Boise Valley Fly Fishers Conservation News

Tracking Gravel In The Boise River

Troy Pearse — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 03:37:17 GMT

Over the last 5 years, BVFF has done 2 gravel augmentations in a side channel of the Boise River. We can see that the gravel is no longer where we put it, but the question remains, where did it go!? Is it still in the side channel somewhere? We can see what looks like new gravel accumulations in the lower side channel, but is it our gravel? This was a question that led us to do a gravel tracking project.

Jeff Jones reached out to local company Biomark, who specializes in tracking things with PIT tags. They weren't sure if their PIT tags could be detected inside of a rock, underneath 6 inches of gravel. They loaned BVFF some tags and equipment to try an experiment and were were excited to report that we could! After several rock drilling parties we had 200 tagged pieces of gravel!

After our Owyhee Gravel Augmentation in October, BVFF placed 150 pieces of PIT-tagged gravel in 4 "study plots". Today, after receiving our Stream Alteration Permit from IDWR and USACE and permissions from Idaho DSL and Ada County, BVFF placed 50 pieces of PIT-tagged gravel in our Boise River side channel, along with 0.9 cubic yards of 3/4" round washed gravel. The plan is to use a PIT Tag Detector and sweep the side channel each Fall for 5 years, to see where the tagged gravel ends up. Observations will help guide future gravel augmentations.

While we only added around a cubic yard of gravel today, it's location should be good for rainbow trout spawning this April/May. Given the lower snowpack, we don't anticipate high spring flows, which means the gravel is likely to mostly stay put this year.

For more information about our past gravel augmentations, see these articles:

LESSONS LEARNED

BVFF continues to work on trout habitat improvements in the side channel, including working with the flood district to improve woody cover for trout. We have had the opportunity to accompany Idaho Fish and Game on a couple of their fall trout fry surveys, and it has been gratifying to see good numbers of rainbow and brown trout fry in the side channel.

Going into the first gravel augmentation we thought that gravel was the lone missing ingredient for trout spawning. But what we have observed is that side channel connectivity is just as important as gravel--as without adequate water in the side channel, brown trout do not spawn. The IDF&G trout fry surveys have also highlighted the value of woody cover to trout fry.

IDAHO WATER QUALITY WORKSHOP

Last week, BVFF shared details on our gravel tracking project at the the Idaho Water Quality Workshop. BVFF and Trout Unlimited also shared details about Boise River gravel augmentations done over the last 20 years, including observations of gravel movement. We put together a poster for the March 2026 Idaho Water Quality Workshop that highlights some of our observations of gravel movement in our side channel (shown below).

It is impressive that a volunteer organization has been able to put together this gravel tracking project. Special thanks goes to BVFF club member Jeff Jones for his efforts to lead the project --it would not have happened without his expertise and leadership. We would also like to thank Nick Porter and Biomark for their partnership on designing and participating in the study. And Zack Kirk from Ada County for permission to put some gravel into the side channel for this study.

Barber Pool Restoration Project Proposal

Troy Pearse — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 03:29:19 GMT

The Barber Pool Restoration Project Proposal has been released for public comment. BVFF is very excited about the potential improvements to the Barber Pool and contributed $10,000 to the feasibility phase of this project. Project restoration goals include restoring a side-channel and adding significant amounts of woody cover, which would benefit the fish population in the Barber Pool.

You can find the full project proposal on their website. Their proposed plan starts on Page 101. Here is a figure from the study that depicts the recommended plan.

OPEN HOUSES

There are Two Online Open Houses to go over the Report and answer any questions from public. We encourage members to participate, learn more about the project and make comments.

Session 1 - March 11, 2026, 1:00 to 2:00 PM (MT)

+1 503-207-9433,,940891064# United States, Beaverton Find a local number Phone conference ID: 940 891 064#

Session 2 - March 11, 2026, 5:00 to 6:00 PM (MT)

+1 503-207-9433,,254329498# United States, Beaverton Find a local number Phone conference ID: 254 329 498#

Improving side channel woody cover at the Diane Moore Nature Center

Troy Pearse — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 14:43:56 GMT

In February, BVFF volunteers worked up at the Intermountain Bird Observatory Diane Moore Nature Center, improving woody cover in their side channel. Greg Kaltenecker, the Director at the Diane More Nature Center, identified fallen trees to be used and notched into the bank, using a technique from the Wild Trout Trust's CHALKSTREAM HABITAT MANUAL . The wood provides both cover for fish as well as protection from bank erosion. Greg commented to me that IDF&G and the City of Boise have both been very impressed with the amount of woody debris/cover in the side channel. Greg has a habitat class at BSU and students meet at the side channel on Fridays. BVFF worked with them twice in February to get the wood in place before flows on the Boise River come up in March.

MANY THANKS to our AWESOME volunteers who worked their BUTTS OFF! Dey Fishies Thank You!

Day 1: John Rogers, Mike Wiedenfeld, John Shrum, Dave Asker, Eric Landis, Jack Truschel, Chris Gerono, Troy Pearse, Brian Martin, Mike Stahl, Steve Conrad, Clinton Stonich. And a shout-out to Greg Kaltenecker.

Day 2: Klaus Kissman Eric Landis Jack Truschel Ken Fugate Troy Pearse Gregory Evans Chris Gerono Tim Opp Mike Wiedenfeld Mike Stahl Steve Conrad Steven Dykes and another shout-out to Greg who gets in there and works hard along everyone else.

New Trees For Trout Habitat

Troy Pearse — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 23:36:59 GMT

Every year, as a part of river channel maintenance, the Boise Flood District removes dozens of trees that have fallen into the river. This is necessary because the Boise River runs through an urban area and must be managed to stay inside its current banks so it doesn’t wander off course and destroy houses or city infrastructure. For example, here is a picture of damage done where the river carved out the bank and greenbelt, near some houses by Lake Harbor a few years ago. Removing trees helps reduce flood risk because it is easy for them to wash up against a structure like a bridge piling and divert water out of bank at high flows, which could cause a flood event. You can find out more details about the Boise Flood District’s operations at their website www.boiseriver.org

An unfortunate side effect of removing fallen trees is it takes away cover for fish—especially young fish who need that cover to hide from predators like diving mergansers, blue herons and larger fish. Over the last 10 years I’ve been fortunate to have discussions with several fish biologists from Idaho Fish and Game and one thing they all have reiterated to me is they believe the lack of woody cover on the Boise River is limiting the number of trout fry that make it into adulthood.

Over the years, the Boise Flood District has been evolving their operations to be more fish and tree friendly, as described in this News Story. BVFF has been working with the flood district for the last 5 years. And while some may see them as a destructive force, they have shown us that they are river stewards who care about the Boise River. They have helped us with 2 gravel augmentations and have partnered with us to develop a program to avoid brown trout spawning areas as they use large excavators in the river for their annual winter maintenance work.

Last year BVFF partnered with the Boise Flood District and Idaho Tree Preservation Co to pilot a new program on the Boise River to try retaining a tree that had fallen into the Boise River, instead of removing it. Over the last year we monitored the tree it to make sure it stayed in place during spring and summer flows and were pleased to see that it held well and there are signs that the riverbank erosion is starting to recover. Here is an article with more details about that project.

This fall Jeff Jones and I floated the Boise river to review new trees that had fallen into the river which might be a good candidate for being retained by the flood district. We wanted trees that were: 1) Still semi-attached—which will help them stay in place; 2) In an area that is adjacent to good trout spawning habitat; 3) Fallen at a downstream angle, and help deflect flows from the bank; and 4) Are located in a wide section of river and are not a hazard for floaters. We were able to identify three additional fallen trees in the same general zone as the first tree, just above and below Glenwood bridge. Having the trees in a central zone makes retaining and monitoring the trees much easier.

Today (Jan 14, 2026), Boise Flood District 10 worked with Idaho Tree Preservation to retain the 3 trees. BVFF is extremely grateful to Boise Flood District’s willingness to try new approaches like this to manage the river. We are also thankful to have Idaho Tree Preservation’s support on this project. Having a master arborist involved has been the key to making it work. Retaining the trees is expensive, but Zeke and Idaho Tree Preservation have been generous and donated a good amount of the work to the club. Our thanks to Boise Flood District, Idaho Tree Preservation and Idaho Fish and Game for their ongoing partnership on this project.

We are working on some signs to place at the Willow Lane and Glenwood floater access points, to help them understand that this section of the river is designated as a “float at your own risk” section and is not maintained the same as the upper floater zone—which is stripped of all woody cover to make the river safer for the multitude of summer floaters. We have permission from King County Washington to leverage this sign and hope to install them in the next couple of years.

In addition to these new trees in the Boise River (what is often called Large Woody Debris), last Fall, BVFF volunteers worked to improve woody cover in the side channel where we have done 2 gravel augmentations by placing bundles "small woody debris" to give fish cover over the winter. My thanks to the volunteers who continue to help improve the woody cover in our side channel: Dave Asker, Steve Contrad, John Hofland, Jeff Jones, Brian Martin, Gary Westerfield, Jose' DeSousa, Tim Opp, John Shrum and Darcy Hartz. Here are some pictures from that BVFF Side Channel Maintenance project.

2025 #FillTheNet Heroes

Troy Pearse — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 15:47:30 GMT

We had some GREAT river cleanups this year, along with our friends at VICE Outdoors, Boise River Guides, and the Boise River Enhancement Network (BREN). Our thanks to all the volunteers who came and helped take care of the Boise and Owyhee rivers!

As we move into a New Year we want to take a minute to thank the individuals who help take care of our waterways every time they go fishing by picking up some trash. You are our #FillTheNet Heros!

Tom Old, Tim DeMarco, Glenn Anders, Ken Fugate, Greg Hitchcock, Jake Heusinkveld, Daniel Macca, Dennis Moore, Johnny Rogers, George Butts, Troy Pearse, Matt Housel, Sean Read, Kelly Gunter, and Dave Spencer.

To help inspire others to take care of our waterways, we ask that people “Lead By Example” and post a #FillTheNet photo on BVFF’s Facebook Group Page. Afterall, if no one sees you do it, how can they be inspired to do the same? I know many of you #FillTheNet but aren’t into posting on social media. That’s OK—we know you are out there doing good, and we salute you too!

It is great to see like-minded organizations cleaning up our waterways, like LivingLandsAndWaters.org and FishForGarbage.org. I’d also like to recognize people who are posting #FillTheNet photos on other Facebook Group Pages. Matt Housel and Greg Hitchcock have been great at not only leading river cleanups but leading by example by posting #FillTheNetPhotos of themselves and their clients on the Boise River Fly Fishing with Vice Outdoors page. This Facebook Group page is a great fly fishing resource and I encourage you to check it out.

We know that many people get angry about the trash—and we do too. But when I’m out there, I don’t think of it as picking up trash after others. I think of it as taking care of a resource I love. This year, my New Year’s Resolution is to try and reduce the impact of our sport by picking up more “Fisherman Trash”—looking for items like worm containers, fishing lure packaging and especially broken off fishing line, as it is harmful to birds who try to use it for nesting material—like this nest we found last year at Eagle Island State Park when we did a mono cleanup.
Broken off fishing line also gets wrapped around bird legs, necks or beaks. This summer, Brian Martin reported finding a Merganser on the Boise River with a broken off fly leader wrapped around its beak (with a fly still attached). And last year Greg Kaltenecker sent me this photo of a dead Blue Heron that he found at the Diane Moore Nature Center with fishing line wrapped around its foot. These are sad examples of how fishing line can be harmful to wildlife.

OUR 2026 #LeaveItBetter CHALLENGE TO YOU

We challenge you all to take on a New Years Resolution to look for fishing line when you are walking the river banks (on the ground, or in the trees/bushes) and pick it up. It is fishermen's trash, and as fishermen, it is our responsibility to remove it.

Thanks for your ongoing commitment to #LeaveItBetter. Your actions inspire us.

Your #LeaveItBetter Team,

George Butts
Johnny Rogers
Troy Pearse

Success on the Owyhee: Brown Trout Adopt New Gravel

Troy Pearse — Sat, 27 Dec 2025 17:16:35 GMT

#IfYouBuildItTheyWillCome!

Less than 60 days after BVFF placed gravel in the river in October, ODFW biologists Dave Banks and Kirk Hanley confirmed that brown trout have used it for spawning! While initial surveys in November showed no activity, the December spawning survey confirmed the news we were hoping for: 22 new brown trout redds in the project zone!

Validating the Count:
Dave and Kirk conducted surveys in both mid-November and mid-December. The lack of redds in November actually proved to be a valuable baseline. Because the biologists saw no spawning structures in the new gravel during the first pass, they could be confident that the 22 distinct redds found in December were fresh constructions made by spawning fish, not just "lumpy" gravel left over from the project work.

Immediate Results:
Twenty redds were located in the new gravel section below Sand Hollow Creek, with two more found in the tailout below the bridge a mile downstream. Kirk Handley noted that he was very pleased with the placement of the gravel, confirming that volunteers put it exactly where he would expect fish to spawn.

The Challenge of "New" Gravel:
Identifying these redds required a trained eye. Typically, biologists spot redds by looking for "clean" gravel patches where fish have scrubbed away the river's algae. Because our gravel was only added in mid-October, it hadn't yet grown that algae layer, meaning the "clean spot" indicator wasn't visible. Instead, Kirk and Dave relied on identifying the structural shape of the redds—the tell-tale depression and gravel tailspill.

