Saugeen River Fishway Update

Denny’s Dam Fishway: Grant and the LHFC boys who manage the Denny’s Dam fishway have spent the summer cleaning out the fishway as it was jam-packed full of debris from the spring ice blowout. A contractor was called in to help with some of the stubborn pieces of debris. As of August 17th, the water in the Denny’s fishway and live fishcam are running again. The fall adult transfer is all set to go.

Walkerton Denil Fishway: Water is currently too low for assessing the Walkerton fishway. Jody from Owen Sound MNR will be updating the club on the status of Walkerton fishway at the annual fall derby in October.

Steelheaders / Lake Huron Club Beat Mother Nature and the Steelhead

As you’ve probably heard we’ve been experiencing  record cold weather, record wet weather and record runs of steelhead on the Saugeen River this spring. The old boys on the river have been facing the elements at their own pace and getting the job done

As I said the rains and cold have been one for the record book. Here’s the Maple Hill dam and what it looked like for the last couple of weeks. Downtream at Denny’s the sight is even more amazing. Floods, floods and more floods, but the fish keep coming on.


But even with the cold the steelhead have been coming on strong for weeks. The fish staged below the dam and off the rivermouth by the thousands, but the urge to get to the spawning beds overcame even the coldest and highest of water and the run kicked into gear.
 
This is the new fishway the Steelheaders built at Maple Hill under flood  conditions. This fishway, another across the river and the Walkerton fishway have been passing first winter steelhead for the last month and now are jammed with spring fish.


At Denny’s we close the passage only twice a day for less than an hour at a time to trap. We average between 400 and 500 fish captured at each lift. For the other 22 hours the big adults are running non-stop. Trust me it’s not an easy task climbing into the hole twice a day to struggle with up to a thousand fish. Every one of those fish is either put in the tanker or sampled and released upstream


These fish average out at between 6-10 pounds , but we have plenty of 10-15  pounders. The biggest to date this year is nudging 18 pounds


We generally utilize 3 or 4 transport tankers for the one hour ride up to the Beatty, but are using two while the remaining tankers are getting their spring overhaul. One tanker carrys 50 adults and the second contains 40 big ones. Due to wet conditions we have to hand haul the adults down to the river which is a task in itself


We make two trips a day for a total of 180 adults a day. Trust me this is a lot of work for us geriatric wonders. Jimmy  on the tanker had a brain anerism about a year ago and Bill carrying the fish thought he was going to enjoy his retirement and just drink beer and fish


The main Saugeen may be muddy as hell, but the Beatty Saugeen trib is clear and drinkable. The Beatty is approximately 70 miles by water from the rivermouth and Lake Huron. We stock the fish at just upstream of the junction of the Beatty Saugeen and South Saugeen. From where we stock them, the fish have another 40 miles of prime, cold, clear spawning water


Kirk Lund one of our most dependable long time members has been part of these tanker expeditions for years. When I   need someone and the going is tuff I know I can always count on him


Now have a close look at the rocks in this stretch of river. This is a major flood period across Ontario, streams are muddy everywhere, but never in the Beatty. Art Paterson is another longtimer that can always be depended on.


This really is what it is all about for this part of our spring program. We move a thousand fish like this every spring  up into lower Beatty and let them do their thing in the best spawning water found anywhere in the province. In the first 2 1/2 days we moved 450 fish. The winds and rain kicked are butts for a few days, but I know I can always count on the geriatric groupies. As a matter of fact they called today and said they are back on the job  and will be finished in a day or two. We stock the best wild genetics, in the best water, for the best spawning and imprinting. We trailer thousands of miles a year in both spring and fall but it’s paying off big time.



These same two clubs also collect 100,000 wild eggs for our own hatchery program, 100,000 eggs for the Bruce Peninsula Sportsmens hatchery and an additional 75,000 eggs that we send to the Chatsworth hatchery for a joint program being carried out between the MNR. It’s the first time in decades that a new strain (Chambers Creek) has gone into a provincial hatchery


Then next week we finish off our spring workload by stocking out 65,000 of the finest 8 inch fingerling steelhead smolt into the Saugeen way upstream 50 miles again for perfect imprinting at Walkerton


What can I say, but…..Old Boys Rule!!


And Rule!!


And Rule!!



And have created the best damn steelhead fishery I’ve ever seen in my life  for the younger crowd. And I mean from Alaska to California.  Think real hard about the number of anglers that actually fish below Denny’s Dam alone each spring, fall and winter. When conditions are right catching fish is not a problem. In fact, 10 and even more fish a day are not an oddity when the bite is on. Think about the awesome numbers of fish bursting through that Denny’s fishway ever spring and atumn 24 hours a day. Like I’ve said I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere else on the continent. A great accomplishment by a few old boys and a few youngsters as well that belong to the Ontario Steelheaders and the Lake Huron Fishing Club.

