Whiskey Creek (Lake Clearwater) Spawning Update
Hamish Stevens.

During the salmon spawning surveys in mid June Whiskey Creek was surveyed for brown trout however due to the low flow no trout had moved into the stream at that stage. An angler mentioned to Fish and Game that he had seen upwards of 50 trout spawning there in early July. Subsequently a return visit showed that a number of trout had indeed been in, spawned and moved back to the lake. Twenty four redds were counted with some fish still spawning. Of the 24 redds three were constructed above the two holding structures and a further five redds on areas that were re-shingled in early March. It was evident that a fresh had been through the stream and the structures had preformed well, retaining the gravel. This was a major hurdle in the past as floods tended to remove finer spawning shingles leaving larger cobbles as the only available spawning material. Spawning in these re-shingled areas should give the developing eggs better survival rates and hopefully in turn boost the juvenile fish numbers produced from Whiskey Creek. 

Spawning structure with redd (oval area) excavated immediately upstream

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