Deer Creek summer steelhead

S

Smalma

Life of the Party
Earlier this week WDFW bios gave the local fly club an update on their work monitoring the returns to the famed Deer Creek. In 2022, 2023 and 2025 they collected adult steelhead holding in the NF Stilli near the mouth of Deer Creek. Those fish capture were measured, scales and tissue collected (for DNA) and tagged with two floy tags and then released back to the NF. Later in the year adults were captured in Deer Creek where the number captured, and their tag status was recorded. The result was very interesting.

The good news was that the average population was estimated to be at least 500 adults. Given the past habitat problems in Deer Creek and the current cycle of poor marine survival for Puget Sound steelhead I thought that number was surprising. Another surprising finding was that 70/75% of the adult steelhead captured were females.

It has been noted before that when steelhead marine survivals are low many of the males opt to remain in the river while the females continue to opt for going to the ocean. With the males their size matter little in their ability to successfully spawn. With the females the larger the fish the higher the fecundity of the females is. Being able to produce more eggs seems to offset the increased mortality of opting for a period of marine rearing.

According to the Puget Sound steelhead recovery plan it has been estimated that Deer Creek supported 3,300 adult steelhead. A current population of 500 adults represents approximately 15% of that historic abundance. That 15% value is higher than any I could find for other North Puget Sound steelhead stocks. I looked at the most recent 5 years of escapement information I could find for various north Sound stocks. All the other of those north Sound stocks had current abundance/historic abundance values of less than 10%.

It maybe that decisions made 40 years ago have paid off!

As I said good news!

Curt
 
Smalma;

Thank you for the information. Deer Creek steelhead escapements are not listed on SCORE. Makes me wonder how many other runs have data that's been collected but not widely shared. That's not a shot at WDFW. I am just very interested in this stuff as I am sure most of us are.

What decisions from 40 years ago are you referring to?
 
Yay
 
Curt,

I should have said hello but wasn't sure if that was you or not. I was a visitor in the back and came just for the presentation.
I also thought it was pretty remarkable that from 2022-2025 during their seines and snorkel surveys, no hatchery or unmarked fish were ever encountered. I think you mentioned a decent portion of the fish head up Little Deer Creek where they haven't been able to get into. With your expertise on the matter, when do the earliest fish start showing up? June?
 
SeaRunner said:
Smalma;

Thank you for the information. Deer Creek steelhead escapements are not listed on SCORE. Makes me wonder how many other runs have data that's been collected but not widely shared. That's not a shot at WDFW. I am just very interested in this stuff as I am sure most of us are.

What decisions from 40 years ago are you referring to?
Click to expand...
The information in SCORE tends to be those populations that are monitored via redd counts, also the information tend to be over longer time periods. In basins like Deer Creek and the timing of the summer fish spawning timing (late February through early May) access to the water during the early portion tends to be limited due to snow making ground surveys difficult. stream visibility during the later spawning period is often limited by snow melt run-off. Aerial surveys are also can also be limited due to visibility issues as well as lack of contrast between the stream bed and that of a newly constructed redd. Thus, population monitoring for such populations tend to rely on other methods; snorkel surveys (currently on a pause after a tragic death during such a survey in 2022, population estimates based on mark/recapture methods as we are discussing, and/or juvenile abundance based on electro-fishing surveys. The latter two methods tend to be labor intensive (the capture portion with a beach seine of the Deer Creek project appears to require about 10 people per capture attempt event).

Regarding the decisions from 40 years ago -
The most important as well as difficult was the decision of the USFS to hold off logging on their lands in the Deer Creek basin. Most of the upper Deer Creek basin is USFS lands. That decision was made in 1984 and remained in forced until this past year when a various timber actions are being planned as soon as it makes through the review process (believe that process is now completed).

With the population declines following the Deforest Creek "slide" there was pressure for a "hatchery fix" either the planting of smolts from either the normal hatchery program or some sort of "wild brood stock" program in the mid to late 1980s. The then Department of wildlife resisted both proposals.

The third decision (equally unpopular as the nixing the hatchery fix was the adoption of a minim size limit on steelhead downstream of Deer Creek (1983?). At that time the hatchery fish were not routinely fin clipped. Scale collection from summer steelhead both in the North Fork downstream and Deer Creek itselt in 1981 and 1982 demonstrated that virtually the entire wild Deer Creek population was less than 30 inches in length. Based on the information a 30-inch minimum size limit was established downstream Deer Creek.

Clearly the logging moratorium was not popular with those in the timber industry and the latter two decision was not popular with the majority of the anglers (at that time many of those anglers were still of the opinion that a fish was a fish and a hatchery fish was a reasonable replace for the wild Deer Creek fish).

curt
 
jeradjames said:
Curt,

I should have said hello but wasn't sure if that was you or not. I was a visitor in the back and came just for the presentation.
I also thought it was pretty remarkable that from 2022-2025 during their seines and snorkel surveys, no hatchery or unmarked fish were ever encountered. I think you mentioned a decent portion of the fish head up Little Deer Creek where they haven't been able to get into. With your expertise on the matter, when do the earliest fish start showing up? June?
Click to expand...
To bad we didn't get the chance to connect!

The issue with little Deer Creek (most of that portion of the basin is either private or state land) is the elevated stream temperatures which can exceed 70 degrees F,

I always thought that in the Oso water first Deer Creek fish would arrive in the latter half of June with consistent fishing in early July. Would often hear of early fish but it was always unclear whether those fish were wild winter kelts, miss IDed hatchery fish or a true early Deer Creek. A couple of the pictures I saw of those potential early June fish looked to my eye to be winter kelts (encountered such fish as late as mid-July).

curt
 
Any information on how the hills are doing in the upper parts of Deer Creek ??
 
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