What This Means for the River:
Kirk told me that he and Dave weren't sure if the browns would find and use the gravel this year given the late timing of the augmentation. Seeing them adopt it so quickly is a massive win. He emphasized that establishing better spawning habitat in the lower river is a key step in helping the population rebound from environmental stressors like warm water events or Saprolegnia fungus.

See the Full Story at the Expo:
We will be featuring the Owyhee Gravel Augmentation project at the BVFF Booth at this year's Western Idaho Fly Fishing Expo (January 30-31). ODFW is helping us prepare posters with more details about spawning trends and their fish relocation study. Stop by the booth to chat with the project leaders and see the data for yourself!

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who worked on this project—especially the volunteers who run the Expo. BVFF's Fly Fishing Expo is 100% volunteer-run, and 100% of the proceeds go to BVFF's fly fishing education, access and conservation projects.

Help Us Do More:

Share the below Expo Poster on social media or email it to friends. Better yet, send them a link to this Conservation Blog article!
Volunteer for a shift at the Expo. Sign up at the Expo Web Page.

More Info:

In case you didn't see it in the previous club Hackle Bender newsletter, here are a few articles about the Owyhee Gravel Augmentation project.

Gravel Augmentation Permitting and Grants

Troy Pearse — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 23:32:56 GMT

If the gravel we added to the Owyhee river stays in place well enough, and ODFWs redd surveys show it is being utilized by brown trout, then BVFF would like to do a second gravel augmentation. Given this goal, I wanted to document the process (and struggles) we went through on the first one to get the needed permits and grants.

I dug through my emails and notes on this project over the last 4 years to try and document the process as best I could. Bear with me, the details are a little dry.

...Here it goes!

PERMITTING

One of the things that makes doing a gravel augmentation difficult is figuring out how to get the needed permits and approvals. Permitting for adding spawning gravel to a river has become increasingly complex as floodplain and water-quality requirements evolve and are different based on where you want to do your project.

Our two Boise River gravel augmentations gave us some experience in the process, but the process in Oregon is different, and the FEMA requirements are different. Oregon also has some restrictions on when you can do in-water work in different rivers. For the Owyhee below the dam, the in-water work period is November 1 – March 31. This time period would be to protect rainbow trout spawning. Since the lower Owyhee river is primarily a wild brown trout river we worked with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife fish biologist Dave Banks to get approval to do the augmentation in mid October, so that the gravel would be in the river and available for brown trout to spawn this fall. (It is important to note that ODFW has never seen brown trout spawning in the locations where we added gravel.)

Here is a general description of what we had to do for our recent Owyhee Gravel Augmentation.

1) Landowner Permission

The Owyhee river is on BLM land, so we needed to get permission from them for the augmentation. Initially this was straightforward because we had worked with Dan Thomas from the Vale BLM office on Owyhee trash cleanups. Later, when we came back for the final signature there was a new person in the role, and it took time to work through the permitting requirements to their satisfaction. Another new person moved into the role in January of 2025, and we had to go through another round of approvals in order to stage the gravel on BLM land. A good example of why keeping good notes and getting written permission is so important.

2) Floodplain / Planning & Zoning approval

Approval from the local P&Z department depends on the flood zone designation. The Owyhee river is in an undeveloped area in Malheur County, OR and is designated as Zone A, which is less restrictive than a river in an urban area like the Boise River, but we still had to hire an engineering firm to show the augmentation would would not raise water levels beyond their local threshold. Something that was expensive and took us a good year to figure out. Our thanks to Mike Schubert, PE at HDR Engineering for his help getting over this hurdle.

3) Joint (Stream Alteration) Permit

There were many similarities between the information needed on the Idaho and the Oregon Joint Permit Application, but the process in Oregon was different. Thankfully the people at Oregon permitting agencies were very helpful in helping us navigate the process. My thanks to Alexandra Holeček (Regulatory Project Manager U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Portland District) and Delia Negru (401 Program Project Manager Oregon Department of Environmental Quality) for their help.

We worked with Halie Endicott, a Regulatory Branch Project Manager at the Portland District of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to review the permit and work through questions from the Malheur County BLM. For future reference, here is the Nationwide Permit Handbook 20230720 2021_Nationwide_Permit_User_Guide NWP (All NWPS).pdf and NWP 27 terms and conditions Encl 2 NWP 27 Terms and Conditions (2021).pdf.

Once we had all of the details worked out, we submitted a joint permit to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Oregon Department of State Lands and Oregon Department of Water Quality in May of 2024. Here is the application and set of permit drawings ( OwyheeAugmentationSignedJointApplication.pdf & PermitDrawings.pdf) we submitted digitally to PortlandPermits@usace.army.mil.

At that point, the USACE was the lead permitting agency and coordinated discussions with the others, which took about 6 months. We received a provisional Nationwide Permit in October of 2024 (20241008 NWP Provisional Ltr 401-only NWP-2024-237.pdf ) which triggered requests from the Department of Water Quality and Department of State Lands. DEQ requested that we submit a 401 Dredge and Fill Certification Application though the Oregon DEQ website.

Oregon DEQ routed our application through the EPA and we received our 401 Water Quality Certification for the Lower Owyhee Gravel Augmentation Project 2024-237 November 1st (65311NP NSPLetter20241104.pdf)

The Department of State Lands requested a Voluntary_Exemption_Notice form (BVFF_Signed_Voluntary_Exemption_Notice.pdf ) and Project Description (DSL-ProjectDescription.pdf) and asked us to confirm that the project conformed to Oregon's Guide to Placing Large Wood and Boulders (Materials_Guide-to-Placement-of-Wood-Boulders-and-Gravel-for-Habitat-Restoration.pdf )

After reviewing the project, DSL gave us a approval in November of 2024 to proceed in this letter (DSL65311NP NSPLetter20241104.pdf) stating "your project does not require a State removal-fill permit because it involves work in a wetland or waterway that is exempt with notice to the Department for voluntary habitat restoration activities."

WHEW! (I think that's about it...)

4) Clean Water Act §401 Water Quality Certification

Our project required a 401 Water Quality Certification to ensure we managed turbidity and other water-quality impacts. We rented a 2100Q Portable Turbidity Meter from www.Fondriest.com for a week and measured water turbidity monitoring every 2 hours during the gravel augmentation and adjusted our work pace based on the results. I am pleased to say that the shoot/pause-reload sequence of gravel kept our water well within the DEQ requirements.

5) Project Completion Reports

Granting agencies require paperwork to close the permits, such as reporting our water turbidity readings to DEQ which we are now going through. There may also be a site inspection. There are also project completion reports required for the grants. Here is a general summary of the project completion paperwork we are working on.

5.1) U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) – NWP 27, Corps No. NWP-2024-237

Return the Compliance Certification that comes with your final NWP verification (Portland District letters enclose a “Compliance Certification” and require you to send it back after the work is complete). Include: date finished; “as-built” footprint/volumes vs. what was authorized; representative post-work photos; and a simple plan-view showing camera locations. If your verification added any special conditions, address each one explicitly.

5.2) Oregon DEQ – 401 Water Quality Certification (WQC)

Submit your turbidity log packet: two-hour interval readings (background + compliance point), calibration notes, time/date/locations, and a brief narrative for any exceedances + BMP adjustments. Keep a copy of the WQC letter in your records (401 letters often require the WQC to be kept on site during work). Add a short “as-built” summary and representative photos.

5.3) Oregon DSL – Voluntary Habitat Restoration (exempt with notice)

You have DSL’s exempt-with-notice letter (State App 65311-NP). Send DSL a courtesy completion notice with the same “as-built” one-pager + photos you’re sending the Corps/DEQ; note the final CY placed and confirm conformance with the described activity (placement of spawning gravels). DSL may conduct site checks, so having this in their file helps.

5.4) Landowner & local

BLM Malheur Field Office (landowner permission): email a short completion note with “as-built” photos/footprint so their file closes cleanly.
Malheur County Floodplain (P&Z): if your floodplain approval required any post-work letter or “no-rise” as-built, send your engineer’s final note/drawing now.

5.5 5) Grants close-out

ODFW STEP Mini-Grant #25-05: file the project completion report + invoices/receipts on the program forms; deadline in your award is Dec 31, 2026.
FFI Conservation Grant: provide a results report to FFI Ops (the award letter asked for a year-end report; since timing slipped, send your completion summary now and note the revised completion date).

FUNDING

Gravel augmentations are an expensive endeavor, and the Owyhee River's remote location added to the cost. In addition to submitting for permits we applied for several grants to help pay for the project. Jon Fishback and Forrest Goodrum helped scope the initial project to figure out the costs and look for possible grants. The initial project cost estimate was $7,000 back in 2021 and that didn't include the $1,000 for the DEQ water quality permit (DEQ Permit Fee.pdf) or the $2,700 for floodplain analysis work (HDR_Owyhee_Invoice.PDF).

In 2021 BVFF member Forrest Goodrum worked to submit for a Fly Fishers International conservation grant, which BVFF had done in 1999 to help fund our first Boise River gravel augmentation. One complication in submitting for the FFI grant this time is our project was in Oregon, which is a different region for FFI. Idaho is part of the Western Rocky Mountain FFI Council and Oregon is part of the Oregon FFI Council. We talked with Stephen Maher, President of the Oregon FFI Council and Terry Willis, the Grants Committee Chair and both were very supportive of the Owyhee River Gravel Augmentation and drafted a letter of support for the project. In August of 2022 and we received a $3,000 grant for the project Luckily FFI was patient and understood the time it takes to get permitting in place! Here are copies of the:

Oregon FFI Support Letter: Oregon FFI Letter.pdf
FFI Grant Proposal Owyhee River FFI Grant ApplicationFinal.pdf
The FFI grant letter (FFI Gravel Augment Grant.pdf)

In 2022 we submitted for an ODFW Steelhead Trout Enhancement Program $2,000 grant, which received that Fall. Unfortunately we had to turn it back in because of the delay in permitting. After getting the permit we resubmitted and received it again in Fall of 2024 only have to turn it back in due to the project being delayed due to high water. The third time was a charm and we received it again for the in October, just in time! Phew! My thanks to the STEP coordinator Marty Olsen for his help and patience. For reference, here is the STEP grant website, our application and approval letter.

WEBSITE: https://www.dfw.state.or.us/fish/step/grants.asp
APPLICATION: BVFF STEP Signed 2025.pdf
GRANT: Mini-Grant 25-05_Approval Letter.pdf

Early in 2023 we did a club fundraiser called "Greenbacks For Redds" which raised over $1,000 for the project. To everyone who purchased a Greenback or donated directly to the club for this projects, I thank you, and dey fishies Thank You!

In Spring of 2023 Brian Martin and Deborah DeSousa organized the club's first Idaho Give Campaign which was a spectacular success and raised over $3,000 for the project. THANKS BRIAN AND DEBORAH!

While working with Phil Toscas at Sunroc (now Suncor) on an estimate for the gravel, we showed him our Boise River Augmentation site and the Trout Habitat Interpretive sign we placed there, which included Sunroc's logo because they donated the gravel for that project. Phil went back and talked to Sunroc management and worked out a deal to get our 100 cubic yards of gravel to the Owyhee at a significant discount! Thanks Phil and Sunroc/Suncor for your continued support of BVFF's trout habitat improvement projects! CMCI of Idaho who operated the gravel slinger also stepped up and gave BVFF a reduced rate and worked with Coastline Equipment to donate the front end loader. What a great group of partners who stepped up to help us on this project! Here is a preview of the interpretive sign we are working on for the Owyhee gravel augmentation site.

I also want to thank our Fly Fishing Expo Committee and Volunteers who put on BVFF's Fly Fishing Expo each year, which is BVFF's main fund raising engine for projects like these. We couldn't do this without you. Please consider volunteering for this year's Expo! For more information, check out the Expo Website. Lastly I want to thank our Treasurer Kent Christensen who had to keep track of the project funding and spending over multiple budget years. Because of the generosity of our conservation partners/sponsors, I am pleased to report that we came in under budget on this project.

The Expo Committee has been hard at work getting the 2026 Expo ready and I encourage you to volunteer. If you are interested please email "ExpoVolunteers@bvff.com". You can find out more information at the Expo Website: www.idahoflyfishingexpo.com.

The Gravel Is In The River!

Troy Pearse — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 02:21:48 GMT

Earlier this year a group of BVFF volunteers (Troy Pearse, Brian Martin, Greg Hitchcock, Scott Lenz and Randy James) met on the Owyhee river to hash out the details of the augmentation. 100 cubic yards is a lot of gravel, and the big question we had to answer was how far it would go, and where in the river to put it. To give you an idea, at 6 inches deep, 100 cubic yards of gravel will cover about 5,400 square feet — roughly a 90-by-60-foot patch, about the size of two tennis courts side-by-side. That amount of gravel will support as many as 500 brown trout redds, but for it to be adopted by trout the gravel needs to be in the right water-type.

Brian hopped in the water and started checking depths and flows--looking for water that was between 9 inches and 2 ½ feet deep and moving at a slow walking speed of 1 - 2 mph. Once he had an area probed, he and Greg measured the area while Scott Lenz ran the calculations of how many yards of gravel would fit in each zone. That morning we were able to identify 4 zones in the run along the road below Sand Hollow Creek and an additional zone in the tailout below the Concrete Bridge, 1 mile downstream.

We had planned to do the gravel augmentation in late winter of 2024/2025 -- after any possible ice out and before spring runoff. But it was a good snow year and the irrigation district started releasing water early so we decided to delay until fall of 2025, after irrigation flows dropped for the season. That way we could accurately target gravel placement in the right water types, and make sure it was safe for volunteers to be in the river.

