Bleached and Gnarled (204/365)

4

July 23, 2015 – I was out on Comox Lake helping with some fry trapping today.

I gripe and moan about getting up to catch the 6:20am ferry. And then to get to the hatchery by 9:15, to get out on the lake and be done by noon made me question why I joined in given that there had to have been other bodies that could have filled in for those missing.

I am usually a harbinger for rain when I come here lately, but that didn’t pan out today and it was a beautiful day. So although I just don’t like waking up before 5am anymore, the reward is usually worth it when I join in on the Comox Lake work. I always get over the tired and cranky part when I know there is a boat ride involved 😉

Today we were collecting from a trap set on the upper lake yesterday. Last month we caught lots of coho, a few sculpins, and a few stickleback. Today we had five sculpins, 574 stickleback, and 15 coho. That was less than satisfying for all of the effort. So it was a long day with little to show for it beyond a general indication that the coho fry have probably gone to deep waters in the lake to escape the heat of the shallow waters.

So although we didn’t get much, it was a great day out on the water, and we checked out a couple of the rivers coming into the lake to see how tragically low they were. And, as always, I found something interesting along the shore while the guys were trailering the boat.