Tony; Tickets FOR THIS WEEKENDS DERBY are still available at the usual places – Eagle Eye, Crab Shack, Westshore Sportsfishing and Island Outfitters til Friday.
We’re in good shape for volunteers again for the weekend, but anyone who wants to be around to see what’s going on is always welcome. Sunday, of course, is when we really need bodies, as you know. Mel
January 15th. - Good afternoon, All, Is it just me, or does ”at least you don’t have to shovel it” not really cut it anymore ?? A squirrel just ran past the window in a floation device – enough already !! We finished off the last trays this morning – all the shocking is done. The Coho have started to hatch, so things are trudging along at the normal pace. One mink so far in the trap, a small one apparently. Not a happy one, by any means – the stick I had through the trap to hold the fish head in place looked like it had been through a chipper. There are now five steelhead in the tank, all nice looking fish. There will be a work party on Saturday, January 23, to whittle away at the to-do list. One busted valve from the freeze-up to replace – pipefitters welcome, shelving to put up in the container – carpenters welcome, general clean-up around the troughs and the tool-room – mindless laborers line up behind me ! (Meet at the gate not later than 9am) We’re going to replace the wooden dividers in the troughs with aluminum ones, for sanitary purposes and ease of installation. Not that expensive and anyone who’s spent hours trying to figure out which ones go where, then jumping up and down on the ones that still don’t quite fit, will appreciate this improvement. Still a few spots on the feeding/cleaning roster. Those of you who are waiting in the wings to leap to front of the line – wait no more. Pass along your name, while the spots are still available. Thank you to all the people who put up with cold hands and my cooking during the shocking parties, your help is what makes the whole thing work. Mel Wednesday, January 13. - GENERAL MONTHLY MEETING 7PM at the Sooke Community Hall Monday, January 11. - DERBY MEETING 7PM AT 7194 DEERLEPE ROADJANUARY 2010
28th. December - Everybody caught up on their sleep ??
Just a note to let you all know when the january meetings will be. Stan has offered his new place for the first Derby meeting, (along with a couple of other kind souls) so we'll go there and critique all the renos while we're at it. He's in Steve French's old place, for those that know where that is. For those who don't, it's 7194 Deerlepe Rd. That's about three houses short of the Stop sign when you're going to Bryan or Neil's place. Should be enough cars along the road to make it simple. We'll go for 7 p.m. on Monday, January 11. The usual general meeting will be the same week, on the 13. Same old time, same old place. Things are quiet at the hatchery, always a good thing. The Chinook are hatching at a good pace. Still a few trays of Coho to shock, I'll put out the word on when. We have one steelhead, a doe, as of Saturday, don't know if peter has been on the river over the weekend or not. Have a good New Year's Eve and hope New Year"s Day isn't a painful ordeal for anyone. Mel
23rd.. December - Ho, Ho, ****&%%% Ho; Kidding, just kidding, just a syptom of seasonal burnout. For those who haven't had a chance to keep up - we're well into the Coho shocking. Willy's figures are giving us an 85 % survival, which is really good, when you factor in the dead females we harvested. We're getting roughly 35-40 % survival from the dead-female eggs, which is not too shabby, when you figure we used to toss the dead ones and lost everything. Other than borderline frosrbite from the water temperature, its been a good shocking period. The work parties we had during the Fall were highly productive and a lot of the back-up in the Job Jar was dealt with. The new container hasn't been put into service yet, the nets were all frozen solid and wouldn't have been too easy to measure and move. A task for warmer times. Not sure who's idea it was to convert the Container into a dog kennel to make space during work parties, but it would take up the whole space to house all the critters, so that idea wasn't gonna fly. Besides, we'd just have to clean up the spilled food ourselves, so it just creates more work. Most of the alterations that wiser minds came up with for the new trap have been done. I'm sure that next Fall, those of a " Damn, there must be a better way to do this" mind, will come up with more ideas, but what's been changed will definitely help to keep Les out of the river. We dumped a couple of loads of road-base on the road at John Martin's, so that one was crossed off the list. Thanks to the guys on the shovels (except Les Eve, who threw more gravel down my boots than out of the truck. Loggers, you can work 'em, you just can't train 'em!) We finally got our Steelhead permit. Wish the gov't was as slow to collect taxes, but that's not gonna happen. Peter's already got one doe in the tank and he's seen a couple more in his favorite hole. Wish him luck. One other item to toss on the table beside the turkey and stuffing ! We need to start cogitating on the plans for next year's Derby. (Had to use that word in a crossword, thought it sounded very wise) If someone would consider offering their abode for a first meeting, we'll try to set it up for the Monday before the January general meeting. I'm not seeing a sea of waving hands out there, people !! Any way, if someone is willing, let me know and I'll go from there. If there's a candidate for the job of Event Coordination and Organization Committee Chairperson ( fancy name for stuckee), we could use a name, as well. Actually, it isn't that bad, there's a real pool of great people who make it simple. With that, I'll let you all go. Have a great day with those near and dear, unless your spouse wants you at home. Kidding again, of course. Merry Xmas and thanks for a great year for the Society. Mel
14th. December - Shocking News - Got your attention? Nothing bad, really. There are several trays of Coho ready for shocking and we'll plan on doing them on Saturday. If its a nice, balmy day, we may try to get some other chores out of the way, but that's a dim hope, I suspect. The Chinook have started to hatch over the last couple of days, so that's on track.
If the weather goes for a dump and we need to rethink things, I'll let everyone know, but as long as the snow doesn't try to turn us into Whistler west, we'll be on for Saturday, see you then. Mel
4th. December - Ho, ho, everybody; There will be a slight change to the work party schedule for Saturday. Everybody will meet here first, and after my xmas lights are all up, we'll head up to the hatchery. Kidding, of course.
Just reminding everyone that there will be a General Meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 09, usual place and time. If you still have dues to pay, bring some cash and get it off your xmas list. Hope to see you all there. Mel
3rd. December - The work is not over for the year yet. As long as the snow gods allow we need one last work party this year. (why do they call it a party)
It's now time to winterize the Hatchery. 1. drain taps & some of the pipes2. remove air stones3. stow unused netting and build shelving for the netting we used most of the time4. test the emergency portable pump5. shock two more coho trays If you are available SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5th please be at the Butler gate at 9:00 a.m. Hope to see you there Don MiklicVice-President
DECEMBER
29th. November - We have officially completed this year's egg harvest as of this morning. The guys took the eggs from the last female coho and released the remaining males into Rocky creek, in case there are any ladies looking for a hot date. There have been a substantial number of nice coho in the creek this year, some in the recent week, so, who knows?
All the Chinook eggs have been shocked and one tray of Coho has been done. It'll be a week or so before the next trays are due, but I'll put the word out when we're close. for those interested. There will probably be a work party in the next week or so, hopefully a Saturday, to deal with a few things that are outstanding, before winter. Mel
24th. November - Sorry about the dearth of info, no real excuse except that I've been busier than a bear in spawning season the last few days. Luckily, Willy and the gang probably haven't missed me much, just carried on and did the work.
I spoke to Bryan Meads wife at the show and the long-suffering lady is surviving his recovery. Knowing Bryan, probably much better than he is. I suspect she'll be at the door, waving happily the first day he gets out for a run. Glad to see the worst over for him, he's missed around the place.
The new container is happily ensconsed at the Hatchery. It went into it's new home like planned, sometimes even the dumb get lucky. Its amazing what they can do with those platform trucks, he moved the container around like a good thing. 'Course, it had to be raining ! Now we get to hide a whole bunch of stuff. Still a few stubborn Coho holding out on us. Either that or Willy is getting too close to them and doesn't want to do the deed. All the Chinook are shocked, finally, with a really good survival rate. Somewhere around 4-5%, I think. Good, anyway.It'll be a while before the first Coho eggs are ready for the big drop. A last note for everyone who hasn't dug under the mattress yet - dues are due again, so try to make the next meeting and sign up for another fun-filled year with the fish. Give some thought to the idea of spending some real bonding time with the little ones in the Spring - we'll be asking for feeders before long. The more we can feed, the bigger the ones you get to catch. MEL
18th. November - We will be shocking three chinook trays and, hopefully, taking eggs, tomorrow. (Thursday), so if anyone feels the urge to go cross-eyed staring at little orange eggs, we'll meet at Butler's gate at 9 a.m.
Monday will be a case of hearing from the truck driver when he's leaving Saanich and meeting him in the village to take him to the Hatchery. I'm guessing that we won't see him before 10:30 or 11:00, but there's a couple of things that can be dealt with before then. Let's just go with 9 a.m. at the gate and hope for the best. Mel
18th. November - One can only hope it's raining in Hawaii, I'd hate to think Les Eve is missing all the fun !! Still a few stubborn coho in the tank, what is it with females ? Spend three years getting ready for an event, then hang around like they don't want to take part. It's a bit painful, one fish a day.
Bryan Meads, our shiny new Director, is home from the body shop. He's still a bit limited, 'til the paint dries on the body work on his leg, but Jackie will probably be glad to get him out from underfoot when he's mobile. I understand the nurses on his floor gave him flowers when he left, in honor of the peace and quiet they were looking forward to. Hard to keep a good man down. Welcome home. Our new Storage Container will be arriving on Monday, Nov. 23rd. If there are a few people with a couple of hours to kill, it would be great to have a small crew on hand to get it located. Couple of other things to deal with, as well. We need to give the emergency pump a run-up and it would be good to have some members there to see how it works. Hope it never has to be used, but, if it does, the old "chicken with its head cut off" operational mode would be kinda sad to see, so we'd like to get dialed in on the set-up. The colder temperatures have slowed down the shocking program, but there just may be some trays to do by then, as well. More on that as we hear from Willy.
15th. November - Who's up for a shift to Spring ? I suggest we skip the rest of the Fall/Winter stuff, enough already ! Good for fish, I guess.
We still have some coho at the hatchery who can't make up their minds about spawn/no spawn. Bill's beginning to feel like Romeo, standing in the rain under a balcony, getting wet and waiting for something to happen. The egg take has been fairly good on the coho and we're holding good numbers in the trays.
