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This report was filed by Ryan Mosley with DWR
One night and site down, one to go! The weather was phenomenal last night; balmy T-shirt weather with hardly a breath of wind.
We sampled a 1-mile stretch of river just below the dam, using Spillway launch ramp as our short-term "fish lab." A total of 527 fish were electrofished and brought back to the launch where they were measured, weighed, scanned for dye marks and tags, and pumped for stomach contents. Fish were released at the end of the night to live and fight another day.
Many of the veteran volunteers commented on the impressive condition of the fish this fall, similar to what the anglers have voiced all summer. A good portion of the larger rainbows were shaped like footballs, especially those in the 15- to 17-inch size class. Brown trout have also taken on a new look, and the night's "big fish" was a 20-inch brown trout weighing in at 3.5 lbs.
We'll move to Little Hole tonight and report back with a short summary of the results tomorrow. Hope it helps, Ryan.