Our field crew, led by Drs. Gabe Rossi and Phil Georgakakos, had a specific mission of determining the up-river extent of non-native Sacramento pikeminnow within a previously un-surveyed eight mile long segment of the South Fork Eel River stretching between Ten Mile Creek and Rattlesnake Creek (aka “the Rat”) confluences. This reach is nearly impenetrable: no roads, no trail, and in many places even no riverbank to walk on. Surveying this river reach thus required a hiking technique a colleague of ours has dubbed “minking”, i.e., hiking, rock-hopping, wading, and floating and swimming down the stream channel – whatever it takes.
What we found was quite interesting. About half-way down this reach we finally encountered pikeminnow in a large, deep pool, and we took four by hook-and-line sampling and one by speargun. All were males and all were sexually mature, indicating these fish are on a feeding run (which we knew already) and a spawning run. We did not know if pikeminnow were spawning this high up in the South Fork system, but it’s beginning to look that way. The good news is that our recently installed pikeminnow weir on the South Fork Eel River will not only prevent medium and large sized pikeminnow from migrating up river and eating juvenile salmon and steelhead, but can also potentially suppress their spawning activity. Watch our video below to learn more about the recently installed weir!