The Director's plan for a fact-finding trip to Hawaii has been put on hold. We decided, instead, to spend the money on a GPS for Les Bagley, so his next trip to Nitinat will be less eventful, although his passengers seemed to enjoy the side trip to somewhere. The Nitinat eggs arrived (eventually !) and are happily growing in the trays. A long day for the travellers, good work, everybody.
I spoke to Peter McCully at Goldstream on Saturday and we have reason to be well satisfied with our season, so far. Most of the Hatcheries along the inside of the Island are having rather poor returns, some verging on disasters.
The colder water of the last few days has had a couple of effects. One - no-one wants to get their hands in it to pick eggs very much, and - two - it's slowed the process down and shocking is delayed for the trays still coming due. I'll keep you in the loop as to when there will be more trays ready. Mel
10th. November - A huge thank you to everybody that showed up for the shocking party. It was probably one of the best days we've ever had for sheer numbers of eggs done. Basically the whole chinook population is done, with the exception of four trays that aren't quite ready. We alotted two days for the work and it was done by 2:30 today, so tomorrow will just be a case of checking coho females and harvesting any that are ready. If anyone's interested, it will be the usual 9 a.m. at Butler's gate. Again - thanks for the turnout and the hard work. Hope to see most of you at the meeting tomorrow night. Mel8th. November - Hey, everybody (and I DO mean everybody); We will be shocking Chinook eggs on Tuesday (and probably Wednesday, as well) and if you can free up some time, the more hands, the better. There's a lot of eggs to do, about 24 trays altogether. Free lunch and all the eggs you can pick. We'll meet at Butler's gate at 9 a.m., as usual. Bring a friend. Mel
A huge thank-you to everybody who turned out on Saturday. I was surprised at how many came out with the rain, didn't really want to go myself !! But - it turned out to be a decent day and a lot got done. More coho were harvested, we have 50,000 eggs for a total of 113,000 coho eggs with about 30 females left. One (1st) tray of chinook was shocked and most of the garbage was burned. For the moment, all the leaves are gone and the yard is much neater (at least til the next wind). We fixed up the spot where we plan to install our storage container, that will get all the nets off the ground and make it even tidier.
A reminder to all - AGM and general meeting on Wednesday at 7 p.m. We'll be voting on the Director's holiday in Hawaii, so you might want to be there. Annual dues are due, so bring money ! Again - thanks for the turnout. Mel
5th. November - Good Afternoon; Our chinook eggs from Nitinat will be ready on Nov. 11 and the plan is to pick them up on the 13th (Friday). If anyone is interested in making the trip to see the hatchery, the truck will be leaving around 6 a.m. The trip involves returning to the Hatchery here in late afternoon and putting the eggs in trays. Its usually a 12 hour round trip with a stop for lunch in Duncan or somewhere in that area. Let me know as soon as possible so I can work out the details. Mel
4th. November - Hey, People; Harvested more coho eggs today, slowly getting there. Just a reminder that there will be a work party on Saturday, Nov. 07 to get a couple of chores out of the way. Cleanup in the compound is a biggy, lots of leaves, among other things. So- if you can spare some time, a good turnout would be great.
AGM next week, as well. Annual dues time, too, so bring your money. Mel
1st. November - Good Morning. I sent out a notice regarding the AGM/General meeting for this month (Nov.) yesterday. It inadvertantly went out from the Society e-mail address, so that may cause some confusion for replys, if there are any. If anyone sends me a reply, it will come to my own e-mail now.I know that Nov. 11 is Remembrance day, but I figured most of the official ceremonies are long over by 7 p.m. and, since it is a non-working day, it shouldn't have a large impact. If it will be a major problem for a majority of members, let me know asap and we can go for a different day. I'm not certain how hard it would be to re-schedule the Hall for a different night, so I need some time. Unless I hear from a lot of people by early this week, the date won't change. MelNOVEMBER
31st. October - OK-put down the Halloween candy and listen up !!
Monday morning will be the next day for checking the coho for eggs. Usual time at Butler's gate, 9 a.m. We've harvested two females to date and there should be a couple more ready.
There will be a work party on Saturday, Nov. 07 to get some stuff done that's piling up. General clean-up in the yard and preparation for the container for storage. We need to clean up the old "Junk Yard" up the hill and make a flat area for the container. If it's reasonably dry, anyone with a leaning towards arson can get a fire going and clean up the junk piling up outside the back gate, as well.
Last item - AGM and General meeting on Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. Hopefully, we'll have a good turnout to get some things sorted out for the coming year, schedules for feeding and such. You can go back to swiping the kid's candy now. Mel
29th. October - Friday Morning Hey, there; We will be checking the coho for donor candidates, if anyone wants to be on hand. Usual place, the gate at 9. Mel
26th. October - Greetings, All; Well, the deed is done. We have all our Coho in the Hatchery as of this afternoon. The gate is open and the harvest is over. This rain brought fish up to the weir like teenagers at an I-pod sale. We took everything in two days and now we start the egg production.
Thanks to everybody who worked at the weir, it went well.
Willy's going to start checking for ripe females (doesn't sound very nice, does it?) on Wednesday morning. Knew there was something a bit strange with him. Family secrets, don't ask. Anyway, to get serious, we'll meet at Butler's gate at 9 a.m. and get to it, so - if anyone is interested in the process, or has been there, but has some time available, all help is welcome. We have a fair number of fish to sort and some clean-up to do, if enough hands show up. Mel
24th. October - Another call to arms; We are getting coho at the weir and if anyone can be available in the mornings, at 9 a.m., it would be great if you can show up to help move fish to the hatchery. We'll be meeting at the weir on Young Lake rd. by the bridge.
It will be every morning for the next few days, until we get the numbers we need for broodstock. There may be days with no fish, but we still have to check. Mel
24th. October - Good Morning; If someone has an hour free today around 4 p.m.(Saturday) and could give Bill a hand at the Coho trap on Demamiel, could they give him a call at 642-3443? We took a bunch of fish this morning and the trap should be looked at again before dark. Thanks. Mel23rd. October - Other than the guy gathering all the animals and building the big boat in my yard, things are going well. All the gear is back at the hatchery from John Martin's (thank you, everybody, for your time). There haven't been any more Coho at the weir yet, but this rain will probably stir the hormones a bit.
We check the trap every morning at 9. so if anyone wants to stop by and see what's happening, feel free. Not exactly a bracing exercise yet, but, once there are some fish, things will perk up. Mel
22nd. October - Greetings, All; We're hoping to get the last of the stuff back to the Hatchery tomorrow morning from John Martin's. If a few harty souls have an hour or two to spare, it would be appreciated. We'll meet at the Soccer Field at 9 a.m., pick up the stuff and go up to the Hatchery.
The water has dropped to the point where we're not seeing anymore Coho at the weir yet, so we don't have any at the Hatchery right now. Right now it's just a case of watching the water temp and general conditions at the Hatchery. If things continue at the present rate, it looks like the first shocking will take place around mid-November. Mel
21st. October - Good Evening, All a huge thank you to everybody who was on the river this morning. It made a nasty job much easier. If Rob Gamache had spent less time swimming and more time actually working, we'd have been done sooner, but he wouldn't get out of the pool. Does a great breaststroke, though.
Almost everything is back at the ranch, except for one load that's too long for the Hatchery truck. Another day, not to worry. The new trap worked well and after the usual "damn, why didn't we think of that. We'll fix it before next year's broodstock" stuff is done, it'll work even better. We are holding 295,804 eggs (chinook) in the trays, now we wait for the Coho. We have a couple of Coho and a few Chum in Rocky Ck., below the hatchery, always nice to see. Mel
19th. October - So---everybody up for a morning at the river ?? Hope so - it's on for tomorrow morning to get all the bits back on dry land. The water was down nicely this a.m., not quite enough for easy working, but down. It should be good tomorrow, so we'll meet at the Soccer Field at 9 and get it over with. If you can be there, great, the more the merrier. Mel18th. October - Stand by, here we go again - The river was down about a foot at the trap and everything is still holding on - moved a bit, but still holding. We'll plan on Tuesday morning, before the rains start on Wednesday (forecast is always spot on - right ?). We'll meet at the Soccer Field on River road at 9 a.m. and go from there. If you can spare a couple of hours, all hands will be appreciated.There are two females left at the Hatchery which will have their moment in the spotlight tomorrow and that will be it for the Chinook. Should give us just under 300,000 eggs, unless there are a few in the trap in the morning.
The Coho have arrived at Demamiel weir today. We released the ones that were there, since they were all really green, but may start keeping a few over the next day or two. The plan will most likely be to meet at the Weir in the mornings at 9 and deal with whatever is there. Everybody is welcome to come up and chip in.
There is one morning still open for someone to do the water check at the Hatchery (Sunday) if someone feels the call to duty. Let me know. Mel
17th. October - Good Morning; - Ask for a little money and your taxes go up - ask for a little rain and the high water mark's somewhere around your chin !! And just about as quickly as the taxes arrive.
We checked the trap last evening and there was about six inches of it sticking out of the river. The water rose about four feet, roughly, a lot of rain. The odds of getting anything done about the trap are pretty well nil until Tuesday. That's assuming the forecast is right and the rain's are over for a day or two. On the bright side - no more water issues at the Hatchery. Rocky is up and roaring, again. We have three female chinook still waiting for beds in the maternity ward (wait-lists everywhere) and everything is ready for the arrival of the coho at Demamiel. Back to the Trap & Fence - we'll check it today and tomorrow and I'll fire off a bulletin every day as to status of the river. Hopefully, we'll be able to deal with it Tuesday morning. Mel
15th. October - Morning, Everyone; Apparently I neglected to add a meeting point to the message about Saturday's trap removal. We'll meet at the High School at 9 a.m., since the Soccer field is usually pretty busy. Hope to see a lot of faces. Mel
15th. October - It's that time of year again. We have to start monitoring the water temp for the eggs in the next few days. What is needed is for one person to check the water temperature in the morning and ensure everything is kosher for flows in the Incubation Room. Takes, at most, 45 minutes. Anyone who can do a morning, please let me know in the next day or two and we'll get a schedule drawn up.
