Well I've seen it all now, I was working up off a feeder creek to a small river feeding the Snoqulime Rv. and spotted some thrashing on the side of a black-topped road .Went over to check it out and there were 100's of fish making redds. The last high water really moved the older fish way up the systems......C/22

Do those redds have any chance of making it?

Mike

Chrome -
It is really pretty common to see coho spawning in so-called "ditches", especially after a heavy rain. Coho natural move well up into the small creeks to spawn on big rise - their way of taking advantage of all the habitat. This strategy work very well for 1,000s of years. Of course today it often fails due to man's impacts on that habitat.

Mike -
There chances of making is really dependent on a couple of factors. Many of those so-called "ditches" were historically function creeks that we have just put into ditch form for our benefits. The survival of the eggs and resulting fry will depend on the stability of the flows - will they stay wet?, and the quality of any rearing habitat for the juveniles - is there pools etc to provide "homes" for the young fish over the next year or so after hatching? Another fact often is how frequently the owner fo the road (County, State, or private) "cleans" the "ditch".

Happy holidays and may the New Year bring you all tight lines
S malma

Smalma, thanks for the info!! The more I think about it the more it makes sense, those steelhead & coho's must have imprinted on that "ditch" or they whouldn't all be in there. Hope things go well for that lot of fish, and they all make it down to the bigger creek in the course of time, well at least some will.....