The wild coho and chinook are spawning in the shallow tailouts in the Green river and now where they were spawning it is NOW HIGH AND DRY!!!!!!!

Yup, the spawning beds are high and dry. The Green needs some serious water in it.

I have read some place that even if they(redds) are out of the water and the gravel is moist that the eggs will survive as long as it does'n dry out altogether.

Fishtale,

It's not just the Green, it's happening on a lot of rivers. I heard from the Corps (operators of Howard Hanson Dam) yesterday, and they are augmenting the low flows very slightly with the little storage they have left. That will run out in about 4 days, and then they will pass only inflow, so flows could drop more unless this rain improves the water supply. Tacoma Water is only taking half their allocatiion and getting the rest of their water from well fields to help the Green R. out during this drought.

Chum redds are dewatered on the Skagit. Chinook redds are dewatered on the Hoh. So far the storage dams on the upper Skagit, the Cowlitz, and Lewis have enough water to incubate salmon redds all the way to emergence.

Three weeks of higher water in November was kind of a cruel blow by tricking salmon to spawn higher on the gravel bars than would be sustained by subsequent incubation flows. It is true that eggs can survive for a while if they remain moist in the gravel. But that also requires that we not have freezing weather which would kill the eggs.

Sometimes nature is generous, sometimes not.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

There is generally water sub-surface in most river beds. This will keep eggs alive even during prolonged dry spells, especially eggs that have been buried by channel changes from previously high flows. Upon emerging sac fry will often migrate well into this hyphoreic layer to await button up, and will sometimes migrate great distances underground, even coming up in ponds behind dikes, one of the reasons gravel mining in the flood plain is so dangerous. Salmon fry have even shown up in tap water drawn out of shallow wells drilled to close to the river The water you see in the river is only a fraction of what is there, most of it is underground. This underground river is flowing, and it readily mixes with moderate-temperatured ground water, so freezing is unlikely. However, a prolonged drought like we have had has likely had an effect on the water table, especially in watersheds with a dense population and lots of wells that have unnaturally drawn it down over the summer. The hyphoreic zone drops with the water table, and if this keeps up those eggs may not make it. If you have a well, don't use much water.

spawnout
so what your saying is that these under ground rivers over here are loaded with salmon Well, its time to dig a hole down to one of them under ground water ways

not sure how true it is but the weather liars say we should be getting rain next week...at least thats what they say over @ accuweather.com

fwiw...

Don't think they meet the minimum size limit KF, alevins (salmon sac fry) are usually about an inch long. Not much left when you filet them out either

When their that small you have to take them with a beer or a shot of whisky. That way you can do them whole.