Jeanne Garcia sent out a news release for the project and Steve Dent from Channel 6 News showed up to cover the story. He flew a drone over the project, which was a great view of the gravel slinger in operation. One question it raised from people watching was the amount of dust in the air. Rest assured that we used clean/washed gravel--the slinger conveyor belt just shook off any last dust before throwing it. Here is a link to that news story.

We started staging the gravel in mid-October, a few days before the augmentation. Randy James met Troy at the side-road up to the staging area and we filled in some ruts to make it easier to get the big trucks up there. It took 7 dump truck loads from nearby gravel pits with gravel sizes ranging from 1/2" to 1.5".

The night before the augmentation, Brian and Troy placed some milk-jug buoys at each gravel-zone to give the slinger operator a target to shoot at. The next morning, ODFW fish biologist Dave Banks reviewed the proposed augmentation zones and made some adjustments, including recommending placing more gravel in the uppermost zone so that when the gravel starts shifting downstream it would repopulate the areas below #SmartMoveDave!

This was the first time we have used a gravel slinger, and we were all excited to see it in action. It certainly beats hauling the gravel to the river in thousands of wheelbarrow loads! The next morning, Matthew and Randy, the slinger and front end loader operators from CMCI showed up and we hashed out a plan for loading and slinging the gravel. One thing we needed to figure out was how to mix the 2 different gravel piles into the slinger. Randy suggested that he make a "mixed" pile at the staging area during the sling periods, which worked out great!

Scott Lenz had worked out a a traffic control plan and put together a team of BVFF volunteers to manage traffic around the slinger and loader operation and to keep the road clear of gravel. The 2-way radios that George Butts borrowed from Idaho2Fly made that much easier, given there is no cell service in the area. Thanks to Dave Asker, John Shrum, Joe DeSousa, Randy James, Greg Evans, George Butts, Mike Stahl, Steve Conrad, Tim Opp, and Keith Gerard.

It was a beautiful, fall day, and soon the gravel was in the air! The gravel slinger was like a gatling gun, rapid-firing gravel rounds into the river. Here is a link to a video of the slinger in action! GravelSlingerVideo.mp4 . The operator, Matthew, laid down a test stripe of gravel and then paused while Jeff Jones tested gravel depths to see how close we were to the desired 6 inches. During the pause, Klaus Kissman, Mike Wiedenfeld and I collected our first water samples 100 feet upstream and downstream of the activity and tested them for turbidity, a requirement of our DEQ 401 Water Quality permit.

Jeff relayed the gravel depths to Matthew and he adjusted his timing to get a bit thicker layer and resumed throwing gravel. The slinger worked better than we could have imagined, throwing a truck-load of gravel into the river every 20 minutes and the reload cycles gave time for any stirred-up sediment to settle, keeping water quality well within the tolerances required by our DEQ 401 permit.

BVFF volunteers managed traffic around the slinger and loader operation and kept the road cleared of gravel--sweeping and shoveling any spilled gravel into wheelbarrows so we could reload it into the slinger to make sure we got as much gravel into the river as possible.

The morning flew by and the next thing we knew, Phil Toscas from Sunroc (now Suncor) and BVFF club member George Butts showed up with lunch. Sunroc/Suncor has been very supportive of our gravel augmentations, donating gravel for our 2 Boise River gravel augmentations and giving us a significant discount on the gravel for this project. What awesome partners! Thanks for lunch, George and Phil!

As we neared the top of the Sand Hollow run we paused operation, as we wanted to make sure to reserve enough gravel to do the tail-out below the Concrete Bridge as tail-outs are prime locations for brown trout to spawn. Once we got down to the last truck-load of gravel we headed downstream and filled the tail-out with gravel. Here is a before/after picture of the Bridge Zone from volunteer John Shrum, and an overhead drone photo from volunteer Ken Fugate.

To ensure we didn't scoop up dirt and threw only clean gravel, the loader operator had left a layer of gravel at the staging area. BVFF volunteers looked at that and saw more potential brown trout redds and they sprung into action-- working with Randy to carefully scoop extra gravel and then shoveling what they could into the HUGE loader bucket. Their hard work resulted in being able to come back upstream and lay down a "bonus zone" right below the riffle. Nice Job Guys! Check out the composite image below that Ken Fugate put together from flying a drone over the Sand Hollow site (click on any photo to get a full size version).

This has been a long and complex project and couldn't have happened without the partnership with ODFW, especially Malheur District Fish Biologists Dave Banks and Kirk Handley. Project funding came from grants from Fly Fishers International, ODFW’s Salmon Trout Enhancement Program, the Snake River Waterkeeper, and the generous donations by Sunroc/Suncor, CMCI and Coastline Equipment. BVFF funding came through an Idaho Gives campaign led by Brian Martin and Deborah DeSousa; a "Greenbacks For Redds" club fund raiser; raffling a beautiful custom knife made by Mike Okamura; and funds raised at our yearly Fly Fishing Expo.

I want to give a special shout-out to all of the volunteers who make BVFF's yearly Fly Fishing Expo happen, which is the main fund-raising engine for BVFF's Fly Fishing Education, Conservation, and Access projects. I particularly want to thank the BVFF Expo committee who put in many hours planning BVFF's yearly expo.

Brown trout are fall spawners and generally spawn from October through mid-December on the Owyhee. ODFW has been doing fall spawning surveys for many years and will track redd counts in the new gravel. We expect some brown trout will find the new gravel and make redds there this fall, and that use will increase over the next 5 years. ODFW also does summer electrofishing surveys but it will take several years before the new brown trout from this gravel will show up as adults.

Brown trout redds will be harder to identify the first year, as the clean gravel makes it difficult to see where the trout have been digging. If you are out at the Owyhee in the next couple of months, we encourage you to stop and check out the new gravel and report back if you spot any trout on it. Viewing from the elevated roadway or bridge is the best approach, and polarized sunglasses are a must! Post a photo to BVFF's Facebook page or email us at conservation@bvff.com along with any comments about where you saw the fish. We will compile all of the reports and share them with ODFW to help guide their December redd surveys. And please remember to avoid wading through gravel spawning areas this time of year, and avoid harassing the spawning fish. We want all the baby trout we can get!

OUR SPECIAL THANKS TO THOSE WHO
HELPED FUND THIS GRAVEL AUGMENTATION

For more information on this project, check out our previous conservation blog posts:

FAQ

1. Why did you choose this location?

ODFW's annual fall spawning surveys show that the lower reaches of the Owyhee River have limited spawning activity. By increasing spawning habitat the brown trout population will (hopefully) improve.

We worked with ODFW to select the site. ODFW has seen no spawning activity in this section of river, even though it has the right depth and flow velocity. By adding smaller gravels, it should be perfect spawning habitat. If you build it, they will come.

Proximity to the road allows us to use a gravel slinger to get the large amount gravel into the river with minimal water impact.

2. How long will it take for brown trout to utilize the new gravel?

Over the last 20 years, TU and BVFF have done 6 gravel augmentations on the Boise River. Each time we have observed trout using the new gravel for spawning the very first year. For this project, We expect some brown trout will use the gravel to spawn this fall, and that use will increase over the next 5 years. Rainbow trout spawn in late spring and will also be able to use the gravel for spawning.

3. Will the gravel shift downstream?

Smaller gravels will move downstream, depending on water flows. Based on observations of our Boise river gravel augmentation, we expect this gravel will mostly stay in place until river flows exceed 4,000cfs. Because the Owyhee river is a lower gradient river than the Boise river, we are hoping this gravel stays in place longer, but even when the gravel shifts downstream we expect Mother Nature will deposit it in a location that will be beneficial for trout spawning. The club is working with Biomark on tracking gravel movement using PIT tags. You can read more about that in this Conservation Blog Article.

4. How do you know if the project is a success?

ODFW does annual fall spawning (redd) counts and will be monitoring for changes. They also will monitor the adult trout population using electrofishing. (It is important to note that ODFW has never seen brown trout redds in the locations where we added gravel.)

5. What size is the gravel being added?

Gravel is clean/washed round river gravel ranging from 1/2" to 2" in diameter. We added approximately a 6 inch layer of gravel.

6. What permission and permits were required?

We submitted a Joint Stream Alteration permit to the Oregon Army Corps of Engineers, Department of State Lands, and the Department of Water Quality. To submit the permits we needed permission from the landowner (BLM) and approval from Malheur County Planning and Zoning. DEQ required that we monitor water turbidity every 2 hours and adjust the pace of the project if there was too much sediment. For more info on the process, see this Conservation Blog Article.

Tagged Gravel Study

Troy Pearse — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 22:48:46 GMT

One question we have asked ourselves about the two gravel augmentations we have done on a side channel of the Boise River (in 2000 and 2003), is how long the gravel we added has stayed in the side channel. To help answer that question, as well as determine if another gravel augmentation on the Owyhee River would be worthwhile, we designed a "Gravel Tracking Project", led by BVFF member (and retired geologist) Jeff Jones. Jeff investigated several methods for tracking gravel movement and met with people from local company Biomark, who specialize in tracking fish with small PIT tags. Working with engineer Nick Porter from Biomark, we designed a study to use PIT tags to track gravel movement. Jeff led some "rock parties" where BVFF volunteers drilled small holes in 200 pieces of gravel and epoxyed in the small PIT tags.

Yesterday, a small team of BVFF volunteers placed 144 pieces of tagged gravel into 4 study plots at different gravel depths. Over the next 5 years we plan to scan for those tags each fall to see how long they stay in place. If enough gravel stays in place, and ODFW's fall spawning surveys show brown trout are using the gravel for spawning, then the club will start working on a second gravel augmentation.

The club is working with the Army Corps of Engineers, the Idaho Department of Water Resources and Ada County on a plan to place the remaining tagged pieces of gravel into our side channel on the Boise River. If all goes well we hope to do that before flows increase in the spring.

Thanks to our volunteers who helped tag and place the rocks. And a special thanks to Nick and Biomark who have been very generous with their time and use of equipment to do this study. We couldn't have done it without them.

#CoolScienceStuff

Setting up a Study Plot

Troy and Ken setting the depth of the flow-meter.

Pete and Jeff placing a piece of gravel 4 inches below the surface.

Nick Porter from Biomark scanning to make sure we can detect the tagged gravel.

Pete and Mike drilling gravel for PIT tags

The Gravel Gang

Owyhee Augmentation News Release

Troy Pearse — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 19:50:22 GMT

Here is the News Release done by volunteer Jeanne Garcia

OwyheeNewsReelase.pdf

Rock Party!

Jim Kazakoff — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 17:41:28 GMT

Jeff Jones hosted a "Rock Party" on September 20 as part of the upcoming Owyhee River gravel augmentation project. Volunteers drilled and embedded pit tags in gravel samples, which will be used to track gravel movement in the river to learn more about the movement behavior, and the longevity of the deposited gravel for use in the trout redds.

Each rock has a unique ID which will be used to record its initial location in the stream, and subsequent measured location to track its movement.

The gravel movement or depletion over time will be used to determine if/when refresh augmentations will be required to sustain the gravel available for use for trout redds in that location.

Rockers: (top) Troy Pearse, Joe Sousa, (bottom) Michael Liebig, Pete Rockwell, Jim Kazakoff

Support A River Cleanup This Fall

Troy Pearse — Sun, 31 Aug 2025 23:29:49 GMT

Fall is coming quick, and as water flows drop it is a good time to clean up the river to get rid of floater trash and fishing line. Several organizations are planning river cleanups this Fall. Johnny Rogers, our #LeaveItBetter lead, is working on setting up BVFF's Fall river cleanup. We may end up joining BREN or a different cleanup. Watch your email for an event announcement in the near future. If you can, please support the organizations that are working hard to take care of the Boise River and #LeaveItBetter .

In the meantime, don't for get to #FillTheNet. We would love it if you would post a #FillTheNet photo to our BVFF Facebook Group Page, to help encourage others to do the same. Or email it to conservation@bvff.com and we'll be glad to post it for you.

Boise River Enhancement Network (BREN)'s "‘Your Mother Doesn’t Work Here’ Annual Boise River Clean Up" is set for Saturday September 20th.
Idaho Rivers United End of Float Season Clean-Up - September 14, 2025
VICE Outdoors is planning a Fall Cleanup on Saturday, November 8th. Cleaning up when the river is at winter flows makes it easier to get trash out of the river. Monitor their Facebook page to sign up: Boise River Fly Fishing with Vice Outdoors

Owyhee Augmentation Is A GO!

Troy Pearse — Sun, 31 Aug 2025 15:57:40 GMT

After 5 years of planning, the Owyhee Augmentation Project is about to happen! After finally getting our permits last winter we thought we were a GO, but the project got delayed due to unexpected high water flows. But we have heard from the Owyhee Irrigation District that flows on the Owyhee are scheduled to drop on October 15th so we will be doing our gravel augmentation the following week--Thursday, October 23rd, which gets it in the river in time for brown trout to use it for spawning this season. The Monday - Wednesday before we will be doing site prep and working with Sunroc/Suncore to stage the gravel.