Lots of chum in the trap this morning, but no chinook.
Plans are still in place for Saturday morning, to pull everything out at John's. The more hands, the easier the work, so if you have a few hours, please show up at the High School by 9 a.m. and we'll get the job over and done.
One other item. If someone has the third set of keys, could they get them back to Jack's or let me know. Mel
13th. October - We are changing the plan, with regrets. We haven't had a Chinook in the trap for the last two days and that leaves us short 8-10 fish for our numbers. The decision has been made to leave the trap in place until Saturday, to hopefully get us the fish we need, after the predicted rain that is forecast over the next couple of days. My apologies to those who made the effort to leave the day open tomorrow, but Mother nature is calling the shots at the moment. Mel
11th. October - Good morning, All; Twelve females were taken from the trap and moved to the hatchery this morning, eight were harvested. The total egg-take to date is 226,129 Chinook eggs, which is roughly 75,000 short of what we hope to end up with. If the trap produces the same numbers over the next two days, we will reach our goal on tuesday. As a result of this optomistic approach, we are scheduling Wednesday as the day to pull the trap and fence out of the river.
Those of you who were there when we put the rig IN the river know what a job it was. And those of you who weren't, trust me - it was a bit of a chore. Soooo - I'm asking for as many bodies as possible to be available for a couple of hours on Wednesday morning to help with the removal.And - if anyone has a tame gorilla or two sitting around munching bananas - bring him along. We will meet at the Soccer field at 9 a.m. and go from there. If there is a change in plan, I'll let everyone know on Tuesday. The hope is that we can get everything on dry land before the rains get serious and it turns into a battle against Mother Nature ( who always seems to whip one's butt)
Bryan - if you have a good harness for Mike, we may use him to tow it all out onto the bank. Just a thought. For those who haven't had the chance to see the new Trap in operation, you're welcome to join us at the soccer field in the morning at 9. Watching Willy and Les Eve going manna-a-manno with a bunch of irate fish in a small space is entertainment that's hard to beat. Mel
6th. October - BROODSTOCK TAKING THIS SATURDAY 10th. OCTOBER - Okay, who knows a rain dance ????The new trap works well (we think - haven't exactly had a huge rush of customers ) We've had a few Chinook and some Chums, but nothing frantic.We harvested the first eggs today - two females for a total of 9,000 eggs. One more female in the tank waiting her turn. Water at the hatchery is a bit of an issue, but sufficient for now.For those who will be coming on the weekend, remember - we'll meet at the High School and try to reduce the number of vehicles at John's as much as possible. 9a.m. OCTOBER29th. Sept. Me, again; - It works, ain't that a hoot !! When we checked the new trap this morning, there were three good sized Chinook in it, along with one Chum. Very encouraging. The plan is to deal with them tomorrow (and any more that show up) and see what's moved in on Thursday, when we take the nets and stuff down to John's.
The plan, at this point, is to do a beach seine on Saturday, Oct. 10. By then, we should have a better idea of numbers and what we can take from the net process to get us closer to the numbers we want for the year. I'll put out the word again in the next few days, when things are a bit clearer. So far - so good !!
Once we have an idea of what's involved in keeping up with production from the trap. there will be a call for people to help on a daily basis (maybe every couple of days) to tend the trap and move fish. I'll get the word out when we decide. Mel
29th. Sept. - Apparently, there is some confusion about the date of the work party, so - it's Thursday, Oct. 01. We have one Dog salmon in the trap, or at least, one as of yesterday. Bill and I are going to check the trap this morning and deal with any residents. This rain may speed things up, but we'll see. John spotted what he felt were four Springs in the lowest pool (where we netted last year with great success), so they are in the system. Lots of jumpers above the bridge, around the Flats, at high water. More news as it happens, here on Hatchery FM. Mel
28th. Sept. Good Morning - For those with some time on their hands next Thursday, we will be loading up the nets, cages, transport tanks and other and sundry bits and pieces for beach seining, to move them to John's. Not a huge job, but it'll take a while to make sure we have it all. The usual plan - meet at Butler's gate at 9a.m. Hope to see you there. MelA HEARTFELT COMMENT - I'm looking for a word - oh yeah - disappointed, that's it !! We spent several hours at John's yesterday, putting the Fence & Trap in place. When I say we, I'm not referring to the huge turnout of members I had hoped for, I'm speaking of the same few dedicated one's who always show up to save the day. We didn't get done, for a couple of reasons. First time hiccups, running out of netting ( my miscalculation) and generally too much to do and too few to complete. It ended up about 90% done and looks pretty good, a few final things we'll do today and it should be ready. However, and I do mean, HOWEVER.!! While I understand that we all have lives of our own, although Jud is beginning to wonder, this is a volunteer Society, and, without the most important part of the equation - the Volunteers, it ain't gonna fly, people. As Willy points out, now and then, if you took the regular bunch at the work parties and scrounged your heart out, it would be hard to come up with one healthy worker, it's like the waiting room at the Therapy ward most of the time.
Again, I don't expect everybody to show up, every time, I know realities of life. But !! A few more bodies, and the whole process would be a lot easier. Plus, the members that do donate so much effort would feel like it wasn't beating a dead horse quite so much. So - down off my soap-box. All that's left to prepare is the gear for beach-seining and the transport system. Now we wait for Big Mother to make up her mind to turn the water on and start the show. Won't be a lot happening until we get some more water, but, when it does, it'll probably be the usual, "Oh crap, call out the troops, it's starting " kind of thing, so - in the immortal words of the kid in shorts waiting at the streetlight for old ladies - BE PREPARED. Mel
20. September. VERY IMPORTANT WORK PARTY MESSAGE - Saturday, Sept.26 John Martin's place.
Morning, All; So - everybody getting excited about broodstock ?? Just to bring you all up to date: Most of the bits for the new Trap and fence are down at John's, just need to put it together and fine tune everything. "Just", now there's a word that covers a lot of "damn, who forgot those bits?? We'll be holding a work party on Saturday, Sept.26, to put the trap and fence in place. This WILL not be a walk in the park, so to speak. Gonna be a lot of head scratching and "maybe we should try this" kind of stuff. It's going to be important that there are as many able bodied people on hand as possible, so if you can possibly be there, come out and help. We all need to get a handle on how it's going to work, before we have to do it for real. On the subject of John Martin's place. In order to keep the vehicle numbers under control at John's, I'd like to try something new. As a trial run, we'll meet in front of the High School at 9:30 on Saturday morning and try to leave some of the vehicles there. Car-pool sort of thing. John has asked if we can manage to have a few less cars at his place and I'd like to try and accomodate him. We had a successful work party this Saturday and managed to get all the new parts in place at the weir on Demamiel. The new cage setup is going to be a great improvement and looks pretty, as well. Lots of shiny aluminum. Hey - if it looks good, it has to work good, right ?? My thanks to you guys who grunted all the heavy stuff down the hill. Brought back some UGLY memories of the days we used to pull the whole monstrosity out every year. Yeah - I can hear all of you who were there agreeing. The general area around the trap was cleaned up and the upstream fender log was re-secured, so that's all in fighting trim for the Coho. They will, of course, be returning in unheard of numbers, right ?? We still have to gather up all the nets and ropes and cages and boats and - well, all the stuff that is the beach seine madness. We will do at least one day of seining, just to enjoy the insanity of it all. Gotta have some fun, can't just bail them out of a trap and go away. At this point, there isn't a lot of fish sign, but if and when we see some serious rain, it'll all kick into high gear pretty fast, so everyone needs to be - well, not on Red alert, but on sorta Pinkish alert, I guess. Must be a better term, I'll work on that !! Best guess would be 10 days to two weeks, but it could be sooner. Everyone who's been here for a few of these knows how fast Mother Nature can decide to see how ready we are. We've been caught with the proverbial pants down where we don't want them a time or two, but it always seems to work out.I guess that pretty much touches on the high points for now. If anyone wants more info, get in touch, by all means. Mel
12. September. VERY IMPORTANT WORK PARTY MESSAGE - BROODSTOCK TIME.
Okay, start rounding up the animals, two by two - the rains have come !
Missed a lot of you at the general meeting tonight - just forgot - didn't you. We will be moving the new cage and its attendant bits to John Martin's this weekend, on Saturday. There are fish in the harbor and if the rain keeps up, we may want to be ahead of the curve. It's a fairly big job, so a big turnout would be important, if you can spare the time.
I liked my old job - I could look at the crew and say - you WILL be there, now I have to be all nice and stuff - weird.
Anyway, we'll meet at the gate at 9 a.m., as usual and it should take a couple of hours. Then, on the following weekend, we'll be doing it again, on a smaller scale, to get things ready at the weir on Demamiel, so keep that day open, too.
Its getting around to the busy time, again, so be prepared for a lot of begging from the hill. If we're going to keep up the level of the work, it's going to take people and that's where we count on you, the members. See you on Saturday. Mel
9th. September Our monthly meeting will be held at the Community Hall on Wednesday 9th. Starts at 7:00 prompt. All welcomeSEPTEMBER 2009Saturday, August 29th. WORK PARTY - Be at the gate on Butler Main by 9am if you can make it.
23rd. August. Greetings, All; Just a few things to bring everybody up to date on the latest adventures in the continuing saga of the Society.
