The 2024 year for Silver Creek was one that “sports fans” might call, a “rebuilding year”. In other words, the fishery saw smaller to medium sized rainbows and more browns than normal for the Creek. With lower numbers of fish in 2022 to 2023 and less water for spawning in that period, the fisher took a bit of a hit, but with good spawning in Spring of 2024, we saw good numbers of small Rainbows this year. This is good news for next year and combined with good growth rates, we expect to see the fishery rebound well for Rainbows in 2025. Those fish that grew to 14-16” in 2024, will be in the 16-18” range and the smaller 6-10″ will be in the 10-14″ range next season. It will be interesting to see if the “bump” in Brown trout last year will influence the small Rainbow population in 2025.
The water situation for the Creek in 2024 was not great, but not dier either. We saw very hot and sunny days all Summer and this put a strain on the flows. We did get lucky however, that even with lower flows, the Creek was stable due to better water and crop management practices. The lack of cloud cover did however, create an abundance of aquatic weed growth. This in turn shifted insect hatches and caused the hatches to be all over the map in timing and quantities. In some cases, as with the Trico on the Lower Creek, bugs were almost non-existent. We did however see the most robust hatches of Blue Damsels the Creek has ever seen, mostly due to the growth in vegetation from excessive sunlight.
There where two restoration projects that took place in 2024. One on the RR Ranch that consisted of narrowing about 400 yards of stream to bring water velocity and the riparian area into a more stable condition. The other project on a private ranch along Loving Creek, removed almost a half mile of sediment from the stream that was very beneficial to the system. Both projects will show much needed improvements in these sections. The Alliance was instrumental in design and funding of these projects.
The Alliance and Nature conservancy continue to monitor and treat the Yellow Flag Iris in the watershed. This program is on-going and is showing great results. We also continue to support the Silver Creek Annual Reports and monitoring of the system.
The Alliance is also moving forward with extensive restoration of Loving Creek, now that the 1.9M Water Smart Grant from BOR has cleared its final hurdles and can be used. The funds along with matching funds from the Alliance, TNC and landowners will be used to restore Loving Creek in its entirety. We are very excited to see this tributary to Silver Creek restored!
The Silver Creek Alliance wishes to thank everyone who has helped in funding over the years! The continued efforts and your generosity will help insure we keep Silver Creek healthy for generations to come.
2024 Silver Creek Update
The 2024 year for Silver Creek was one that “sports fans” might call, a “rebuilding year”. In other words, the fishery saw smaller to medium sized rainbows and more browns than normal for the Creek. With lower numbers of fish in 2022 to 2023 and less water for spawning in that period, the fisher took a bit of a hit, but with good spawning in Spring of 2024, we saw good numbers of small Rainbows this year. This is good news for next year and combined with good growth rates, we expect to see the fishery rebound well for Rainbows in 2025. Those fish that grew to 14-16” in 2024, will be in the 16-18” range and the smaller 6-10″ will be in the 10-14″ range next season. It will be interesting to see if the “bump” in Brown trout last year will influence the small Rainbow population in 2025.
The water situation for the Creek in 2024 was not great, but not dier either. We saw very hot and sunny days all Summer and this put a strain on the flows. We did get lucky however, that even with lower flows, the Creek was stable due to better water and crop management practices. The lack of cloud cover did however, create an abundance of aquatic weed growth. This in turn shifted insect hatches and caused the hatches to be all over the map in timing and quantities. In some cases, as with the Trico on the Lower Creek, bugs were almost non-existent. We did however see the most robust hatches of Blue Damsels the Creek has ever seen, mostly due to the growth in vegetation from excessive sunlight.
There where two restoration projects that took place in 2024. One on the RR Ranch that consisted of narrowing about 400 yards of stream to bring water velocity and the riparian area into a more stable condition. The other project on a private ranch along Loving Creek, removed almost a half mile of sediment from the stream that was very beneficial to the system. Both projects will show much needed improvements in these sections. The Alliance was instrumental in design and funding of these projects.
The Alliance and Nature conservancy continue to monitor and treat the Yellow Flag Iris in the watershed. This program is on-going and is showing great results. We also continue to support the Silver Creek Annual Reports and monitoring of the system.
The Alliance is also moving forward with extensive restoration of Loving Creek, now that the 1.9M Water Smart Grant from BOR has cleared its final hurdles and can be used. The funds along with matching funds from the Alliance, TNC and landowners will be used to restore Loving Creek in its entirety. We are very excited to see this tributary to Silver Creek restored!
The Silver Creek Alliance wishes to thank everyone who has helped in funding over the years! The continued efforts and your generosity will help insure we keep Silver Creek healthy for generations to come.
Silver Creek Alliance
Projects for Silver Creek