Our Conservation Team took advantage of the extra time this summer to make some improvements to the plan. One of the big questions about the gravel augmentations that BVFF and TU have done on the Boise River in the past is how long the gravel stays in place. Club member Jeff Jones (a retired geologist) devised a plan to track how the gravel moves downstream during high spring flows. Jeff and I met with scientists from local company Biomark, who specializes in PIT tags for tracking fish. We tested drilling into samples of the gravel and adding a (2mm by 12mm long) PIT tag and then tested to show we could detect them in a bucket of gravel (you can see more about that at this Conservation Blog article). Reviewing the results with biomark scientists Nick Porter and Jake Cryer, they designed a plan to seed tagged gravel in a study plot, to prevent tag interferrence. We plan to tag around 150 pieces of gravel of several sizes classes and place them in 4 different study plots of different depths and velocities of water. #CoolScienceStuff

Each Fall we will use a portable PIT tag reader (that looks a lot like a big metal detector) to sweep the area to identify the locations of the tagged gravel. If, after 5 years, the gravel is staying in place well enough and brown trout are utilizing it for spawning, then we would like to do another gravel augmentation. I personally predict SUCCESS! , based on my observations on the Boise River-- brown trout are very good at finding and using new gravel. And I believe that the gravel will stay in place much better than on the Boise river because of the lower gradient of the Owyhee and less frequent episodes of high flows.

ODFW has conducted fall spawning surveys on the Owyhee for many years and has data on spawning numbers (here is an earlier Conservation Blog that talks more about that). That data shows no spawning activity in the area we plan to add gravel. Hopefully that will change this Fall! Given the brown trout population is much smaller in the lower sections of the river it will take time for the brown trout to fully utilize all the gravel, but I am hopeful that in 5 years we will look down from the road above and see wall-to-wall brown trout spawning, like many of the prime spawning runs in the river above.

This summer, Jeff and I also met with professor Andy Tranmer at the University of Idaho Water Research Center, who specializes in sediment transport in rivers. In addition to tracking gravel movement he recommended we track fine sediments. We are building some sediment traps based on the design of one of his PhD students, Nicole Hucke (THANKS Andy and Nicole!). The sediment traps are PVC tubes with gravel-filled fine mesh bags inside that we will bury next to the tagged gravel. Each year when we the study area with a portable PIT tag reader we will pull the mesh bags and measure the sediments accumulated in the different study plots. This will give some insights into finer sediment accumulations that could be impacting aquatic invertebrates (BUGS!).

You can hear more about these projects at our September and October club meetings. In September, Biomark will be giving a presentation on how PIT tags are being used to track salmon and steelhead (and GRAVEL!) in Idaho, and in October, ODFW Fish Biologists Dave Banks and Kirk Handley will be giving a presentation on the Owyhee River, including some details about our augmentation and hopefully some early insights on their recent brown trout tagging and relocation study.

This has been a complicated project that has taken the club 5 years to put together. It couldn't have happened without volunteers who helped with the many aspects, and the generous funding and donations by many. My thanks to the O SubTeam who has helped with logistics on the final leg of this project: Scott Lenz, Randy James, Greg Hitchcock, Brian Martin, Kent Christensen, and Jeff Jones. And to Forrest Goodrum and Jon Fishback who helped with the initial project phase. There will be some volunteering opportunities posted on our BVFF Events page and emailed out to club members. Some of the areas we need help with are listed below.

For more information on this project, check out our previous conservation blog posts:

VOLUNTEERS

Jeff Jones needs help drilling gravel and inserting PIT tags. Contact him if you are interested and have experience with a hammer drill. 208.317-1488. Our thanks to Pete Rockwell and and Scott Cheser who have volunteered to help, and to Linda Butts who is helping Jeff sew the mesh bags for the sediment traps.
Identifying and marking the final gravel augmentation zones earlier in the week.
Traffic Control the day of the augmentation.
Gravel Cleanup Crew.
Water Turbidity monitoring during the project--needed for our water quality permit. If you have experience with a turbidity meter and can help, please reach out to me at conservation@bvff.com.
Ongoing Augmentation Zone Monitoring. When fishing the O, we would like club members to take a few minutes and document observations below Sand Hollow creek. Report if you see any spawning fish this Fall (BONUS POINTS if you can see if there is a yellow floy tag in their dorsal fin--indicating they are one of ODFW's tagged/relocated fish), or any blowouts at Sand Hollow creek. Please post pictures and comments to our BVFF group Facebook Page (or email me at conservation@bvff.com).

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the partners who are helping us with this project.

Funding for the project provided by:

Grants and donations from FFI, ODFW and the Snake River Waterkeeper, and Boise Valley Fly Fishers
BVFF's 2023 Idaho Gives campaign (lead by Brian Martin and Deborah DeSousa)
Everyone who bought a "Greenback For Redds"
Suroc/Suncore is providing the gravel at a reduced price
Biomark is donating PIT tags and letting us borrow PIT tag scanners/readers
Dave Banks and Kirk Handley from ODFW, who helped us design the project
The Malheur county BLM who has supported the project. permitting and is letting us stage the gravel at the site
Owyhee River Ranch who is helping with gravel staging site prep.

Tracking Gravel Migration

Troy Pearse — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 20:14:22 GMT

The natural process for smaller sediments is for the river to move them downstream during spring runoff events. As gravels get swept downstream, they are replaced by new gravels from upstream. Dams, such as Lucky Peak, interrupt this process and prevent new upstream gravels from entering the river. Over time this leads to a loss of the smaller gravels that trout need to spawn.

To improve trout spawning habitat, both Trout Unlimited and Boise Valley Fly Fishers have done gravel augmentations on the Boise River. BVFF’s two gravel augmentations in 2021 and 2023 were done in a side channel between Glenwood bridge and the head of Eagle Island. Over the last several years we have monitored the side channel and can tell that the gravel has moved from its original location, but it is impossible to know where it went. We have observed new gravel accumulations in the lower end of the side channel that we think are from our augmentation, but there is no way to know for sure.

Here are some Conservation Blog entries with information about those augmentations, plus observations of the gravel migration.

BVFF 2020 Augmentation

Side Channel Gravel Refresh 2023

TU Gravel Augmentations

Where Did The Gravel Go?

BOISE RIVER HIGH WATER AND TROUT HABITAT

We have been working on a gravel augmentation for the Owyhee River in Oregon to improve the trout spawning habitat in the lower section of the river which has much less spawning activity than the upper reaches. This project started back in 2022 and it has taken several years to obtain the necessary permitting. We have our permits and the augmentation is planned for this October. Here’s are a couple of conservation blog entries that talk about the initial Owyhee River Brown Trout Redd Location Study and our plans to do the augmentation.

Brown Trout Redd Location Study

Owyhee Augmentation Details

We have confidence that brown trout will adopt the gravel we add to the river, although it may take a few years before they utilize the entire augmentation area. But a big question everyone has is how long the gravel will stay in this location. Our observations on the Boise River is that the gravel we added stayed in place as long as flows stayed below 2,000cfs, and we expect a similar experience on the Owyhee. The Owyhee is a lower gradient river than the Boise and experiences fewer high water events. Here is a historical graph of Owyhee flows. You can see that flows only exceeded 2,000cfs 6 times in the last 25 years, with two of those being the last 2 years. Based on that, it’s likely that we won’t see another high water event for several years, so we are hopeful that will give the brown trout plenty of time to start using the gravel.

BVFF and ODFW are interested in determining how long our gravel stays in place. If it stays around long enough and is helping recover the brown trout population in the lower river, then we would try doing a second gravel augmentation. We have looked into different ways to track gravel migration and are investigating using radio PIT tags. We have met with local company Biomark, who is a leader in PIT tagging and tracking and is interested in partnering with us on studying gravel migration.

Club member Jeff Jones, a retired geologist, has been leading the project investigation. A few days ago, Jeff and I experimented with samples of ¾” gravel and were able to add a PIT tag as well as detect that tagged piece of gravel in a bucket full of gravel—a promising proof of concept! We are planning to tag 1,000 rocks and are looking for volunteers who are interested in helping cut the rock, add PIT tags and seal them with epoxy. Please reach out to us at conservation@bvff.com if you are interested in helping with this rock tagging project. We could use more small offset grinders to speed up the process of cutting the rock.

Owyhee Brown Trout Study

Troy Pearse — Thu, 22 May 2025 15:05:20 GMT

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) is studying brown trout movement in the Owyhee River. ODFW Malheur District Fish Biologist, Dave Banks, told BVFF that the week of May 18th they tagged and relocated approximately 400 brown trout from the top third of the river to the lower river, between Snively Gulch and the Concrete Bridge (by the Owyhee River Ranch).

ODFW wants to see if those brown trout will stay in the lower section of the river, or if they will move back upstream. ODFW is asking for angler's help by reporting any brown trout that have a tag attached by their dorsal fin at: https://myodfw.com/tagteam . Some tags have a $50 reward, and those tags must be removed to collect the bounty. Non-reward tags can be left in place. All fish must be released, as the fishing regs on the Owyhee require releasing all Brown trout. ODFW plans to electro-fish the river in August to do an adult trout survey and to see where those tagged fish are located.

If you catch a tagged trout,
please post a photo to
BVFF’s Facebook Group Page

Brown trout are known to migrate upstream to find spawning habitat. In October, BVFF will be doing a gravel augmentation to improve trout spawning habitat in the lower Owyhee river, between the Concrete Bridge and Sand Hollow Cr. Let's hope some of these relocated brown trout discover our gravel and decide to use it! For more information about our gravel augmentation, see this conservation blog article.

Fill The Net and Leave It Better Programs

Brian Martin — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 17:55:58 GMT

#FillTheNet and #LeaveItBetter

Created in 1971, BVFF is the oldest fly-fishing club in the state of Idaho. Two of our core missions are Conservation and Education. Both are as important as they come, and the easiest of all to remember and take part in.

Our #FillTheNet program offers recognition to both members and non-members for taking part. We want our rivers and lakes to remain clean and pristine for our fish and those that enjoy fishing. No-one wants to go to the out of doors and see trash left anywhere other than in a trash can. It only takes a moment to pick up after one’s self. The problem is there are too many who are either careless, haven’t been taught differently, or don’t feel that way. We, the fly-fishing community, are the police and garbage collectors of our beautiful outdoors.

When! If you find and pick up anything that is not Natural to our environment, and you pick it up and carry it out for proper disposal, please, take a picture of it, in your net if able, or anywhere and post it to our Facebook Page with the caption #fillthenet! I and many others will recognize you for your effort and you will be thanked with a chance to win some great SWAG at meetings.

https://boisevalleyflyfishers.wildapricot.org/Fill-The-Net-Program

Thank you in advance for your support.

George Butts

Board Member

#FillTheNet Coordinator

310-701-0101

GButtsflys@gmail.com

Side Channels, Gravel and Wood ( Oh My!)

Troy Pearse — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 18:40:52 GMT

Side channels, smaller spawning-size gravel and woody cover are all important for a healthy wild trout population. And while gravel augmentations may be “sexy”, unless there is safe refuge for the trout fry that hatch, then not many are going to make it to adulthood (something biologists call “recruitment”).

WOOD

Idaho Fish and Game (IDF&G) has told me they think a lack of woody cover is something that is keeping the Boise River from reaching its full potential. BVFF has been working to improve woody cover by partnering with the Boise Flood District and looking for opportunities to keep some wood in the river for fish. This January they worked out the permitting logistics and retained/repurposed a tree instead of removing it. We are excited about the potential this type of change can make and appreciate all of the flood district's efforts to make it happen. See this BVFF conservation blog for more details.

This March, right before the flows came up, we were able to work with the flood district to retain a second tree that fell late in the season. BVFF volunteers met with flood district manager Mark Zirschky to trim the tree back and secure it. Later this year the flood district will go through the additional permitting process to formally repurpose the tree and we will work with master arborist Zeke Willard and Idaho Tree Preservation Company to retain it. If all goes well we might be able to identify another tree or two to add to that list this fall.

SIDE CHANNELS

This latest tree is in one of the side channels behind the old Les Bois racetrack at Expo Idaho where BVFF has been working with the flood district, IDF&G and the City of Boise to restore winter flows. The City of Boise is working with HDR on engineering for the Les Bois side channels and we are excited about the potential for these side channels to flow year-round again! It is a slow process but Dorene MacCoy, Boise Water Quality Coordinator, told me recently that it was still moving forward and they hope to review plans with stakeholders soon. For more information about this project, see this BVFF Conservation Blog article.

A couple of years ago, BVFF did a snorkel fry survey in the newly restored side channel at the Diane Moore Nature Center and we were amazed at how many trout fry we saw and estimated there were 2,500 in the 0.4 mile long side channel. Talking with IDF&G, they agreed it was an impressive number of fry and said that the excellent woody cover there was likely a major contributing factor.

In early March, BVFF volunteered at the Diane Moore Nature Center to secure some downed trees in the side channel to help prevent bank erosion and provide additional woody cover for trout. It would be fun to do another snorkel fry survey this summer to see how the side channel is doing.

GRAVEL

In 2019 and 2023 BVFF did gravel augmentations in a side channel of the Boise River (you can read more about that project here). High water has shifted that gravel down the side channel where trout have been using it for spawning. Unfortunately we didn't see any brown trout redds last fall, likey because of reduced inflows to the side channel, which is a good reminder that in addition to gravel you need to have adequate water depth and flows for trout to spawn. BVFF's gravel augmentation on the Owyhee river is planned for this fall, after flows drop at the end of Irrigation Season. You can read more about that project here and here.

THANKS

BVFF is grateful to IDF&G, the Boise Flood District, Idaho Tree Preservation Company, the City of Boise and the Diane Moore Nature Center for their efforts to improve woody cover and restore side channels on the Boise River. We are lucky to have such great partnerships with these people and organizations. My thanks to them and to all of the volunteers who continue to help with these projects, including everyone who volunteers for our yearly Fly Fishing Expo which provides the funds we use for these projects.