First up - the Work Party next Saturday, August 29th., with a free lunch thrown in. It would be nice to see a good turnout, since the work list is fairly long. Nothing too major, but a lot of stuff that needs to be done, if we get the man(people) power to accomplish it. I'd like to be able to use the pipe-work to dial a few more of you in on the workings of the water-system for the trays & troughs. Its a bit daunting, if you're not familiar with it, but not hard to understand, once the system is explained. Sorta like that old Mousetrap game, only on a scale more like a Horsetrap size. We need to have a good Brainstorm session on the new Chinook trap, as well. There's a basic idea in place, but we all know how well those ideas usually work, first time out of the gate. We're almost back into the meeting season, too. The first General meeting will be on Wednesday, September 9th. Now I know a lot of you will be back in school, but just do your homework early that day, so you can make the meeting ! The Consultant's Derby was a success again this year. Thanks to all of you that were there to help at the weigh-in spot. Someone should have brought a bull-whip, it got a bit hectic and unruly, for a while. Everybody trying to weigh in over a period of about 1/2 an hour was crowded, to say the least. It went well, nevertheless and we were the joyous recipients of a cheque for $13, 500.00, a new high for Cristoph and his crew. For a one-day event, they do an incredible job of putting it on. (Stop smiling, Garth, it's only money !) For those who haven't had access to the fact and/or fiction of our Derby, it was another great couple of days. We're thinking of adopting the name - "the Sooke where the Hell are we Derby" since it seems like the fog is around every damn year !! But there were lots of fish and lots of weight, more than any other year and the best of all was the fact that a 39 lb. Hatchery fish was the winner. If you ever wonder why we shed so much sweat doing what we do - that's the kind of answer that makes one go "Yeah!!!" Made a few bucks as well, so it was all a good thing. I think that about covers current affairs. Hope to see a lot of you on the weekend (somebody with BBQ skills would be good. Stan - you there? Or maybe Neil ??) Mel
21st. August. Consultants Derby General Info: This is mostly for the people who have "signed up" for the weigh-in at Peddar Bay, but anyone else who is at loose ends is welcome to come by, as well. Free booze and food - and a live band - better than we offered !! Actually, not sure about the booze, being a strict teetotaller, I didn't try the bar last year - I seem to remember Bryan Manning crawling around on the grass - he may remember if he paid or not, at least for the first few.
At any rate - I'm planning to be there at 11:30, to set up the tent (which, I hope, means Bryan will be there WITH the tent at the same time ) and the weigh-in starts at 12:00. Cristoph's hoping to have all the fishing crowd processed and up at the tent by 2:30 or so. I figure by 3 he'll be starting to develop a twitch from stress, but maybe it'll work.The awards part of the day should be over around 5:30 (notice the repeated use of the word "around" - been there, done that) but I hope to be on the road by 6-ish. Hope to see you there. Mel
16th. August. Consultants Derby General Info: Anyone who wants to drop by and either help at the weigh-in or man the info table is more than welcome. Stay as long as you like, the food was great last year. The Derby ended at 1 p.m. last year and the weigh-in was pretty much over by 2:30, when the dinner and awards part started up in the field. That went on for a couple of hours and we just sat under the tent and talked to people and munched away. If memory serves, I was on the way home by 5:30 or so. Mel
15th. August. Consultants Derby - The plan at present is to be at Peddar Bay, with the tent and display stuff, around 11:30 Saturday morning. The weigh-in starts (usually) around 1 P.M. If anyone is interested, feel free to show up and help out. The awards thing is not too long and the food was great, last year. We were out of there around 4:30 - 5, if memory serves. If you can be there and want to let me know, I'd be grateful for any help. Mel
P.S. The bridge is still out on Kangaroo, so we either have to go in to Happy Valley or around through Beecher Bay.
10th. August. Morning, All; Bit weird, waking up to the sound of rain this morning! Who washed their car yesterday ?? One has to hope this reaches up to the Interior, they'll enjoy it to the max, I suspect. Okay, that covers the amenities, now to the business at hand. The work list is done for the Hatchery, nothing major, lot of small stuff. A bit of pipework, some valves to look at, a mounting pile of what must be called garbage( not the word I had in mind, but this is a rather public message!) to deal with and some general re-organization for the Fall. With some luck, and LOTS OF HELPERS, could be done in one day, I hope. No - the capitols wasn't me hitting the Caps Lock key by mistake, I'm hoping, since this IS a democracy and I can't threaten whippings and beatings, that a good number of people can spare a day to get caught up. I will, however, promise grub and refreshments. Yes, Les, that might even cover a couple of cold beer.
Since there is a derby some of us are working at on the weekend of the 21/22nd., the work party will be on the Saturday of the 29th. Of August, for those who might be thinking, he forgot the month, I'll pretend he meant Sept.
In case I forgot to say it in the Derby e-mail, my profound thanks to all of you who worked so hard that weekend, I've heard nothing but good things about how well it went. We even coined a buck or two for the effort.
See everybody on the 29th, 9A.M. at Butler's gate. - Mel
6th. August. Happy August, All; I'm on the hunt for a small crew to help at the Consultant's Derby om August 22, a Saturday. They've asked for help at the Weigh-in, as we did last year, and for a couple of people to be there early in the morning to pass out info packages to contestants. We'll be setting up the tent and offering info and shirts in the afternoon, when they have their dinner and awards. It took about four hours altogether last year, with good food and drink and a nice cheque for the Hatchery. Let me know if you can help out. Mel
3rd. August. Good Morning, All; We done it !! The Derby's over for this year and it was a resounding success, thanks to the members that worked their butts off, the people who fished through the fog and lumpy weather, and the (not so willing) but plentiful fish. Best part for those of us at the weigh-in ?? Our Derby was won by a 39 lb. HATCHERY fish !! Is that not cool beyond words ??
There are still some things to deal with - totaling up some costs and paying the odd bill, lashing Gerry to a tree and chastising him for a couple of very minor glitches that probably were my fault - but, hey, I ain't gonna take the fall !!, and cleaning up the bits of paperwork. It appears, at this point, like the monetary aspect went well. I'll let you know from Mexico, when I see what's left.
A huge thank you to everyone who worked so hard to keep the ball rolling, it truly was an effortless process over the weekend. And, as anyone who's been part of this kind of thing knows, it ain't easy without the people who did the groundwork. Well, might have been better if Tony hadn't driven the car past a cop (with no plates) that didn't do my heart a lot of good. Then shed a hubcap on the way to the flats (thanks, Stu, for spotting and retrieving it) Of course, having to jumpstart it at the weigh-in, to move it to the Flats gave me a bad moment, when we wanted to move it after the party, with the new owners standing around (it DID start that time ) What the hell - if it went too smooth, we'd start to think we were too good at it, right ??
Anyway - it's over for this year. We have some chores to do at the Hatchery and, once we get organized a bit, I'll sound the call for a work party, with the usual huge reponse, of course - right, everybody ?? Be in touch - enjoy the great weather MEL
 2009 SSES Chinook Derby Photographs
August 2009 29th. July. DERBY THIS WEEKEND SATURDAY 1ST. - Weigh-in opens pretty much at daylight and runs until 7p.m., Sunday 2ND. Same opening until Weigh-in CLOSURE AT 1 p.m., then down to the Flats FOR FOOD AND PRESENTATIONS.
28th. July. NEWS UPDATE - DERBY THIS WEEKEND
Hey, Who left the door to Hell open???, So - how ya' all liking the heat, so far? Things are well on track for the weekend, the only big chore is getting everything loaded up and ready for Saturday. If a few people are available at Noon on Friday, we'll meet at the gate at 12 and pack up the hear at the Hatchery. There are a couple of small chores that are outstanding, if enough bodies show up and it's not as deadly hot that day.
Since Don Miklic has been dragged away to go fishing at Kitimat, no-wait, he was going there to work, that's right, yeah, yeah, Bryan Meads has taken on the chore of Derby wrangler for the weekend. He has the "Schedule of Slavery" and can be called, if you volunteered and need to check on your period of "durance vile". If you want to come by and just hang out, we can always find you a job to let someone have a break, so don't feel shy.
Derby stuff aside, once the dust settles, we will be looking at the summer maintenance issue. Nothing huge to tackle this year, but there are several smallish chores. I'll send out a notice as to times and a few warm bodies would be nice, when the time comes. The new trap for John Martin's pool is done - I keep picturing Sheena, Queen of the Jungle in the thing, something left over from the teen years, I suspect !! Looks great, though. New lid for the Demamiel trap is done, as well. Anyone who's felt body parts stretch with the old one is gonna love this one.
Willy and Glen both passed with honours at UBC, although I haven't heard all the stories about the co-ed adventures, if there were any, of course (nudge,wink). It rather sounds like we've been extraordinarily lucky or smart, take your pick, in the success department, for a bunch of scruffy volunteers. You can all be justifiably proud of the work you've been part of, from the sounds of some of the problems occuring elsewhere.
"bout it for the moment, people, hope to see lots of you over the weekend. MEL
Whilst there are no longer any fry to be looked after at the hatchery the Chinnok Derby takes place on 1st. & 2nd August.  Tickets are still available at EAGLE EYE, THE CRAB SHACK, WEST SHORE SPORTS FISHING CENTRE AND ISLAND OUTFITTERSand in the coming weeks there will be work parties at the hatchery for a general clean up and maintenance. Watch this space. JULY 2009 June 23rd. There will be two more Derby Ticket sale-days at Eagle Eye. 9am until 3pm each day Sat., June 27 & Sat., July 04.June 17th. The Sea-pens were emptied on Monday evening and all the bits and pieces were hauled back to the ranch. We are now officially on summer holidays. For those who haven't heard, because you MISSED the meeting, there will be no meetings in July and August. We will start up again in September, to get things rolling towards Brood stock time. There will be a couple of work parties during July and August, for maintenance at the Hatchery. Mostly pipe work and valve overhaul, to correct a few problems that popped up around the place. I'll send out a notice and I just know that hordes of people will beat a path to the work site. We realize that summer is not the greatest time to be available, but give it your best shot. If we don't keep things running, it could be disastrous at the wrong time.
Tickets are going well for the Derby, we're going to have a couple more days of Saturday sales coming up. Thanks to the idiot who forgot to put an ad in the Mirror, we didn't get it out there as well as we probably should have. The ad's in this week and next, however. Hey - at least I'm willing to admit to my idiocy, that should count for something.
