This week ODFW is performing their annual fish sampling on the upper half of the wild and scenic section of the Crooked River below Bowman Dam (Big Bend to Cobble Rock). As usual, I helped out one day carrying buckets of fish and releasing them in various places after they had been measured and weighed. I’ll post the final report from ODFW once it has been completed sometime in August, but the biologist’s initial assessment is the fish population looks very similar to last year. Lots of whitefish and trout, some with reasonable size including a handful of redbands over 16″ yesterday, the day I volunteered. The other volunteer that day is a frequent angler on the Crooked and, like the first time I volunteered many years ago, was surprised by how many fish were in locations that he had never fished. Keeping reading for a video.

Fish sampling is done via electrofishing. The raft has a small generator in the back which sends an electric current through the two poles extending out the front. There are metal wires hanging off the front of the poles which deliver the current to the water. The current is fairly weak, but is strong enough to temporarily stun fish which are gathered up by the people at the front of the raft with nets and placed in a holding tank on the raft. After a short stretch the raft goes to the side of the river where the fish are measured and weighed then placed in buckets for volunteers to carry upstream to release.

If you look closely, you can see many fish jumping out of the water. At this point in the day only redbands are being collected, most of the fish you see in the video are whitefish, which the people with nets are not collecting. Angling tip, most of the redbands were in the top 25% of the wild and scenic section.