Owyhee Augmentation Delayed

Troy Pearse — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 18:14:54 GMT

An update on our Owyhee River gravel augmentation project.

Our permits were issued later than expected last year so we planned to do the augmentation in early March--after potential ice out and before typical flow increases. We had all of the operations planned, however flood releases on the Owyhee river have started much earlier than expected. We were very surprised by the early increase in flows, as it is a-typical for the Irrigation District because they usually want to hold water in the reservoir as long as they can. But during last year's high water event, they realized that if they released some water early they can generate extra power income.

The Owyhee mountains have a good snowpack and Owyhee reservoir has excellent carryover from last year which is allowing them to do early power generation this year. We asked them if they could reduce flows to winter levels (50 cfs) for a few days so we could do our augmentation and they said they could not, since they had started power generation they need at least 100cfs to run the turbines and they are adjusting flows based on inflows to the reservoir, which could change at any time. The higher flows make it difficult for us to accurately place the gravel and could be too high for volunteers to safely be in the water. Therefore we decided to push the date back until the end of the irrigation season in the Fall.

There are some positives about shifting the project to the Fall. The weather will likely be better, making access to the gravel staging area easier and we won’t have to worry about high flows potentially moving the gravel downstream before brown trout get a chance to use it. Stay tuned for more details.

My thanks to the volunteers who have helped get this augmentation planned, including Forrest Goodrum, Jon Fishback, Scott Lenz, Greg Hitchcock, Randy James, Brian Martin and Kent Christensen. I would like to thank our partners for their support and patience as we work to get the gravel into the river where it can do the most good.

The current budget and funding sources for the gravel augmentation are below, including a generous $2,000 donation from the Snake River Waterkeeper organization. Additional funding for this project comes from funds raised at BVFF’s Expo, Greenbacks for Redds, and Idaho Gives Campaign.

WOOD IS GOOD!

Troy Pearse — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:33:10 GMT

by Troy Pearse, Conservation Director

What do you think of when you see a tree that has fallen into the river? Some people perceive it as ugly--something that needs to be cleaned up. The flood district sees it as a potential flood hazard. Recreational floaters see it as a hazard to avoid. But fish see it as a safe refuge from current and predators.

In our work with Idaho Fish and Game (IDF&G) on the Boise River, they have repeatedly emphasized how important woody cover is to fish, and that it is particularly important to the overwinter survival of trout fry and recruitment into adulthood. Conversations with Tracy Hillman (senior ecologist and CEO at the company BioAnalysts, which specializes in fish habitat restoration) have further reinforced how important woody cover is to fish.

I have had the opportunity to help IDF&G do electro-fishing trout fry surveys on the Boise River several times, including in our side channel after our gravel augmentations. Two things that stood out to me are that side channels have significantly higher numbers of trout fry (compared to the main river channel) and that most of the trout fry we found were located near woody cover. For example, when electro-fishing our side channel, we found no trout fry where we started 50 feet below this logjam, but once we got to the edges of it, trout fry, dace and shiners started popping up everywhere! This reinforces that fry use woody cover for refuge and that having more woody cover throughout the river has the potential to increase the number of trout fry that make it to adulthood.

BVFF has been lucky to be working at the Diane Moore Nature Center where they recently completed a side channel restoration project, which included lots of natural woody cover. As a part of this project, BVFF developed and installed this sign emphasizing the importance of side channels and woody cover.

The first spring the side channel had water, Greg Kaltenecker (Executive Director of the Diane Moore Nature Center) reported rainbow trout spawning there. Talking with Greg we wondered how successful their spawning had been and if there were many trout fry in the side channel. One way that IDF&G counts fry is to snorkel the river, so we decided to give it a try! One August afternoon, Klaus Kissman, Dennis Moore and I donned wetsuits and snorkled our way up the side channel. As soon as we put our heads underwater we started to see trout fry! One thing that stood out is that they liked to hold by wood in the water, with the largest clusters of fry being around logjams. Snorkeling the side channel reinforced how important woody cover is and increased our motivation to improve woody cover in our own side channel.

Idaho Fish and Game describes the Boise River as “… one of the finest urban trout rivers in the country.” Being an urban river means it runs through a developed area and has to be managed to keep it from wandering into neighborhoods. The Flood District is tasked with removing trees that have fallen into the river to maintain a clear river channel to reduce flood risk and damage to private and public property. However, removing all that wood from the river means that fish have less woody cover. IDF&G has been working with the flood district to improve woody cover on the Boise River and over the years the flood district has looked for ways to keep trees from falling into the river. However, once a tree is in the river, their permits from the Army Corps of Engineers and Idaho Department of Water Resources only allowed them to remove it.

The flood district has been looking into how they could repurpose wood in the river instead of removing it. This summer, conservation team member Jeff Jones and I met with flood district manager Mark Zirschky and IDF&G SW Regional Fisheries Manager, Art Butts, to review woody cover in our side channel, including a tree that had fallen just upstream of the side channel. Mark thought the tree was a good candidate to try securing vs removing, as it was protecting the bank and not a floater hazard. And while Art was describing the benefits to fish (as if on cue…) we saw a nice rainbow trout emerge from the woody cover and start to feed. How cool was that! We all sat and watched it and knew keeping this tree was a good idea!

After meeting with the flood district and IDF&G, I reached out to club member Zeke Willard, who is a master arborist and owner of Idaho Tree Preservation Company, and the person who started the “#FillTheNet” movement. Zeke was very excited about the project as it married two of his passions—fishing and trees. The flood district coordinated an on-site meeting with the permitting agencies and Zeke described how he would secure the tree. The permitting agencies were all very supportive and having a master arborist involved gave the flood district the confidence it needed to proceed. The flood district worked through the additional permitting hurdles to be able to secure and repurpose downed trees where they can safely be used to prevent bank erosion and improve aquatic habitat, and this January they repurposed their first tree. The flood district issued this press release and held a press conference at the site to tell people about the project. Here is a story that ran on KTVB.

This tree is just the first of what we hope will be many repurposed trees along the banks of the Boise River. BVFF plans to float the Boise River in the Fall and identify trees that are good candidates for being retained and then review them with Zeke and Mark. The flood district will then submit for approval from the Idaho Department of Water Resources and the Army Corps to retain trees they feel would help protect the bank, are not a hazard to floaters, and would improve aquatic habitat. After the Flood District gets approval, BVFF will work with Zeke and Idaho Tree Preservation to secure the trees.

This project didn't happen overnight. IDF&G has been talking about the importance of woody cover with stakeholders that manage the river, including the flood district and fire departments. Support from the flood district started with former Chairman Bill Clayton, who was an avid fly fisherman and recognized the need to manage the Boise River for multiple uses. Bill brought in now retired Flood District Manager, Mike Dimmick who worked with the many Boise River stakeholders (including BVFF) and paved the way for changes like this. I am extremely grateful for our partnership with IDF&G, the Flood District and Idaho Tree Preservation Company and the support of the Idaho Department of Water Resources and the Army Corps of Engineers. And I am excited about the potential this effort has to improve the trout population in the coming years. WOOD IS GOOD!

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON WOODY COVER

Owyhee Gravel Augmentation Date Set

Troy Pearse — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 05:20:39 GMT

After years of working through logistics and paperwork we finally have our permits and have set Friday March 7th as the date for the Owyhee River gravel augmentation!

This augmentation is significantly larger than our Boise River gravel augmentation in 2023, and has more complicated permitting and logistics. We are getting 100 cubic yards of ¾ +/- washed round gravel from a Sunroc pit in Notus and using a gravel slinger from Conveyored Materials Company of Idaho to throw the gravel into the river from the road. CMCI is sending their newest gravel slinger and most experienced driver in order to reach the far side of the river and accurately lay down 6 inches of gravel. Here is a video (Slinger.mp4) of their gravel slinger in action. It sure beats moving the gravel to the river with wheelbarrows, and will be quite the show!

The Owyhee Augmentation sub-team members met at the site this week to review the two planned augmentation and gravel staging areas. We used the information from a Redd Study we did with ODFW back in 2021 to map out 4 gravel augmentation zones below Sand Hollow and 1 below the Bridge that have the right depth and water velocity for brown trout redds, and are accessible by the gravel slinger. It’s exciting to look down at the river and imagine all of the new gravel that will be available for brown trout spawning.

ODFW does yearly brown trout redd counts on the Owyhee river and confirms that these zones have not had any brown trout spawning activity. Hopefully that will change this Fall ! Our experience on the Boise river is that trout find and use the gravel for spawning the very first year after it is added. It will be exciting to track how trout use the new habitat. If all goes well we plan to install a trout habitat sign similar to the one we added to our Boise River augmentation site.

The sub team has a lot of work to coordinate the gravel augmentation and will meet with ODFW and the BLM in late February to do a final site review and confirm the augmentation zones. We are working up a list of volunteer tasks and will be posting an event on www.bvff.com soon.

Thanks to those who have helped with the augmentation so far, including Forrest Goodrum and Jon Fishback who helped with initial project planning and our current sub-team: Scott Lenz, Greg Hitchcock, Randy James, Kent Christensen, Brian Martin and Troy Pearse.

BVFF's Fly Fishing Expo is the fundraising engine for this, and other conservation projects. My thanks to everyone who works on the Expo to make these projects possible. Additional funding has come from Fly Fisher’s International, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Snake River Waterkeepers, our 2023 Idaho Gives campaign that was run by Brian Martin and Deborah DeSousa and everyone who bought a “Greenback”.

BVFF's Fly Fishing Expo is coming up at the end of January and has an excellent set of fly fishing programs, fly tiers and vendors. Please make an effort to attend, and bring a friend! More information can be found at the Expo Website.

Thanks to our partners who have helped us get this project put together, including Dave Banks and Kirk Handley from ODFW; Jonah Blustain from the BLM; Jennifer and Alex Babcock at the Owyhee River Ranch.

For more information on the study we did with ODFW to identify this gravel augmentation location, see the conservation blog article below.

Owyhee River Gravel Augmentation Study

https://www.bvff.com/Conservation-News/12866080

New Fishing Line Collectors At Eagle Island State Park

Troy Pearse — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 22:39:55 GMT

I joined Boise Valley Fly Fishers in 2020 and volunteered for some conservation projects. I liked working on conservation projects and wanted to do more and volunteered to take over the #FillTheNet program from BVFF President Tom Old, who was inspired by a past club member Zeke Willard's #FillTheNet efforts. My role was to motivate anglers to use their nets to pick up a little trash each time they went fishing and to recognize them on our BVFF Facebook page to help make their efforts visible, with the hope that others would follow suit. Four years later our #FillTheNet program is going strong and I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has Filled Their Nets! Idaho Fish and Game even took notice and made an anti-litter advertisement in the fishing regs that asks anglers to Fill Their Nets!

Over the first couple of years of the #FillTheNet program our members started posting photos of discarded fishing line. In 2022, BVFF joined the Golden Eagle Audubon Society during one of their Boise River clean-ups and we found numerous trees and bushes with tangles of fishing line. Sadly, members and local birders have also found dead birds who got caught in the broken-off fishing line. Clearly there was a need for some fishing line collectors. Talking with John Cassinelli, the IDF&G SW Regional Fisheries Manager at the time, he encouraged us to use a bird-friendly design, as birds can get trapped inside when trying to nest in the tube. Members of the Golden Eagle Audubon club shared designs that had a slit rubber cover over the opening, and although that slit cover solved the bird nesting problem, it created another because people are less likely to put their hands into a "jar of sharps" when they cannot see into the container.

We found several fishing line collectors at a few local ponds that had been installed years ago as part of an Eagle Scout Project. They were getting used but were often found overflowing. Who was servicing them, we wondered? Full fishing line collectors were another problem to investigate. While doing some fly casting demos at Eagle Island State Park we saw they had several fishing line collector tubes around their pond and we started talking with them about their experience with them, which was the start of a wonderful partnership. The Park Rangers told us the current designs were difficult to empty, and they wished they could hold more. They gave us feedback on our designs, and 4 versions later we have something that is safe for birds, easy for users, has more capacity and is easy to service. The new collectors have:

A bigger 6” tube, to hold more fishing line;
A flip-cover to prevent birds from nesting but is easy for users to open;
A clear main tube, which shows users the intended contents and helps the park easily check the fill level;
And a removable bottom to make it easy to empty.

In December, with the help of Eagle Island State Park personnel, BVFF installed 3 of the new mono collectors around the pond. While doing the installation we picked up a lot of fishing line and noticed numerous fishing line and lures in trees. Later in the month club members returned with ladders and an extended pole cutter and retrieved dozens of bobbers, hooks, lures and tons of fishing line from the trees. We also removed an oriole nest that had a lot of fishing line and would be a danger to birds next season.

The old fishing line collector design had boating related stickers that didn't match the needs at Eagle Island State Park, so we are working with the Park Rangers on a small informational sign that can be mounted with the collector.

A special thanks for Johannes Giessen, Eagle Island State Park Manager, and his staff. It has been a pleasure working with a professional team wanting to do the right thing. Eagle Island State Park has been the perfect place for us to install our new mono collectors.

They have a significant issue with broken off fishing line, from newbie fishermen;
They are in a location along the river with lots of birds, wildlife, people and dogs that could get caught in the broken off fishing line or hooks;
And are staffed and able to monitor and regularly service the fishing line collectors;

We will be featuring our new Fishing Line Collector at the BVFF Expo Booth, Jan 31 and Feb 1st. Stop by and check it out! And don’t forget to keep your eyes out for broken off fishing line and Fill Your Net the next time you’re out fishing. To help inspire others to fill their nets, consider posting a photo to our BVFF Facebook page, or you can email it to us at conservation@bvff.com.