The Derby Committee will meet in the next week or so, to get the next step moving, I'll let everyone know when that comes along. Mel
June 11th. Couple of short items. First - to all the feeders - Thanks for the effort, the little fellas and fellettes thank you too, but I'm firing the whole works of you ! Since the Steelhead are the only thing left, we'll deal with them over the next few days, before they go. Second - there will be no meetings over the summer, we'll go back into regular meetings in September. There will, of course, be a few Derby meetings over the next while, but we haven't set a date for the next one yet. I'll send out e-mails re: work parties over the summer - if you can help, it would be nice. No cement parties this year - I promise.
Third - I set a time for the Sea pen release for 9A.M. on Monday morning, but, after numerous concerns from members about giving the little guys (sorry - keep forgetting the P.C. version - fishpersons) safety, I'm going to take the group advice and go for 6 P.M. instead and give them the stealth edge of darkness. ! So - see everybody at the wharf at 6P.M. on Monday. Mel
June 10th. Free at last!, free at last!, thank the Lord, they're free at last ! As of this morning, the only residents at the Hatchery Hilton are the Steelhead fry. All the Chinook & Coho have been released. A huge Thanks to everybody for a good season, again. I know how sad all the feeders are going to be, with nothing to do on their alloted days but sleep in , or, in Les's case, go play golf, but that's life. The plan for the Sea pen is: meet at the Gov't wharf at 9 A.M. on Monday and send them off on their travels. We'll pull everything out of there and get it back to the Hatchery. Three or four people will go from there to the Marina and release the fry they've been raising. We'll probably just pull the net out there and leave it for a day or two, then go back and clean everything up. Dealing with the Gov't wharf will be enough for one day, I suspect. See everyone at the meeting tonight, right ?? RIGHT ??? MelJune 9th. After discussion with Willy, the decision is to release the Sea-pen tenants on Monday, June 15. By then they'll be gnawing on the net, for lack of food, so it's time to let them find their own drive-thru. We may do Sooke Harbor Marina at the same time, their food is about used up, too. It would be nice to get the Wharf Pen out on Monday, no - let me re-phrase that - we will get the Wharf Pen out on Monday, but the Marina one isn't that critical. We can let it dry for a day or two before we deal with it.
So - it will require a few good (careful, now) persons to deal with the floats and all the bits that go with it. A good show of bodies will make the chore much easier and it's pretty much the last big chore we face until Fall.
June 8th. The clipping is done !! For those planning on coming out tomorrow (Tuesday), Don't. We had planned to do the rest of the Coho, but they're so small that whatever patience the crew had left would have been short-lived by noon. So there will be a break tomorrow and on Wednesday the Exodus will begin.
Everything will be released with the exception of the Steelhead. We'll keep them as long as we can, so Willy doesn't suffer "empty-nest" syndrome too soon. If a few people can be at the gate on Wednesday at 9, we can move all the Chinook & Coho out and pick up the long hose from the dump site, then clean up the toys for the Summer.
And - as a quick reminder, there's a General meeting on Wednesday at 7P.M. A good turnout would be appreciated, so we can wrap up some stuff that needs to be dealt with. It will probably be the last meeting until September, so I'm gonna bring a couple of cases of beer to celebrate. NOT - but it got your attention, didn't it ??
Huge kudos to everyone who's running around with sore hands and crossed eyes from the last few days, we (that's the royal "we", the clippers get the real credit!) did an amazing job, the final number was around 65,000 fry altogether wondering why their little butts feel so light. Mel
June 4th. Things are winding down at the hatchery for this year. The only Fry left are the ones for clipping over the weekend and the Steelhead, that are now in a trough and growing. There are a few summer maintenence projects that we need to address during the next couple of months, but that's a ways down the road. The next General meeting will be on Wednesday, June 10. We have a fair amount of important items to deal with and that requires a good presence of members, so, please make an effort to be there. A couple of the items involve money, so its nice to have you there as members to help decide on spending. If we have to spend it without your input, don't be muttering down the road that no-one was asked about their opinion.
Just a reminder that we'll be clipping fry over the weekend and on Monday & Tuesday, as well. If you're interested in the process and some free food, come on up for a day or whatever you have to spare. We'll meet at Butler's gate at 9 A.M. every morning.
The Sea-pen fish are eating like teen-agers at the Mall with Dad's Credit Card and growing well. It looks like the food will last for ten days or so, then it's time for the empty-nest syndrome for the feeders. But, hey, like the teen-agers that always seem to show back up on the door step, they'll be back in three years and looking for an anchovie, right, Les ??
June 3rd. Water temp is 13 deg C.Today Bill P. had to cut the water flow to the troughs since the level in the main header was down about 4". Tomorrow Wednesday we intend to move out tanks 8, 9, 10, and 11 (150,000 fry) as well as about half of the coho. Likely on Friday the same amount will be moved out as well. We are hoping that starting Saturday we can clip about 100,000 fry if we have that many left in the hatchery. The sea pen are doing well from 4.5 grams up to 8 grams now. To be released mid month. Thus by mid-month we should be clear of fry except the steelhead which we will try to keep as long as we can. Bryan
JUNE 2009 May 31st. We have reached that stage where water has become a major problem. As a result of existing & perceived shortages, we will be moving fry on Wednesday, June 03. We intend to achieve a state of having empty tanks that can be turned off to provide a cushion for the tanks we have to have water in for the clipping project next weekend. This will entail, hopefully, two trips to the river with fry. If we can prevail upon four or five bodies, that should be lots of help, so, if you can lend a hand, we will meet at Butler's gate at 9 A.M., as usual. Hope to see you there. Mel May 30th. We moved more fish today, both coho & chinook. We will be starting the clipping project on Saturday, June 06, and the plan is to do as many Chinook as possible on Saturday & Sunday, then switch over to Coho for Monday & Tuesday. There has been a good response from clippers, but anyone who wants to see what it's all about is more than welcome to come up and take part for as long as you want.May 26th. I'm not sure if I put out a notice about this or not, but we're planning on evicting more tenants on Friday, May 29. The target is three loads if we can get it done. If you want to check out the process, we'll meet at Butler's gate at 0900, as usual.The Steelhead are about 50 hrs. from ponding, so sometime next week, at the temps we're getting now.
Still waiting for a few more responses to the Clipping plan. One day, every day, whatever you can spare, would be a help. Fire me your name and I can work out a schedule. Clipping is the only indication we get as to returns, so it's fairly important.
May 23rd. We've transplanted more little ones, the first Coho are frolicking in Young Lake and the numbers are dwindling at a fine rate. Thanks to the crews who have been hauling them around.
We would like to clip a fair number of both Coho & Chinook fry for ID purposes down the road when they come back. The process will entail roughly two days for each group. If everything goes well, we can run around 15,000 a day thru the scissor brigade, so we hope to do approximately 25,000 to 30,000 Coho and the same number of Chinook. When ?? Well, we're thinking of the first weekend in June. Starting on Saturday and going through until Tuesday. We realize that a lot of people can't devote all that time to the process, so if we can get a commitment from willing people to put in as much time as they can spare, we can work out a schedule that will take that into account. What I hope to get is a response from willing "Edward Scissorhands" for a couple of days during that period that I can build into a workable plan.
If you've never spent a few hours finger wrestling with a tiny fish that ain't too excited about a fin-trim, you haven't lived !! It's actually kinda fun, seriously. Lotta work, lotta BS around the table, and free food. If you can give us a bit of time that would otherwise be spent foolishly somewhere like the golf course or mowing grass, let me know in the next week, so we can see if it's do-able.
A quick note to anybody who gets a key from Jack's place - please, please remember to roll the combination when you close the door
May 22nd. Today 45,000 coho were moved out to Young's Lake. A further 45,000 chinook were moved to the upper Sooke River. Feeding continues at the sea pen. Bryan May 19th. Update on stuff - The Chinook in the sea-pen are starting to feed well, finally. Not exactly what one would call a feeding frenzy, yet, but they are boiling around a little. We ended up with around 90,000 and 4,000 were moved to Sooke Harbor Marina, where they were doing okay at last word. If anyone notices a "Live Bait" sign appear on the highway, let us know. Matt may try to bolster their income when we're not looking !!
There have been three trips to freedom with fry at the Hatchery, so far. One trip to the Potholes and two runs up Boneyard. Something around 180,00 deportees. There will be another round-up and trail drive on Friday, May 22, if anyone is curious about the process. Mostly from the lower round tanks, 10 & 11. Usual time - 0900 at Butler's gate. Derby is rolling along and looking good. The final posters are up around town and the phone lists are being done. Our Sponsor's have been really great and the prize list looks pretty healthy, down a bit, with the economy, but surprisingly generous overall. Tickets will be going on the market on June 06 & 13 at Eagle Eye by members, same as the last Derby. If you know anyone who wants in, let 'em know. A reminder to Derby Committee members (and anyone else who wants to sit in) the next meeting is on May 28 at Neil's, again. We'll be doing the Rule Books & ticket packages, so that'll be a bit labor intensive.
That's about it. I'd like to thank all the people who are working at the Hatchery, doing the feeding and cleaning. One of those boringly mind-numbing jobs - but it has to be done and its being done well - thanks. Mel
May 16th. Friday 15th. we released 120,000 chinook into the upper Sooke (each tank 20,000 - two trips with truck and trailer). It looks like this will be the routine for the next little while. BryanMay 13th. Fry were delivered from Nitinat and deposited in there respective pens.
May 9th. The Sea-pen was put in at the gov't. wharf this morning and four tanks of fry were thinned out, the parolees going to the Potholes for their work-release. There was a noticeable lack of people, people !! It becomes a little sad, seeing only the same few volunteers all the time, until the fun stuff occurs. The biggest reason I send these notices around is in the (all too often, vain) hope that new faces will show up and get a chance to learn what we're all about.
The Nitinat fry will be coming down on Wednesday, around 11 - noon, depending on travel times, and we need a few hands to help put the net in at the wharf, before the new tenants show up for their room. We'll be meeting at the gate at 10 a.m. to load the last of the gear and take it to the wharf. At the same time, we will be taking a small number of the fry to Sooke Harbor Marina for their net-pen. More bodies, people. The fish will be moved by bucket and it's going to take a few helpers. We have to put the net in there, as well, although the net is there, just tied up out of the water.
