On the way home from work today, I had the pleasure of watching a few dozen of the estimated 100,000-150,000 year-2000 Bear Creek sockeye doing their spawning thing. It was VERY interesting. The crimson-colored females were squirting out eggs right in front of us, with the severely hook-jawed and humpbacked males following up with their part. This is an all-native run. Not a clipped fin in sight! I also saw one (native) chinook go cruising through.

If you want to take a look, go to the Classic Nursery off of Avondale Road, a little south of 124th. There is a trail that leads 1/4 mile to Bear Creek.

This is the same creek that was damaged back in June or so. A group of hooligans opened up some fire hydrants, and the ensuing runoff carried so much mud into the creek that they think the ENTIRE year-1999 sockeye run got wiped out. Aack!!

Regards,

Mike

Thanks for the info. When I was alot younger we would go on horseback into the remote (back then) parts of the creek and the reds would be so thick you could walk across them. Same with Cottage Creek. Glad to hear the run is still around and not wiped out.

100,000 to 150,000 Bear Creek Sockeye???
Where did you come up with these numbers???
Guts

Fish & Game reps that were there. That seems like a reasonable guess based on the density of fish that I saw.