Volunteering for BVFF is a rewarding experience. There are many opportunities to help our mission of Fly Fishing Conservation, Access and Education. I encourage members to get involved and make a difference.

Thank you,
George Butts
BVFF Board Member
Fishing Line Collector Lead
#FillTheNet Coordinator
#LeaveItBetter Member

Public Input On Barber Pool Project

Troy Pearse — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 17:02:56 GMT

The US Army Corps of Engineers is partnering with Boise State University to do ecological restoration in the Barber Pool Conservation Area. The project is part of the Army Corps program to help restore areas that have been impacted by their operations, such as the Lucky Peak dam. The ecological restoration project is in the feasibility phase and they are looking input from the public to help them prioritize restoration options.

Some of the options being investigated are:

Create side channels to improve trout and whitefish spawning habitat.
Construct habitat features to improve trout and whitefish fry survival.
Improve riparian and wetland habitats.

Public input will shape what options the Army Corps decides to pursue. Please take a few minutes to give them input by going to their project website . An online presentation is scheduled for Monday Nov 25th. Details on how to join the online public scoping meeting are located on the project’s web page.

BVFF is contributing $10,000 to the investigation phase of the project and we want to be involved in volunteering to help with some of the habitat improvement projects over the coming years. We have a special interest in improving trout spawning and rearing habitat, so we would like to see at least one trout spawning side channel added, as well as improving woody cover. The recent side channel restoration at the Diane Moore Nature Center, just above the Barber Pool, has been a great success and has improved trout spawning and rearing conditions. Side channel restorations should also include adding spawning size gravels, as much of the existing deposition in this section of the river is sandy and not suitable for trout spawning. In addition, we would like to see additional angler access points to the Barber Pool where possible.

Thank you for taking the time to give public input to help shape this project. It is an amazing opportunity to improve the Boise River. We would like to thank Greg Kaltenecker for his continued vision and leadership, and recognize the contributions of other organizations including Idaho Fish and Game, The City of Boise, Micron, BSU Intermountain Bird Observatory, Harris Ranch Wildlife Mitigation Association, The Nature Conservancy, Golden Eagle Audubon Society, Merrick and Company, and the Idaho Foundation for Parks and Lands.

And a special thanks goes to all the volunteers that make BVFF's Fly Fishing Expo happen. This is the main fund raising engine that allows BVFF to participate in projects like this. We hope to see all of you there this year, Friday January 31 and Saturday February 1, 2025. BRING A FRIEND!

Owyhee River Gravel Augmentation Update

Troy Pearse — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 14:56:49 GMT

BVFF started work on a gravel augmentation on the Owyhee River in Fall of 2021. Our gravel augmentations on the Lower Boise River had gone smoothly and we anticipated a similar process on the Owyhee. However, the process has been much more complicated and lengthier than we anticipated.

First there were complications with getting landowner (BLM) and Malheur county approval for the project and there is a chain of permits that need to be filed--each having its own review period. We started with the Army Corps which then required a Dept of Water Quality permit and approval from the Department of State Lands and the Environmental Protection Agency. We are getting close to the Dept of Water Quality permit being approved which will then move us into the last permitting review from the EPA. Our best estimate is that the permitting will be complete sometime in December of 2024 (barring any complications or additional permit review requirements). If all goes well, we hope to do the gravel augmentation in late winter (late Feb or early March).

Once we get the permits we still have significant work to get the gravel into the river. If you are able to help with any of these tasks, please reach out to me at "conservation@bvff.com".

Create a plan to monitor water turbidity, which is required by DEQ
Work with Malheur Road District on traffic control plan
Coordinate gravel delivery from Suroc and staging at the site.
Coordinate gravel slinger truck and front end loader from the Owyhee River Ranch
Do a site review with ODFW
Tool rental
BVFF Volunteer Coordination

This gravel augmentation is ten times as large as our Boise River gravel augmentations and the project location is more remote, which significantly increases the cost. The price has gone up significantly in the last 3 years and we have done additional fund raising to help pay for the project. We have:

$3,000 grant from FFI
$2,000 grant from Oregon Dept of Fish and Wildlife
$2,000 donation pledge from the Snake River Water Keepers
The Owyhee River Ranch is helping by using their front end loader to move gravel, a value of $500.
$1,400 raised by selling “Greenbacks for Redds”. If you want to help with the project, you can buy a “Greenback” at the BVFF store.

We want to thank everyone who has helped us along the way on this project. Our friends at the Owyhee River Ranch; Fish biologists Dave Banks and Kirk Handley at ODFW; and especially the organizations and people who have donated to make this project happen.

A site photo, site plan and aerial map from our stream alteration permit application is shown below. For more details about the gravel augmentation project, see our conservation blog Owyhee River Gravel Augmentation and our Owyhee River Gravel Augmentation Study.

Ridenbaugh Canal Headworks Modernization Project

Troy Pearse — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 14:22:28 GMT

The Bureau of Reclamation is looking for the public's feedback on a proposal to replace and modernize the Ridenbaugh Canal. Irrigation canals are essential to water distribution for irrigation in the Treasure Valley but most were built before any thought was given to their impact on fish. As a result, many fish get pulled into them and end up dying at the end of every irrigation season when the irrigation water is turned off. This modernization project is an opportunity to prevent that problem.

Talking with Idaho Fish and Game Southwest Regional Fishery Manager Art Butts, he said that IDF&G's position that this modernization project should (1) include screening or other mechanisms to prevent fish entrapment; (2) that sedimentation should be controlled to reduce the impact to brown trout and mountain whitefish redds/nests which are vulnerable December – February; and (3) efforts should be made to minimize damage to the riparian zone.

BVFF agree's with IDGF&G's recommendations, and in addition, BVFF sees this as an opportunity to help improve the spawning habitat on the Boise River by adding gravel into the river by using gravel-bag cofferdams and then emptying the gravel into the river when construction is complete. This is an approach used at the Garden City Heron Park project in 2020. Adding spawning size gravel back into the river is helpful as the Boise River is starved for gravel because Lucky Peak prevents new gravels from migrating downstream into the Boise river below. Gravel added in this location would migrate downstream over time and improve spawning habitat for trout and whitefish.

We encourage BVFF members to review the scoping document and send public comments about the project by emailing "sra-nepa-comments@usbr.gov" by October 31, 2024.

Ridenbaugh Canal Headworks Modernization Project is below and the Rdenbaugh Canal Headworks Modernization Project scoping document can be found HERE:

For history on the Ridenbaugh and other local canals, see:

You can read more about BVFF’s first Boise River Gravel Augmentation HERE:

You can find out more about Trout Unlimited’s gravel augmentation projects HERE.

Barber Pool Project

Troy Pearse — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 02:32:20 GMT

In a recent conversation with Idaho Fish and Game's SW Regional Fisheries Manager, Art Butts, Art pointed out to me that while IDF&G did not adopt BVFF's proposal to manage the Boise River above Barber Dam for wild trout, they did add goals to improve trout habitat which were directly influenced by BVFF's efforts. Art went on to say that these types of changes are much more effective at improving the wild trout population than making changes to the fishing rules. Here is the excerpt from the Fish Management Plan for “Additional Management Directions” for the Boise River that Art was referring to:

Foster efforts to prioritize and improve habitat complexity, water quality, and reconnect floodplain and riparian processes, especially in side channels and tributaries. Collaborate with local and federal agencies and private groups to maintain or enhance in-channel wood and woody debris.

BVFF appreciates IDF&G's continued partnership to improve trout habitat on the river, especially their work to lead the effort to restore year-round flows to a mile of side channel spawning and rearing habitat behind Expo Idaho. BVFF also appreciates IDF&G’s efforts to work with the flood district and fire department to educate them on the importance of wood in the water to provide cover for trout. In fact, much of the technical content of these conservation blogs are based on conversations with SW Fisheries Manager Art Butts, the previous SW Fisheries Manager John Cassinelli and Fisheries Biologist Tim D'Amico, all who have repeatedly emphasized the importance of side channel habitat and woody cover, which has driven much of BVFF’s conservation efforts.

I completely agree with Art's statement that habitat improvement is the best way to improve the Boise River's trout population, and to that end, I am pleased to announce that BVFF is participating in a habitat restoration project in the Barber Pool section of the Boise River and has pledged $10,000 over 3 years to a feasibility study to identify ways to improve habitat conditions on that stretch of river. Project goals are to restore multiple side channels, create wetland habitat, enhance riparian vegetation, and develop recreational infrastructure that protects sensitive areas while providing for limited public access. A public scoping meeting is expected soon—stay tuned for more details. Here is more information about the Barber Pool Conservation Area.

BVFF is grateful to be able to participate in the Barber Pool Project, and we are excited about the potential that the trout habitat improvements represent for the wild trout population. We appreciate the partnership of BSU and the Diane Moore Nature Center and the extraordinary leadership of Greg Kaltenecker. I am excited about the potential this project has and expect there will be many volunteer opportunities for BVFF club members to participate in the coming years.

I want to thank all the people who help make our BVFF Fly Fishing Expo happen every year. It is the fund-raising engine that enables us to invest in great projects like this. BVFF's Fly Fishing Expo continues to grow and we need volunteers. If you are interested in helping, please go to our Expo Volunteer Web Page.

IDF&G Fisheries Management Plan

Troy Pearse — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 00:34:57 GMT

Idaho Fish and Game (IDF&G) has completed incorporating public input into their Fisheries Management Plan and is seeking final public input. For more information, see their website . BVFF encourages anglers to review the new plan and give their comments by August 26th.

Earlier this year BVFF submitted input to IDF&G on their Fisheries Management Plan and Fishing Regulations to add protections for wild trout in the Boise River above Barber Dam. This section has been only occasionally stocked by IDF&G but has developed good population of wild rainbow trout. Our proposal was to manage this section of the river for wild trout, including ceasing stocking it and either closing it during spawning season or reducing bag limits. Before submitting the proposal, we surveyed area anglers to gauge their level of support for this type of change and were pleased to see that 94% of anglers surveyed (of all types) were supportive of giving this area special protection. For full details on the proposal and angler feedback, see this conservation blog article.

Unfortunately, neither IDF&G's new Fisheries Management Plan or the recent regulation changes incorporated any of BVFF’s requests to help protect the wild trout population in the Barber Pool area. BVFF met with IDF&G about our proposal and Southwest Regional Fishery Manager, Art Butts, explained that IDF&G does not know much about the Boise River between Barber Dam and Lucky Peak. It is part of their yearly fry surveys but has not been part of their Triennial Adult Trout Mark-Recapture Surveys because the depths of Barber Pool make it difficult to electro-fish. Art told us that IDF&G wants to study the area to better understand the fishery, which is the first step to protecting it. He said they also want to try and establish a wild brown trout population in that section using egg-boxes which are secured in-stream and allow for a more natural hatching and rearing process.

Although BVFF is disappointed that IDF&G did not incorporate any of our feedback into the Fisheries Management Plan, we are very encouraged that they want to study this section of the Boise River and we support their efforts to establish a wild brown trout population. BVFF believes this section of the Boise river is special and plans to continue to invest resources and volunteer efforts including doing additional snorkel trout fry surveys and supporting a Barber Pool side channel complexity project that has just started. Stay tuned for more details about that, and for information about last year’s snorkel survey, see this conservation blog article.

LUCKY PEAK EARLY DRAWDOWN

Troy Pearse — Sun, 28 Jul 2024 02:07:08 GMT

_______________________________________________

Lucky Peak is being drawn down 125 feet to do repairs on the Turner Gulch boat ramp. The low water levels in Lucky Peak will impact water temperatures on the Boise river this August. Water temperatures on the whole river are expected to rise and stay above 66 degrees for several weeks, which is very hard on trout.

__________________________________________________

The US Army Corps has started down Lucky Peak in order to do a repair on the Turner Gulch boat ramp, which means by the end of August, there will be no ramps available. The Lucky Peak Dam and Lake – WallaWallaUSACE Facebook Page recently posted this warning:

BOATERS - Remember to be very cautious about any long term mooring, beaching, or anchoring as the continued fall of the lake is about 2’ per day. No salvage services are available and if your boat becomes stranded it will likely remain until the spring fill so be careful.

The figure below shows the current elevation of the reservoir (as of 7/27/24) and the different boat ramps. You can find the latest version of this graph under the "Boat Ramps" section of BVFF's Local Waters web page.

BOISE RIVER FLOWS

Flows on the main Boise through town are not expected to rise during the drawdown. The drawdown is being achieved by reducing inflows from Arrowrock and Anderson Ranch Reservoirs (Arrowrock cut inflows first and Anderson will reduce flows the 3rd week of August). This approach allows them to maintain the water in upstream reservoirs for future irrigation needs.

LUCKY PEAK OUTFLOW ZONE

Tailwaters like Lucky Peak and Anderson Ranch Dam usually release cold water all summer long because the water is coming out of the bottom below the thermocline where water is colder. However, the Lucky Peak drawdown will bring the warmer surface epilimnion layer of water into the outlet zone which will increase the temperature of outflows.

2024 EARLY AND DEEP DRAWDOWN

Lucky Peak is typically drawn-down around 20 feet in August as a way to manage water for the next irrigation season. In 2021, because of prolonged drought conditions, the drawdown was started a couple weeks earlier than normal and by the end of August Lucky Peak was 75 feet lower than usual. This drawdown resulted in the warmer surface water entering the outlet-zone which resulted in water temps being released from Lucky Peak that were 67 degrees all day long with water temperatures downstream at Glenwood Bridge reaching the low 70s. (Water temperature data was obtained from a public records request from the City of Boise who has a temperature logger just below Lucky Peak dam. Click on the graph to see a larger version.)