The process will most likely take four to five hours, but any help given will be welcome, even if you can't be around for the whole evolution. Bring a friend, preferably one who loves work (not watching it - doing it !) So come on out - I don't mind taking off my shoes to count heads, if I use up my fingers. Mel
May 4th. First - We had a good day at the Rotary Auction, lots of interest and good feedback. Thanks to everybody who made the process easy. It was great to see Stan the Man roaming around like old times. Plans are more or less on track for the Sea-pen thing. We'll be putting the pen
in at Sooke Harbor Marina on Friday and the Gov't wharf one on Saturday. Anyone
who can help is more than welcome to come along. The one at Sooke Marina will
involve packing a fair amount of bits and pieces out the floats, so it would be
nice to have as many as possible show up.May 1st Rotary Auction takes place including an n educational display manned by SSES volunteersMAY 2009 29th. April We will be welcoming the new additions on May 13th, rather than May 11th, due to time issues at Nitinat. The pens will be going in the water on the same days, we just get the fish a bit later. 26th. April General status note: Almost all the fry are ponded and the Steelhead eggs were shocked on Saturday 25th.. We'll be starting to thin the numbers with releases before long, both to ease the crowding and to ensure good water ( Rocky creek is slowing down, as it does every year). We're pretty much up to speed for the Rotary auction on May 2nd. It's looking like the fry for our Sea-pen and the new pen at Sooke Harbor Marina may be coming from Nitinat at the same time, so we need to have both set-ups in
place and good to go by May 10th. If we can get a few people to be available on May 8th, we'll get the pen done at the Marina first. The Pen at the Gov't wharf will, hopefully go in
Saturday, May 9th. That one, as many of you are aware, takes a bit more effort. Derby - Well - the confusion is slowly being downgraded to organized confusion.
The support from our Sponsors has been really great and we are planning to get
the printing of tickets and Posters underway this week.
22nd. April We're going to have a work party on Saturday morning (25th.) If interested be at the gate on Butler Main by 8.45am. Mel
Our next monthly meeting will be held at the Community Hall on Wednesday 13th. MAY . Starts at 7:00 prompt. All welcome 15th. April There won't be anything ready for ponding this weekend, so everybody can polish the clubs or sharpen the hooks and enjoy the time off.We still have some Spring clean-up to deal with, but that can wait for a while. Thanks for all the response over the last while, it makes the work easier for all.
At the moment, we have roughly half the Coho to pond and just a few trays of Chinook left. Sadly, we had a few bad trays and lost a number of fry, but we still have great numbers of healthy little ones Mel
The general monthly meeting was on April 08 at the Community Hall.
5th April The second stack of Chinooks was ponded on Saturday and the third Mink was relocated to a new home.The Spring chores are getting knocked off at a good rate, thanks to everybody at the work parties. Saturday, April 11 will be another work party, mostly for ponding. There will be four or five stacks to pond, so anyone who's interested in the process and learning what's involved in the feeding/cleaning part of the system is welcome to come up and lend a hand. Hell, we'll let you use both hands. On Tuesday, April 07, we're going to start on the Otilith recovery program. Yeah, I know, what's an Otilith and why are we recovering them ? The Otilith is the small bone that fish use to detect vibrations in the water that they transfer into sound. It's in the head, behind and slightly above the gill plate. Finding them is akin to the needle in the proverbial haystack. The science boffins have developed a method of altering the bone in the early stages of growth that makes it possible to identify place of origin and even date of hatching. The fry from Nitinat are marked this way. The heads of our broodstock Chinook were saved and frozen. Now we are going to recover as many of the bones as possible and ship them off for identification. Think CSI Sooke, with Glen as the weird head of the group!!
Anyway, we're going to have a "training day" to figure out the process and anyone with some time is invited to partake of the autopsy school. Should be interesting and we'll do BBQ if we're there for lunch. Butler's gate at 0900 Mel.
1st APRIL We've started ponding, so FROM MONDAY 6th. IT'S TIME TO GET FEEDING UNDERWAY - ROSTER.
Stan Eakin is home and doing well, he'd probably like a visitor or two, just skip the doughnuts !. If anyone wants to e-mail him a couple of insults or something, I can pass along the address. MelAPRIL
30th. March. We ponded the first babies on Saturday, 8 trays of Chinooks. Great turnout, everybody, thanks, a lot was accomplished. Neil did a fair job of standing in for Stan at the BBQ.
We are now at the point where feeding and cleaning becomes a reality. There are still a few blanks in the roster that Really need to be filled:
Monday - no-one for the afternoon (only need one person, just to feed, although company is nice. I've done afternoons for a few years and it can be a tad boring by ones self.)
Friday - again - no-one for the afternoon
Saturday- we need one person for the morning shift and one for the afternoon.
24th. March Good Morning, Everybody; There will be a work party at the Hatchery on Saturday, Mar. 28, at 9 a.m. to get a few more Spring jobs out of the way. We'll be checking the babies for ponding, as well. There may be a couple of trays ready, depending on the usual factors.Stan Eakin has been thru his bypass surgery and is recovering nicely. He's not ready for visitors yet, still pretty groggy. Neil is in contact with Robin, his daughter and she's keeping him in the loop.There was a good turnout at the Derby meeting and things are going along at a good rate, to date. Good response from Donors. Hope to see a good crowd on Saturday, there'll be burgers and dogs for lunch, for the hungry. MelThere is a Chinook fishing Derby Meeting at Director Gerry Glaum's home at 7pm on Monday 16th. Telephone 250 642-7806 or email glaums@shaw.ca for details. SSES Members and willing volunteers welcome Thursday 12th. Well attended meeting last night with Community Advisor
Sonora Butterfield present She is a straight talking young lady who indicated that she is willing to help the SSES in any way she can and is an available contact to groups and individuals alike. Wednesday 11th. is our monthly meeting at the Community Hall. Start at 7:00 prompt. Our new Community Advisor
Sonora Butterfield
is scheduled to be at the meeting so please come along. All are welcome.The very cold weather continues to inhibit ATU levels and unless there is a sudden change for the better ponding is unlikely to take place much before the end of the month MARCHSaturday 28th. Hatchery repairs, cleaning and maintenance was carried out by a volunteer work party Work party planned for Sat. 28th. anyone interested to be at Butler Main gate by 8.50amAt the recent meeting Hatchery Director Glen Varney reported that we currently have 152,392 Coho eggs and 532,058 Chinook eggs. Survival rate approximately 90%. The Society will sponsor a table at the next Rotary Auction. Wednesday 11th. Feb. Monthly meeting held at the Community Hall. Confirmed that the SSES has been granted a Permit to take a small number of Steelheads.The province has agreed to attend a meeting to explain their position on steelhead. President Hull also advised the membership that the Community Advisor would like to attend one of our monthly meetings Water temp's remain very low as a result ATU's are slow to rise. Ponding will certainly not be taking place before MarchChinook Fishing Derby planning is underway with several meetings having taken place. More Volunteers are still needed anyone who is willing to lend a hand should contact the SSES President Mel Hull Tel. 250 642-5548 email melanjudy@shaw.ca. FEBRUARYAll Coho have now been shocked with a good survival rate. Wednesday 14th.Jan. Monthly meeting held at the Community Hall. Amongst other subjects the question of Steelheads was debated at some length. Thursday Jan 8th. The Hatchery survived the holidays in fine shape. The daily minders are heartily sick of the hike in and out, but at least there were no problems, -well - shortness of breath and sore legs don't really count, I guess. The coho trays are being shocked at a very slow rate and the chinook are hatching nicely. Earliest time for ponding will be March, by the look of things. The water temp went down to 0.3, which is about as cold as its ever been, -6 air temp at the manifold. The Derby is underway, in a manner of speaking. More on that at the meeting next week. We really need everybody to give serious thought to helping, in whatever way they can. A request for volunteers will be made at the meeting. Hey - Gerry puts out a great munchie selection and good coffee, so it's not a bad deal. The other thing that we need people to think on is the upcoming feed/clean requirements. Morning shifts are the critical ones, with the cleaning. "Many hands make light work" and all that wise old saying stuff. Afternoons are mostly just feeding. We'll be asking for names at the meeting. Don't make us go the "kick a##* and take names route", that's no fun.
Happy "at least it's kinda green again" New Year, all;
Jan 3rd. Getting to the hatchery This morning Tony and I did our Friday thing at the hatchery. The
snow was frozen so hard my little car did not make it to the gate so we walked in. It was worse walking than last Friday when the snow was soft. ATU's were 552. Water temp 3.1 Cheers Bryan Manning
Tuesday 29th. Greetings from the frozen heights of Lannon Creek; The first Derby meeting was held last night. The first steps were taken towards the project and we'll fill everyone in at the General meeting on the 14th of January. There won't be any shocking to be done for at least a week and probably longer with the temp the way it is. Which is, of course, abysmally cold !! We may have to budget for snowshoes for the daily trips if "Global Warming" keeps this up. If anyone was planning to attend the meeting last night and missed out due to my oversight, my apologies and let me know in as few four-letter words as possible, so I can make sure it doesn't happen again. Have a great New Year and don't shelve the studded tires just yet !! MELSunday 28th. To all you snowbirds; First -a reminder for those who are interested in helping with the Derby project - there is a meeting at Gerry Glaum's igloo on Monday, the 29th at 7 p.m. Anyone who needs directions can contact me here and I'll try not to send you into oblivion. Second - for those doing Hatchery watch. The road was a nightmare on Saturday, at least Young Lake road was. Glen managed to get into the main gate with his mini-semi, but didn't try to get beyond the flat stretch. It's probably a lot better now, but just be aware that you may have fun. Third - all those who have a deep-seated hatred of all things white and fluffy - hold up your hands !! Cheers Friday 26th. Getting to the hatchery Road from gate to the hatchery is still covered in deep snow and only accessible with appropriate transport hence Bryan, Tony and Elizabeth (Bryan's daughter) plus three dogs had to leave their small car at the gate and make the journey on foot.
