May 4, 2016

May 4, 2016.

Today your Stream Keeper made his first float through this year’s stream restoration project site. Amazing! I launched my float tube at the head of Beat #7 and proceeded down the south side of that straight stretch. Even though the creek is down about a foot, normal for this time of year, I immediately noticed that the south side of the creek was substantially deeper. I can only imagine how much the trout will love to hold and feed in this stretch when the creek is at full pool. I proceeded around the back channel of the island at the start of Beat #6. Wow! Not having been behind the island before, what impressed me was how wide parts of the back channel is until you get down to the bottom of the island. The dredging took most of the back channel down to gravel although some silt (bearing vegetation) still remains. I felt as if I had floated on a spring creek I had never visited before. I look forward to seeing where the trout hold and feed. I made my way up the road-side of the island for a short distance and my impression is that trout are going to stage in this area as well. I think that I could spend an entire morning behind the island. But, as Stream Keeper I am going to have to leave this new water to the Members, at least during busy times. Throughout the dredged area I encountered black midges and tiny Blue Winged Olives on the surface that were being taken by trout here and there.

          It was not an entirely great day, as afterwards I drove up to The Pond and encountered upwards of 35 White Pelicans resting on one of the islands. Two shotgun rounds of “blanks” chased them away from The Pond, but I’m sure that they just relocated elsewhere on the creek and that I’ll run into them tomorrow. I’ve been driving the Ranch water 5 or 6 times a day in an effort to haze these fish eating monsters, and it appears I will have to do so until Opening Day when the pelicans flee from Members.

Doug Andres

Stream Keeper, Double R Ranch