Looking back at Lucky Peak Reservoir elevation data, there has never been a drawdown in August like this. This year’s draw down is likely to impact Boise River water temperatures even more than 2021, because the reservoir level will drop another 33 feet than it did in 2021 (down 108 feet from 2020!), which will increase the percentage of outflows that are the warmer surface layer. There is no way to know how warm Lucky Peak’s outflow water temperatures will get, but it is possible they will reach the lower 70s, which means water temperatures at Glenwood bridge would warm into the mid 70s.

High water temperatures are hard on trout, especially when the temperatures don’t drop below 65 degrees overnight for trout the bleed off the excess heat their bodies gained. Sadly, once Lucky Peak starts putting out water temperatures over 66 degrees in mid-August, this condition will exist on the entire river. Trout will seek out cool water refuge zones near ground springs and deeper holes, but will become overwhelmed by the prolonged high water temperatures.

IDAHO FISH AND GAME

If this condition happened in any of our neighboring states, their Fish/Game/Wildlife departments would issue a public warning and put short term restrictions on fishing—from a Hoot Owl warning to restrict fishing to just the morning hours to closing the fishery until water temperatures dropped.

However, Idaho Fish and Game takes a different approach to warm water conditions. They did a study on the Big Wood river and found that trout were much less likely to be caught in warmer water conditions. And although they found that those fish that were caught experienced a very high mortality rate they state that in the following years the fishery recovered. Because of this, they do not feel it is needed to close a river due to warm water conditions. You can read more about IDF&G’s position on this topic in this article: Perspective: Trout fishing during low water and high temperatures.

___________________________________________________

While IDFG's study shows the trout population will rebound, there is no denying there will be short term impacts. And just like good C&R practices, avoiding fishing when water is too warm will maintain or improve fishing this Fall/Winter/Spring.

______________________________________________________

A PERSONAL DECISION

I don’t disagree with IDF&G’s findings, nor do I want to start a debate about it. But I do think it is worth anglers thinking about it before they head out fishing. While IDFG looks at the whole fish population, anglers only have control over their own catch. My personal position is that if you believe that Catch and Release improves the fishing on a river, then you probably should avoid fishing waterways that are above 68 degrees. If you like fishing to keep your limit, then there is no reason to stop fishing. Keep in mind that fishing the Boise River through town is likely to be poor in these conditions, so it is smart to seek out cooler waters like the SF of the Boise River or the upper sections of the MF or SF Boise River. And if you do decide to fish the Boise in town this August, you should consider keeping what you catch, as they are unlikely to survive you are essentially wasting a gamefish.

Checking water temperatures before you go fishing is a good way to find the most productive water to fish. BVFF has water temperature gauges for local rivers on our Local Waters web page. It also helps to carry a stream thermometer. Fish Pond just came out with a new digital one that looks great! For more information on how to use a thermometer to improve your fishing, check out this previous Conservation Blog article.

Fill Your Nets This Summer

Troy Pearse — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 17:01:41 GMT

As a part of taking care of our waterways, BVFF encourages members to pick up some trash at the end of their fishing day. We appreciate all that have participated in our #FillTheNet program and know that many of you do it but don't post a photo. Leading by example is important, but for it to do any good people have to see you do it!

To help show others how we take care of our waterways, we ask that you post a photo to social media and tag it #FillTheNet. If you're not into Facebook, send us a photo at conservation@bvff.com and we'll post it for you! Join BVFF's Facebook Group Page for more club updates, river updates, fishing reports and more!

BVFF FACEBOOK PAGE:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/23111329988

THANK YOU to those who have posted recently:

Brian Martin
Dave Asker
George Butts
Ralph Stark
Maggie

Maggie Sayz #FillTheNet
For Good Fishing Karma!

IDF&G Regulations Proposal Update

Troy Pearse — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 15:05:14 GMT

Summary:

BVFF's proposed changes to manage as wild trout fishery are under consideration.
Regulation changes to reduce bag limit and/or close for spawning delayed until next regs input cycle (3 years).
IDF&G plans to study the area. BVFF wants to help!

In April, BVFF submitted a proposal to Idaho Fish and Game (IDF&G) to change their Fisheries Management Plan for the Boise River to manage the section of the Boise River by the Diane Moore Nature Center for wild trout. We also proposed they change the Fishing Regulations to limit the catch impact by reducing the bag limits and or closing that section of river during the rainbow trout spawning season. For a full description of the proposal please see this previous conservation blog article .

Last week IDF&G asked to meet with us to discuss our proposed changes. IDF&G said that BVFF did a good job on their proposal, however they were not able to move the regulations portion of the proposal forward for consideration by the commissioners because changes to regulations in this cycle must align with the current/approved fisheries management plan. IDF&G apologized for the confusion—having both the regulations and the plan up for review at the same time doesn’t usually happen. IDF&G did think the proposal to manage the upper section for wild trout was reasonable and it is being considered for review by the commissioners. Changes to the fisheries management plan will come out in July.

IDF&G admitted that they don’t know much about the trout population on this section of river, as the Barber Pool is difficult to electro-fish. But they committed to studying the area more to better understand the fish population and then then talk about possible regulation changes in 3 years when the next regulation change cycle occurs. IDF&G was very complimentary on our work to improve woody cover for juvenile trout in our side channel and at the Diane Moore Nature Center and emphasized that trout habitat improvements like this are an important part of improving the trout population.

While we were surprised by not being able to change the regulations along with the fisheries management plan, we understand the limitation and are pleased that IDF&G is considering the proposal to manage the area for wild trout and that they are going to study the trout population in this section of river. BVFF is committed to helping IDF&G and we plan to do more snorkel fry surveys in the restored side channel. BVFF is also committed to continuing to invest resources in trout habitat improvements at the Diane Moore Nature Center and the Barber Pool. Stay tuned for more details on future projects in this unique and special area.

We encourage members to give IDF&G feedback on their proposed changes to the fishing regulations on their website .

Owyhee River Gravel Augmentation Update

Troy Pearse — Tue, 21 May 2024 17:10:22 GMT

BVFF has been working on a gravel augmentation for the lower Owyhee river (below the Owyhee Dam) for several years. We started in November of 2021 by doing a study of the depth, water velocity and bottom structure that brown trout were using to spawn and then used that information to evaluate a proposed gravel augmentation location. Gravel augmentations are expensive endeavors, so we applied for a grant from FFI and ODFW to help pay for the project.

Anytime you do work in a river, you are required to have a stream alteration permit from the Army Corps of Engineers as well as approval from the local department of water resources and permission from the landowner., which in this case is BLM. As we navigated the permitting process, we learned that we would need an engineering analysis to show the impact to the flood zone. It took some time, but we found an engineering firm that was willing to do the analysis and we raised the necessary funds through Idaho Gives and a club “Greenbacks for Redds” program.

When we got back to the permitting process we found that the players at the different agencies had changed, so we had to start those discussions over. After numerous meetings we obtained all of the necessary signatures and were able to submit our Stream Alteration Permit to the Army Corps of Engineers. We expect the permit to be completed by August, at which time we will reapply for the ODFW grant (which expired) and if all goes well, we will do the gravel augmentation in late October, after the flows drop to winter levels.

This gravel augmentation is 100 cubic yards, which is ten times larger than the ones we have done on the Boise River. But don’t worry, we’re not moving it by wheelbarrow! The day before, the gravel will get staged near the site and the Owyhee River Ranch has volunteered to use their front-end loader to transfer it into a gravel shooter/slinger which will throw it from the road into the river with the goal of laying down a 6 inch base of gravel through the run.

We still have some planning work to do, including working with Malheur county on a traffic control plan and coordinating with Sunroc and the gravel shooter company, as well as volunteers to help on the day of the augmentation. We will post the event for volunteer signups once we have the permit and the date. If you are interested in helping with any of the remaining tasks, please reach out to us at conservation@bvff.com.

Many thanks to those who contributed to Idaho Gives and bought Greenbacks. Inflation has increased the cost of the augmentation. If you want to help support it, consider buying a “Greenback” at the BVFF-Store.

Thanks to the Vale BLM office and ODFW fish biologists Dave Banks and Kirk Handley for their continued support on this project. And my thanks to Forrest Goodrum and Jon Fishback for their help on the initial grant proposal and budgeting on the project.

For more background on the Owyhee gravel augmentation, see this previous conservation blog article., and you can see our stream alteration permit and drawings here.

Owyhee Stream Alteration Permit Submitted

Troy Pearse — Tue, 21 May 2024 16:34:29 GMT

BVFF has submitted a stream alteration permit to the Army Corps of Engineers for a gravel augmentation project on the lower Owyhee River.

A copy of that permit can be found HERE. BVFFOregonJointPermitApplicationSignedLandownerApplicant.pdf

A copy of the permit drawings can be found HERE. PermitDrawings.pdf

An update on the gravel augmentation project will be posted on the Conservation Blog soon. A copy of the Permit Application Acceptance Email is below.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Corps Regulatory Permit Application Receipt, NWP-2024-237 (Boise Valley Fly Fishers Lower Owyhee Gravel Augmentation)

Thu, May 2, 2024 at 4:35 PM

From: White, Melody J CIV USARMY CENWP (USA)

To: "conservation@bvff.com" , "jblustain@blm.gov"
cc: : "Holecek, Alexandra CIV USARMY CENWP (USA)"

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Portland District
Regulatory Branch
Portland Permit Section
Regulatory Permit Application Receipt
Project Name: Boise Valley Fly Fishers Lower Owyhee Gravel Augmentation
Corps Application ID Number: NWP-2024-237

After preliminary evaluation of your application, we may contact you if additional information is required. Please refer to the Corps Application Identification (ID) Number above when you contact this office regarding your project/property.

Please direct all inquiries and comments to the Project Manager listed below.

Project Manager: Alex Holecek

Melody White

Portland Permits Section Chief Regulatory Branch
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Portland District
333 S.W. First Avenue, P.O. Box 2946
Portland, OR 97208-2946
Phone: 503-808-4385 | Cell: 503-201-0797
Melody.J.White@usace.army.mil

Restoring Winter Flows to the Les Bois Side Channels - April 2024 Hackle Bender Article

Brian Martin — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 04:06:54 GMT

Restoring Winter Flows to the Les Bois Side Channels

By Troy Pearse, Conservation Committee Chairperson

Conservation@BVFF.com

In 2017, after extended high water flows from Snowmageddon runoff, BVFF anglers recognized that 2 side channels behind the old Les Bois racetrack at Expo Idaho no longer flowed during the winter. This was very concerning because the 2 side channels represented a mile of premium trout spawning and rearing habitat. In 2019, BVFF started talking with Idaho Fish and Game, and although they shared our concern, they said they needed concrete evidence that the side channels used to flow during the winter. In 2021 we found dated aerial photography that clearly shows both side channels used to flow during the winter, as shown in the figure below, which gave IDF&G the evidence they needed.

In Spring of 2022, IDF&G put together a project team with key people from city, county and regulatory agencies and visited the site to discuss options for restoring winter flows. All parties were supportive of the project and suggestions from that meeting included monitoring the side channels during rewatering to observe how they flow and doing a test-dig at the head of the side channels to make sure the soils were solid enough to excavate without risking the river overtaking a side channel.

Last Spring, BVFF monitored the side channels as river levels came up and documented that the upper side channel flows through with very little inflows, but the lower side channel has more high-spots that kept water from flowing until the main Boise River was higher. Given this information, the project team recommended focusing on restoring flows to the upper side channel first and then applying lessons learned to the lower side channel.

One thing Zach Kirk, County Engineer from Ada County Development Services, noticed while we were documenting the side channel rewatering last year is there were some juvenile fish in the deeper pools that had survived the winter. We wanted to know more about the fish stranding in this disconnected side channel so last Fall, after flows dropped for the winter, IDF&G electro-fished the side channels and rescued trout that were stranded in the disconnected pools. Over the following winter, BVFF monitored two of these stranding pools and found that the water levels were relatively stable, and that dace and shiners (minnows) were able to survive the winter. This means the pools were connected to groundwater which was able to keep adequate oxygen levels for fish to survive, which is an important learning that stranding does not necessarily mean mortality if the pools are connected to groundwater. It also helps if the pools have some depth and enough woody-cover for the fish to avoid predation from birds like mergansers and herons. The location of the stranding pool study is shown on the aerial photo above and the photos below show the stranding pool levels last November and this March.

Getting permits to work in the river is expensive and takes time. This Fall the Flood District obtained the permits needed to dig the side channel entry test-pits and we were able to get good data on substrate and depth-to-groundwater that will help with modeling and plans for excavating the side channels. Here is the new Flood District Manager, Mark Zirschky, monitoring the test-dig at the top of the upper Les Bois side channel. The flood district is interested in helping this project both because they are great partners who want to help improve trout habitat and because they recognize that when side channels like this lose their carrying capacity the overall flood risk on the river increases.

This year, BVFF volunteers again monitored the side channels as flows on the Boise River increased and rewatered the side channels. We gathered cross-sectional depths and flows to document where water will go once the side channel entry is excavated, which will help guide the river restoration work and possible trout habitat improvements such as adding spawning gravel or woody cover. We also documented where the river crossed the first high-spot in the lower side channel, to help guide the excavation at that location. Here is the BVFF crew (Klaus Kissman, Jeff Jones, Tim Opp and Mike Stahl) taking measurements at the entry to the upper Les Bois side channel. Meanwhile George Butts was in the lower side channel photo-documenting the water as it crossed the first high spot.

