I was wondering what happens to fish when the rivers get extremly fast and muddy. Example: The Umatila river in north eastern Oregon. It goes from a trickle of a slow moving clear creek in the summer to a huge very fast flowing very muddy river in the winter (from what I've seen). Same with the irrigation ditches in the area. In the irrigation ditches there is very minimal or no cover. The Umitila has carp in the summer. Do they just flow down river to the Columbia or just hunker down behind a small rock and wait it out. Maybe this is a dumb question but I've never thought of it before.

They are still there, they just tend to hang out in the slower water. I've heard the silt irritates their gills. The slower the water the less coarse silt is present. So to answere your question they just ride out the big water, and hold in different areas. If it's not severly blown out it can put them on the move, and they can cover some serious ground.

The fish are also right at your feet next to the shore. Keep that in mind when fishing high water.

~ Dr Pepper

Exactamundo Pepper thats where the slower water is close to shore, and on the inside of the sweepers.

Hi Baiter,

I live in Pendleton and as part of my job did a 4 year (1992-96) radio-telemetry study on the Umatilla River for all four salmonid species. By far the most data was generated for summer steelhead with the objective being to evaluate passage of adult fish from Three Mile Dam upstream through Stanfield Dam (RM 32 approx). What we found was that in general steelhead on the Umatilla River tend to hold during extremely high/muddy flows. As water begins to drop and clear they move upstream. The speed at which they travel varies greatly from one fish to the next. I recall in one particular year, the first steelhead we tagged (probably in October) took 112 days to cover the 32 miles through the diversion dams. The last fish tagged in that migration season (probably in April) covered the same distance in 2 days! Water temperature and photoperiod were by far the largest influencing factors on migration. On the Umatilla we found that all migration for summer steelhead stopped at temperatures below 38 degrees and steelhead moved progressively faster through the system as spring approached. This may or may not of course hold true on other systems. Some fish will slowly move upstream at a constant rate while others might hold in a particular spot for several weeks before progressing upriver. In general large numbers of summer steelhead do not enter the upper portions of the basin (near and above Pendleton) until later in the migratory period (February-April). None of these things hold true for springers, different fish, different story. Take Care.

RM

[ 12-15-2001: Message edited by: RiverMan ]

RiverMan,
Thanks for the info.