A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MEMBERS
Monday 22nd. Ho,HO,HO; If anyone who hasn't yet stuck their hand in the air to help with the Derby is interested, there is going to be a meeting after the big day - Xmas, what else would I mean ??. Drop me a line and I'll fill you in on the details. Have a great 25th. Things are going well at the hatchery, water temp on Saturday was .03, the coldest I can remember it. Shocking has been somewhat delayed as a result, of course. MEL
Wednesday 17th. Hello, one & all; With the weather the way it's been and seems to be planning to continue, I'm suggesting that we wait until after the Xmas period to hold the first get-together for the Derby. I'm thinking the Monday after Xmas, the 29th, would be a workable date. If those who are willing to get this thing underway could let me know if that works, I'll finalize a time and place in the next few days. Hope everyone has a good holiday and, if you ain't been good, at least the coal will help you keep warm !! MEL
Thursday 13th. Start of Coho egg shocking. If interested, be at gate on Butler Main between 8.45 and 9am. Mel Hull
Thursday 11th. Hello, All; First and foremost, I have to apologize profusely to many, if not most, of you. I've been bumbling along, thinking I had the e-mails of everyone in the folder I use to send out hatchery info. Apparently not so !! So, if you've had the feeling you'd been forgotten, I assure you that's not the case, just the techno wizardry of the Pres that's been sadly remiss. So - an update for those who have been out of the loop. The Chinook have been shocked and we started the Coho today. It will be at least a week before the next trays are due and this time, I promise to let everyone know. At the General meeting this week, the decision was made by the members present to hold a Derby this year, partly monetary, yes, but also to keep us in the public eye, as the Derby has been so effective at doing. We now need a few volunteers to form a Derby Committee and get the ball rolling. Anyone who might be up for the work is asked to respond to me by e-mail and I'll set up a meeting to start the process. Again, my abject apologies for the lapse, and, if I see a crowd coming up the hill with flaming torches, I'll understand. I may open fire, but I'll understand. MEL
Thursday 11th. At yesterday's monthly meeting the majority of the members present voted in favour of holding a fishing derby in 2009. Volunteers able to assist are requested to contact President Mell Hull Tel. 250 642-5548 email melanjudy@shaw.ca.Wednesday 10th. Is our monthly meeting at the Community Hall. Start at 7:00 prompt. All are welcome. All Coho eggs have now been harvested and the water temperature at the hatchery will be monitored daily until the point when we can begin shocking of the Coho eggs. Members will be notified by email when that is taking place. DECEMBER 2008Nov. 27 Hi, Members; Just an update on things at the Hatchery. All the Chinook eggs are shocked and there are only a few Coho left to harvest. They will be looked at on Friday by the regular TEMP. CREW for status and, if ready, will be the last chore for a while. It's looking like four to five weeks until the first Coho eggs will be ready for shocking. Thanks for everyone's help with the shocking, it went well and the survival is great. Current numbers, Chinook - (after shocking) - 518, 000 and 147,700 for Coho to date. Mel Hull. Previous Years Egg Totals Nov. 18 Our thanks go to the South Vancouver Island Rangers that have been supporting us for some time with donations from their in-house derby and we have just received another $300.00 from them. To date they have donated a little over $2000.00 to the SSES.NOVEMBER 18th.  free local environment workshop Nov. 15 We are continuing to take Coho eggs and have commenced shocking of the Chinook eggs currently in the incubator room Wednesday Nov 12. At the AGM outgoing President Bryan Manning was thanked for his excellent stewardship of the Society throughout his term of Office. New SSES President is Mel Hull Tel. 250 642-5548. New Secretary is Rob Henderson Tel.250 642 0518. Also see feature below. Matthew Mackenzie General Manager of the Sooke Harbour Resort & Marina, pictured making a $1500 donation on behalf of the company to Chairman Bryan Manning at the recent SSES AGM. The donation was the proceeds of the first Chum Fishing Derby organized by the resort & marina. Also representing the company at the AGM was Jen Raffert and they had brought along several other guests. Both Matt & Jen took great interest in the meetings proceedings and subsequently have joined the Society. Nov. 12 Is our AGM at the Sooke Community Hall at 7:00 pm. Annual dues are due.Nov 9 Today we were able to take our full quota of Coho from the trap at Youngs Lake and released many more to make their way up river. Endorsing what we had seen when taking Chinook from the river in October, the size and quality of the Coho seen today was superb. Interesting to note the number of Hatchery fish taken for broodstock (Adipose fin removed) and a number of others were released. As a result of starting to harvest the eggs from the captured Coho females there will be the need for ongoing work parties over the next few days, notification will be by email. Nov. 8 With this rain the Coho run has started. We already have 10 in the tanks at the hatchery that were taken from the trap today and we'll be taking more Broodstock from the trap and eggs from captured Coho females tomorrow.NOVEMBER 2008 Oct 2008 Once there are eggs in the incubation room, volunteers visit the hatchery daily to record the water temperature. The accumulation of this temperature data gives an ATU total that is indicative of the time to "shock" those eggs. If you have a couple of hours available regularly on any one day and would like to get involved with the hatchery give us a call. CONTACT LIST Oct. 12/20. Ongoing process of taking eggs from remaining Chinook Female finalizied today.Oct. 11 Having taken our full quota of Chinook Broodstock the temporary fence was removed from the Sooke River and returned to the Hatchery on 14th. Oct. 9 Today and very much against expectation we were able to take our our remaining female broodstock from what has turned out to be a splendid return of Chinook to the river. The quantity, size and condition of both sexes was surprisingly good and a delight to see. Also interesting to note was the quantity and quality of Coho seen in the river but less Chum than usual were seen. Wednesday Oct 8 will be our monthly meeting at 7:00 at the Community HallOctober 7 Members Today we took 42 springs roughly 50/50 male/female. On Thursday Oct 9 we'll try again at 9:00 am at John Martin's. Also if everything works according to plan on Saturday Oct 11 we may do another sweep and then remove the upstream fence before the water gets too high. See you Thursday Bryan Manning SSES PresidentOctober 7 Despite yesterdays poor take we returned to the river today with some of the same personel and a few new faces, hopeful that things would be better. The first sweep was rather discouraging as only one Chinook was found amongst the many Chum.We then moved further down the river to a deeper pool and much to everyones surprise and delight that proved more profitable as we netted more than 40 Chinook, many of them being a very good size. Another interesting feature of todays sweep was the large number of Coho seen in the river, again many were of a very good size. We will be making another sweep on Thursday 9th. and if necessary a final one on Saturday 11th. October 6 Today members and helpers made the first attempt at taking this years Chinook Brood Stock from our usual location on the Sooke River. Sadly despite everyones best efforts only 4 Chinook were found.
THE ENGINEER'S DERBY SUPPORTS THE SOOKE SALMON ENHANCEMENT SOCIETY ONCE AGAIN IN 2008
 Having made a generous $1500 cash donation last year, Christoph Moch and his colleagues who organise the Consultant's Invitational Fishing Derby, this year responded to the Hatchery need for additional funds by making a superb $9000 donation from the proceeds of this years event. The SSES Board of Directors send their collective thanks to the organisors and their sponsors for this very generous donation, which is much appreciated.
LYLE ALBERT BOND
August 16, 1963 - August 7, 2008
Sunday August 3 FINAL SOOKE ENHANCEMENT SOCIETY DRAW  AUGUST 2008 Friday July 18 to 29th. The water intake pipe at the Hatchery was upgraded by volunteers. This was to have been done totally by hand but the surrounding infastructure was such that it required the use of a Bobcat to clear the area before the work could start. Once that was accomplished the old pipe was removed and the new one cemented in place. Friday July 25 - SECOND EARLY BIRD DRAW WINNERS  Friday July 18 - EARLY BIRD DRAW WINNERS  July Members Selling SSES Draw Tickets  Monday July 15 Salmon Day at the Flats Committee meeting held. Wednesday July 9 General meeting plus guest speaker..Wednesday July 9 All of the remaining hatchery fry were released today. JULY 2008Thursday June 29 All of the hatchery Chinook fry were released today. Thursday June 19 Salmon Day at the Flats Committee meeting held. Monday & Tuesday June 16 17 There were work parties both days at the hatchery that clipped all of the Coho.Friday June 13 All fry were released from the Government Wharf Sea Pen which was then dismantled and returned to the hatchery the following day. Wednesday June 11 General meeting at the Community Hall.JUNE 2008Friday May 16 Commence feeding of fry in Sea Pen Wednesday May 14 Monthly meeting. 7pm at the community hall.Wednesday May 14 Total of around 80,000 chinook fry were delivered to the Sea Pen today. 
Hi Members 78800 Chinook Smolts arrived in Sooke today. They are setting in to there new home at the Gov Dock. The average weight is 5.0 grams. We will feed 1/2 there daily food 3kgs tomorrow (Thursday) and full amount 6kgs on Friday. It would be good to feed twice a day minimum. We are starting a new thing this year and it is water quality. There are new tools to do this and a record sheet in the food box. I will be doing a demo tonight at the general meeting. If any one wishes to learn this please let me know. I will be able to teach this to people as we go. I am still at Nitnat Hatchery until mid June and have been feeding over 8.5 million Chum and 1 million Chinook at the lake pen. 240 kgs of food a day. Hope everyone is well and see you soon. Glen Director of Hatchery Operations
Monday May 12 Sea Pen erected at Government Wharf in preparation for the arrival of fry from Nitinat
Sunday May 10 Today Bill Pedneault and I shocked the last of the eggs. The final tally is considerably better than we forecast. The final count was 23,705 and the mort rate, while I didn't add it up, should be 10 - 15 % at most. We'll have to check the trays in a few days for any additional mortality, but it shouldn't be very high. Our original estimate was out almost 1000 eggs for each female. One would think we'd be a bit better by now, wouldn't one??