Fishway News

As we all witnessed, spring came early to Grey & Bruce Counties, bringing with it some fabulous runs of rainbows. Unfortunately shortly after, we experienced very low water conditions occurring much earlier than ‘normal’. Low flows left many fish stranded throughout the landscape with the combined effect of significantly less nursery habitat available to the year class of 2012.

On the brighter side, in early June MNR Fish & Wildlife Technician Dustin Veenhof placed Temperature loggers at 4 different locations on the Beatty Saugeen (Concession 12, 14 + 16 and below the dam at Orchardville). Loggers record and store temperature readings every hour.

Maple Hill Fishway
On average, temperatures remained below 20C, while on a couple of occasions the temperature did creep up to 25 or 26C. Rainbow trout temperature range is 12-20C, with 26C being fatal. Some rainbows can locate refuge in deep pools, cold tributaries or springs somewhere in the river during the hottest days. This is typical for a lot of local cold/cool water systems, and although it may not be perfect, it is still possible for them to thrive in this river system. Fish can still survive ‘out of temperature’ for a period of time but development, size and weight is directly affected.

For the most part these temperatures suggest the main Beatty Saugeen River is suitable for brown trout and even better for rainbows. Remember this in the context of one very hot summer with very low flows, these results are very encouraging! As with all fish species, environmental factors play a huge roll in annual recruitment.

The Good:

Low water levels also allowed the completion of phase 2 of Maple Hill fishway. Although rainbows did navigate this fishway in the spring, recent improvements should increase effectiveness. The current stop logs allow for adjustment of water heights through-out the fishway. Once observations are complete and fine tuning occurs, concrete will replace hemlock stop logs.

MNR is still on course for the placement of temporary cameras on the Walkerton and Maple Hill fishways to monitor next spring’s migration.

Early indicators suggest more exceptional angler opportunity on the Saugeen this fall! Enjoy!

Jody Scheifley Fish & Wildlife Technical Specialist Ministry of Natural Resources Owen Sound

Fishway News

An unusually early melt has resulted in possibly the earliest run of steelhead on the Saugeen in recent memory.

Top view of the new fishway at Maple Hill Dam
Top view of the new fishway at Maple Hill Dam

After much effort by Ontario Steelheaders, MNR and other partner groups it is safe to say Walkerton Fishway at Truax dam is running optimally! On one March afternoon, MNR staff observed 73 rainbows passing through this fishway in just 20 minutes.

The next barrier upstream from Walkerton remains Maple Hill dam. Again, the same dedicated parties completed the first construction stage of the ‘new’ Maple Hill fishway last fall.Although this newly constructed fishway requires a bit more ‘fine tuning’, fish were seen successfully navigating this fishway. Maple Hill Fishway construction will be completed this summer.








Rainbow trout (Center and inset) negotiating the dam.
Rainbow trout (Center and inset) negotiating the dam.
MNR had scheduled fish monitoring cameras to be operational at Walkerton and Maple Hill dams this spring to capture steelhead numbers passing throughthese fishways. Unfortunately, the extremely early run did not enable crews to install these cameras on time. Cameras will be operational in time for next year’s spring run and will also record downstream smolt migration.

So, the good news is the Saugeen is seeing a record number of steelhead at a time when all barriers between the lake and the cold productive headwaters have been eliminated. This is truly a success story and example of what can be achieved when partners with a common interest work together!









Jody Scheifley
Fish & Wildlife Technical Specialist
Ministry of Natural Resources
Owen Sound, ON

Walkerton Fishway

By now, everyone should know that the Walkerton Fishway was given a major overhaul this past spring. Remember, the final goal is to get adult steelhead up and over the Walkerton dam and into the Beatty. The redesign meant a major overhaul. If you even think that getting the needed changes done was a simple matter, then you are dead wrong.   Shawn Carey and Jody Scheifley working out of the Owen Sound Ministry office deserve the lion’s share of the praise for getting this old fishway up and running.   We’ve installed a system of new stop logs at the top and bottom of the fishway’s piping interior, along with a large stainless steel control device that allows us to adjust water flow. Does it work? You bet your last fishing rod it does. Within a few hours of opening the redesigned passageway steelhead were moving through it.   There’s still a little bit of fine tuning to improve the fishway even more, but that will come next spring.