The new plaques look really good on the Memorial board, by the way. Mel Hull
Saturday May 3 Bryan Manning, Mel Hull, Neil Fawdry, Al Colburne,Tony Rewston and Amy Fchwojka manned an information booth at the Sooke Rotary auction.
The winner of the "Guess how many salmon fry in the tank" competition at the auction was Abby Grigg from Sooke. Her guess was 252 the actual number in the tank was 237. She receives the prize of a SSES Hat & T. Shirt, well done Abby MAY 2008 15 April 2008 Today we ponded 4 trays (about 10,000) Chinook in to tank 3a.
April 12 2008 Today we ponded 4 trays (about 10,000) coho into tank 7A and 10,000 chinook into 3B.
Wednesday April 9 There will be a general meeting tonight at the community Hall at 7:00
April 5 2008 On Thursday 3rd. Mel Hull and Bill Pedneault took the eggs from all except one of the females at the hatchery. We should have about 20,000 eggs. They also ponded more Chinook into tank 3B.
APRIL 2008 March 26 2008 Bryan Manning and Neil Fawdry made a powerpoint presentation regarding Salmon and the Jack Brooks Hatchery to a number of local Telus personel March 15. Ponding Chinook Fry at the Hatchery  Saving the threatened salmon California Newspaper article March 14 2008 UK newspaper articlewest coast braced for ban on salmon fishing Alternative Fund Raiser Planned "Salmon Day At The Flats" Sunday 3rd. August 2008 (Details to be announced)MARCH 2008February 14 2008 Nicola Tribal Association position on Early Timed Chinook 2008 February 9 2008  ArticleRecord numbers of Chinook caught accidentally by Bering Sea Pollock trawler fleet February 6 Sooke News Mirror Letter - Mike Hicks FEBRUARY 2008 30 January Sooke News Mirror article - David Suzuki Foundation 30 January Sooke News Mirror article - Opinions vary 29 Jan. LETTER OF SUPPORT RECEIVED FROM - SALMON ENHANCEMENT & HABITAT ADVISORY BOARD Email - COMMENTS RECEIVED ON THE CANCELLATION OF THE DERBY 16 January Sooke News Mirror - article regarding cancelling the fishing DerbySSES VOTE TO CANCEL 2008 FISHING DERBY JANUARY 2008 November 15 2007 NEWS JUST IN. Click on article below  November 8 2007Today we received a $1500 donation from the organisors of the Consultant's Invitational Fishing Derby. The cheque was presented by Christoph Moch and Carl Wilkinson and very gratefully received by the societies President Bryan Manning in the company of Secretary Stu Whitney and several other Society Volunteers. The Board of Directors send their collective thanks to the organisors and their sponsors for this generous donation, which is much appreciated. ABOUT THE CONSULTANT'S INVITATIONAL FISHING DERBY
The Consultant's Invitational Fishing Derby is an annual fundraising event organized by the Derby Committee consisting of representatives of the participating engineering companies. In its second year of existence, this event has grown to more than 90 entrants with 23 registered boats. The 8 participating engineering companies (UMA Engineering Ltd., Stantec Inc., Kerr Wood Leidal Associates Ltd., Golder Associates Ltd., Focus Corporation Ltd., Bullock Baur Associates Ltd., J.E. Anderson & Associates Ltd., and 1st TEAM Consulting Ltd.) are Victoria based consulting firms which are active in the fields of civil and environmental engineering. Employees of these companies regularly face the professional challenges associated with environmental impacts of human activities. Avoiding, mitigating, or reversing negative environmental impacts is not only the commitment of these companies, it is also the personal desire of their employees. A number of them are avid anglers of local waters and know about the concerning situation of many local fish populations. For that reason, the Victoria consulting engineering community came together two years ago and launched the Consultant's Invitational Fishing Derby to raise funds that go directly to any environmental organization of choice. For two years in a row, the Sooke Salmon Enhancement Society was chosen as the beneficiary of the derby donations due to the Societies outstanding work and honourable volunteer efforts for the enhancement of the salmonid populations in the Sooke River watershed.
Without the Societies relentless work, Sooke, B.C. would not be the fishing gateway it is for tourists from all over the world. The Consultant's Invitational Fishing Derby and its 2007 special guests (Martech Marketing, City of Victoria, University of Victoria, and Scansa Construction Ltd.) are proud to donate $1,500 to the Sooke Salmon Enhancement Society this year.
October 13 2007 We have been in the Sooke River to get our brood stock for Chinooks, but with the early rain and the very low number of Chinooks returning this year, the collection period is now over. We were able to get only 14 fish which would result in about 35,000 eggs - one tenth of our requirement. This looks like a very bad year for Chinook. Bryan Manning August 4th. 5th Annual SSES Fishing Derby
July 11 2007 This morning we put all the steelhead and the few coho recently rescued from Rocky Creek into the upper Sooke River. The water temps at the Hatchery had reached nearly 15 deg C. so a decision was made to move all fish out. Thanks for your help this year and now on to the Derby. Bryan Manning June 25 2007 The clipped coho (about 25,500) were released into Youngs Lake. Only the Steelhead remain in the hatchery. June 23 and 24 Derby tickets went on sale this weekend at EagleEye. The Sooke Salmon Enhancement Society are selling the tickets themselves for the next 2 weekends.
Hi Member We will be releasing the clipped Coho this Monday. We will meet at the gate to the Hatchery (Butler Main Logging rd) at 10am. Thanks for your help with this. Glen Varney
Director of Hatchery Operation
Hi Members/Volunteers Thanks to all your help the is sun light at the end of the tunnel. The seapen chinooks were released last night at 9pm. We had great growth and survival was outstanding. We achieved 12.5grams from 4.5grams on May 16ths. One thing to do is remove the pen. Wed. June 20th at 7pm would work for me. Also I would like to thank all that helped out clipping the Coho. It took 3 days to clip 25562 coho. They will be released to young lake next week. Please let me know if you can help out Weds night. Thanks again Glen Varney
Director of Hatchery Operations
June 7 2007 The feeding schedule has changed at the hatchery. Today we released all the remaining chinooks from the hatchery and just have coho and steelhead remaining which are on auto feeders. There will be no feeding in the afternoons at the hatchery. there will be regular feeding at the sea pen until the chinook are released ( around June 16th). We will be clipping the Coho June 14,15 at the hatchery starting 8.30am. This will be a two day event. Once this is done, they will be released in to several locations a week later. June 4 2007 The fish in the sea pen have doubled in size to 8.5gms. in 2 weeks. This is good news but it means they will have to thin them out so on Monday we dropped a corner of the net and allow some to leave. This will allow us to double the size of the remaining fish. There will be regular feeding at the sea pen until the chinook are released (around June 16th).May 19 2007 Due to low flows in Rocky Creek we released about 150,000 fry into the upper Sooke River and shut down some tanks. Currently there are sufficient flows for the hatchery. May 16 2007 Received 84,000 Chinook fry from Nit Nat Hatchery. These were placed in our Sea pen at the Government Wharf in Sooke and will be fed daily until their release in late June or early July. April/May 2007 Routine daily feeding and cleaning of the troughs and tanks April 12 2007 We began releasing about 25,000 Chinook fry a week into the upper Sooke River. This is a precaution against a warm, dry spring where the water flows would quickly drop and the water temperature increase with a corresponding drop in dissolved oxygen in the water. April 6 2007 We ponded 30,000 Coho into the troughs. Early April 2007 We removed about 25,000 eggs from Steelhead that we caught under provincial license. These eggs were fertilized and put into the incubator room. The steelhead were released. March 2007 Continued to pond alevins/fry into the Capalano troughs and large tanks. By the end of the month we moved over 450,000 alevins/fry from the incubator trays.Saturday, March 10 2007 Today the Soooke Salmon Enhancement Society began ponding chinook fry. This involves moving the alevins/fry from the trays in the incubator room into the Capalano tanks. About 200,000 alevin/fry were transferred. This will be an on-going process for the next few weeks. Once the chinook are in the tanks they are fed during the day every 20 to 30 minutes. This will continue until June/July when the weather dictates as to when they are released into the upper Sooke River.
Sunday, November 19, 2006 High waters not only wiped out spawning beds, they also left salmon stranded in meadows and cow pastures. Volunteers from the Sooke Salmon Enhancement Society rescued over 150 chum left behind in shallow sloughs. The fish were still green and ready to spawn and in good shape when returned to the Sooke.
To what extent this will affect salmon returns three to five years from now is still to be determined. Water levels achieved such heights in the Sooke River that it is possible some coho breached the 40-foot falls that are at the head of the potholes and they may spawn in the upper waters of the Sooke system. Next summer SSES volunteers will monitor the upper waters for fry.Unlike most of the island rivers, where summer droughts prohibited fish from returning, outflows from the reservoir left enough water in the Sooke to enable fish to return to our waters last month. Volunteers from the Sooke Salmon Enhancement Society along with some Port Renfrew charter boat operators and local commercial fishers achieved their targets for Chinook salmon eggs mid-October.The Coho picture is not as good. Returns are down and the hatchery was unable to set nets in the river due to high waters. Few coho were taken in the fish trap at the Young Lake Weir and the hatchery will probably obtain only about 30,000 eggs for incubation.Hatchery Director Glen Varney says Jack Brooks Hatchery will probably operate at about 50% capacity this year. Even the possibility of supplementing production with eggs from the federal hatchery at Nitnat is in doubt as the roads to Nitnat have been out and the window for obtaining eggs is closing. The picture has some bright sides Varney stressed. “These occurrences are not unusual and the hatchery has adequate stock to replenish the river system over time. Natural spawning in perfect years is more than enough to maintain our stocks. The hatchery’s value to Sooke comes in years like this. Moreover new pools and spawning beds created by streambed changes will pay benefits in the future and the possibility that fish may have reached the upper Sooke is intriguing.” Varney also said that one of the most serious problems faced in the last few years has been lack of feed in the open ocean. “Winter storms are the engines that stir up nutrients to support bait production in the ocean,” he said. “Salmon cycles are not immediately apparent and it may take years for the overall picture to emerge.”Home Page
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