Side channels are important for trout spawning and rearing. They tend to have more spawning size gravels available as well as better woody-cover which improves fry survival. IDF&G does a yearly fry survey on the Lower Boise River and they find 7 – 10 times the fry density in side channels as they do in the main river, which reinforces how important side channels are to the trout population. Restoring side channels is one of the best ways to improve the trout population, but it is a difficult undertaking, and it couldn’t happen without cooperation and leadership from multiple agencies. BVFF is very excited to be a part of this project team and would like to thank Idaho Fish and Game for their leadership; Flood District 10 for their efforts to lead the excavation work; and the City of Boise for helping fund the river modeling necessary to do this complicated project. If all goes well, we could see the upper side channel excavation this upcoming winter!

Conservation Corner - Diane Moore Nature Center Wild Trout Regulation Proposal

Brian Martin — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 03:56:09 GMT

Conservation Corner

by Troy Pearse, Conservation Committee Chairperson

Conservation@BVFF.com

The last few years, BVFF has been working at the Diane Moore Nature Center. It has been a great match for our club mission of fly fishing access, education, and conservation--and the more time our members spend there, the more they love it.

The 2 ½ mile section of river between the New York Canal Diversion Dam and Barber Dam is different from the rest of the river. Much of it resides in the Barber Pool, which is a wildlife preserve on the outskirts of the City of Boise with very little public access. And while IDF&G regularly stocks 30,000 trout a year on the Boise River below Barber Park, they rarely stock the river above that. But even though the river hasn't been stocked,

rainbow trout and whitefish have established a wild population that is doing well, and with the recent side channel restoration and trout habitat improvements at the Diane Moore Nature Center the wild trout population should continue to improve.

Every few years Idaho Fish and Game asks the public for input on their fishing regulations and fisheries management plan. Initially the club wanted to propose that IDF&G manage the reach for trophy-sized wild trout, which means… (Pick up reading here) that any trout under 20" would need to be released. However, after talking with IDFG fish biologists Art Butts and Tim D'Amico we learned that they did not think changing the regulations would meet the trophy trout size goals (and therefore IDFG wouldn't be willing to change them). Based on their feedback the club decided to focus on wild trout management in this section and proposed that the section of river have a reduced bag limit and be closed for spawning season.

The club conducted an angler survey to see if local anglers supported regulation changes for this stretch of river. We got a good number of responses from fly, lure and bait anglers with 94% of them supporting regulation changes. For more details, see this article on our Conservation Blog HERE.

Lower Owyhee River High Water

Troy Pearse — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 01:34:08 GMT

The Owyhee drainage has had two great back-to-back snow years. Last year the reservoir was so low that it didn't fill, but this year is a different story. We had great carry-over in the reservoir and with all of the snow this season the reservoir is going to over-fill, which means the lower Owyhee river will get some much needed flushing flows. Flushing flows are particularly important on the Owyhee because over time fine sediments have accumulated from dry side channel blowouts, which is hurting the bug habitat and trout spawning habitat. Figure-1 below shows the reservoir levels and you can see how much more water we have this year compared to last.

The Owyhee Irrigation District has started ramping up flows and many are wondering how high they will go, and how long they will be too high to fish. To make an educated guess, let's take a look at the reservoir carryover, snowpack and flows from 2017 and 2019, which were the last 2 high water years.

Here is the snowpack graph for the upper Owyhee drainage. (You can click on any graph to get a full-size version.)

The snowpack this year is one of the highest on record (black-line), and is well above the snowpacks from 2017 and 2019 (yellow and green lines).
The snowpack in 2023 (purple line) was impressive. We had a cool wet spring and the snow continued to accumulate in the mountains.
2022 had a meger snowpack and is shown in dark green for comparison.

Although the reservoir didn't fill last year, it did come up 31 feet between mid-March and the end of June. Right now the reservoir is 13 feet from full, and the snowpack potential for this year is very similar to last year, which means there could be an 18 extra feet of water to spill! (Note: Reservoir fill rates aren't linear, so this isn't exactly accurate...but you get the point. There is a lot of extra water up in dem der hills! )

Comparing the current Owyhee reservoir level to 2017 and 2019 (the last 2 times we had high flows), you can see that the reservoir elevation this year is similar to 2017, and our runoff this year hasn't even started.

Given that the Upper Owyhee drainage has significantly more snow this year than it did back in 2017, I would expect we will see flows at or above what was released in 2017. Here is a look at spring flows from 2017, 2019, 2023 and so far in 2024. Hold onto your hats, I think we have some high water coming soon!

Don't worry about the fish getting blown downriver. Unlike the Boise River which stays in bank until 7,000cfs and gets high river velocities, the Owyhee jumps out of bank around 2,000cfs, spreads out and the river velocity don't increase as much so trout have plenty of places to get out of the flow in the willows.

When the river comes down, fishing will be even better than before. The bug hatches will improve, and I expect we will have some crappie in the river to chase as well. There is no way to tell, but I think the high water might also help clean out the Saprolegnia fungus that has been infecting brown trout after they spawn. Keep yer fingers crossed!

As the reservoir gets close to filling they divert some water through the Dam Ring Gate Spillway, which locals call the "Glory Hole". If you haven't seen it, it's worth taking a drive up to see. Here is a little more info about it.

BVFF Submits Wild Trout Regulation Proposal for the Diane Moore Nature Center

Brian Martin — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 01:48:34 GMT

On March 9, the BOD and Officers submitted to IDFG a proposed fishing regulation change that impacts the Boise River reach from the Diversion Dam below Lucky Peak Reservoir downriver to the Barber Dam.

This unique section of the main Boise River holds both wild rainbow trout and whitefish and is not regularly stocked with hatchery fish. We are excited to be involved in the conservation of this fishery for anglers of all types.

Here are links to the Wild Trout Proposal and the BVFF Angler Survey:

BVFFWildTroutProposalToIDFG.pdf

BVFFAnglerSurvey.xlsx

BOISE RIVER 2023 BROWN TROUT REDD COUNTS

Troy Pearse — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 16:26:27 GMT

BVFF’s Redd Count and Mapping project wrapped up at the end of December. The club did 7 day-floats from Willow Lane (in mid-Garden City) down to Star to count and mark redds. Thanks to Johnny Rogers, George Butts, Jeff Jones and Klaus Kissman for their help. We delivered a few updates to the Flood District’s Redd-Map as well as discussed the possibility of repurposing a few downed trees into side channels for trout habitat. We are grateful to have such great partners who care about protecting and improving trout habitat in the Boise River.

Figure-1 shows a high level map of the larger redd-zones we are tracking on the Boise River. For more details about BVFF’s “Redd Protection Program” with the Flood District, see this conservation blog article.

One thing I was looking for this year was how much new gravel the high spring flows stirred up. From what we observed, new gravel recruited from last spring’s high water was primarily deposited at “high water locations”, which are out of the water during the low flows of winter and unavailable for brown trout to spawn in November and December, but, this gravel will be available for rainbow trout to spawn when the flows come back up in the spring. We did see some changes to the river from high water which impacted brown trout spawning, including:

Behind Lake Harbor a new gravel bar popped up in the middle of the river and the brown trout found it!
A large spawning area behind Expo Idaho experienced shifts in a gravel-flat which impacted water depth and velocity—reducing the number of redds there this year;
A 200-foot-long gravel island above Glenwood Bridge that used to have brown trout redds washed away and didn’t have any redds this year, but…there was new gravel accumulation nearby that did;
Below Glenwood Bridge a run-riffle-run that had redds in the tail-out between them is now a single long run with no redds.
The entry to New Dry Creek diversion was dewatered for a repair, which made a redd-zone unavailable this year. But the good news is once the project is complete there will be some “leftover gravel” there that brown trout will be able to use next year.
In the side channel where BVFF did our gravel augmentation last year, most of our gravel was moved to the lower half of the side channel and left at higher water locations that are out of the water now but will be available to rainbow trout in the spring. The number of brown trout redds in the side channel was down this year as gravel in one redd-zone was washed away.

Although there were changes to the river from high-water, the majority of the larger redd zones were active this year with an increase in the number of smaller spawning sites that just had 1 or 2 redds (which are not on this map). Overall we saw slightly fewer redds this year but we know that there was some late spawning this year and and it is possible that we missed some redds that were in new locations. And, as described above, there were some changes to several of the larger redd-zones in the main channel this year that resulted in fewer redds at those sites. I also feel like we are getting more accurate at our redd counts and avoiding some areas of current-scour that we may have mistakenly counted as a redd in previous years.

Below Glenwood bridge the Boise river splits into 2 channels that flow around Eagle Island, as shown in the photo below. The north channel has many more small twists and turns than the south channel, which causes the river to drop more gravel and improves trout spawning habitat there, resulting in more spawning activity (which you can see by how many redd-zones the north channel has on the map). The amount of water entering the north channel varies from year-to-year depending on cobble accumulations at the head of Eagle Island. Table-2 shows the flows in November of 2022 vs 2023 and you can see how the north channel got more water this year, which made more spawning habitat available to the brown trout and is likely the reason we saw more spawning activity in the north channel this year. Brown trout are known to migrate to find spawning habitat and based on the redd counts the last 2 years it looks like some of them may have decided to spawn in the north channel this year because of the favorable conditions.

Many of the brown trout redds on the Boise River are close to the bank where the river has recruited gravel, like the redds shown in the photo below. Because of this, water flows are a big factor in what bankside spawning habitat is available to brown trout in the winter. Low winter flows dewater some side channels and as water levels go down the river recedes from the banks where much of the spawning gravels are located.

In the 1980s and 90s, Idaho Fish and Game worked to establish minimum winter flows in the Boise River which significantly improved the wild trout populations because it brought water levels up and improved access to trout spawning and rearing habitat. When we have good reservoir carryover conditions (like this winter) the Boise river typically runs around 270cfs - 280cfs at the Glenwood Bridge gauge during the winter but in drought years that drops to around 210cfs or even lower, which dewaters the banks more. IDFG has some water rights in Lucky Peak and has been investigating increasing the minimum winter flows to 300cfs to improve trout spawning and over-wintering habitat which would be a great improvement for the wild trout on the Boise river and I would love to see it happen—even if it only happened on years when we have a good reservoir carryover.

Boise River Side Channel Fry Survey

Troy Pearse — Sun, 26 Nov 2023 16:28:11 GMT

Last week I got the opportunity to help Tim D’Amico, Idaho Fish and Game fisheries biologist, with a trout fry (electro-fishing) survey on the Boise River side channel where BVFF has been working on trout habitat improvements (see this Conservation Blog article for details). We surveyed the same 3 spots as last year--one at the top, one mid-channel and one in the lower section. The total fry numbers were down compared to last year, but that was mainly because the tree across the channel at the lower site where we had found so many trout fry last year had pushed downstream and we only found a couple of trout in that zone. The fisheries biologist said that was one of the limitations of their fry survey--that changes to the river can impact the productivity of a sample site. (See this Conservation Blog article for more information about last year's fry survey.)

One of the habitat improvements we did on the side channel last February was to place a tree root-wad in the upper section, with the assistance of the flood district’s excavator. This year’s high runoff flows scoured out a good hole there and we found both fry and 1–2-year-old brown and rainbow trout holding around the root-wad. Seeing the age 1-2 trout is extremely exciting because it is a good indicator that our side channel habitat improvements are helping trout over-winter survival, which IDFG tells us is the bottleneck for improving recruitment from fry into adulthood.

I passed along photos and kudos to the flood district and will be working with the new flood district manager, Mark Zirschky, to identify other downed trees that can be possibly be repurposed/placed in other locations to improve trout habitat during their winter operations. This opportunity to improve woody cover in the Boise River is extremely important and I am grateful for their forward thinking and willingness to help protect and improve trout habitat in the Boise River. (See this Conservation Blog article for more information on this awesome project!)

I had been concerned that the high flows from the early release of water in April would be a problem because it occurred so close to brown trout fry-out (when the fry leave their redd/nest), but we found lots of brown trout fry indicating that the side channel and woody cover was a good place of refuge from the high flows. So far, I haven't seen any brown trout redds in our side channel this Fall, but I have seen some in the main river. During the survey we found one large (20") brown trout at the end of the side channel, who appears to be staged to spawn. Last year most of the spawning in the side channel happened in December, so I am hopeful we will see some redds soon.

BVFF will start floating the Boise river this week to document brown trout spawning and update the redd-zone map for the flood district so they can avoid the redds during their winter maintenance. The high spring flows recruited new gravel from the river-banks and it will be very interesting to see where we find brown trout spawning this year.

In December I will be participating in a trout fry survey at the Diane Moore Nature Center side channel (the same place we did our snorkel survey this summer). Flows are down significantly in that side channel, but there are some deep pools and lots of woody cover. The total number of trout fry we saw in that side channel last summer was amazing, and there is lots of good woody cover for them, so I expect we will see an increase in the adult population of trout there over the next few years. For more information about this successful side channel restoration, see this Conservation Blog article.

November Conservation Update

Troy Pearse — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 22:05:20 GMT

REDD NOVEMBER

November is peak spawning time for Brown Trout on the Owyhee and Boise River. Please watch for redds as you wade and avoid walking through them. Browns like to build their redds in 1-3 feet of slower moving water and love tail-outs and next to gravel banks. Here is a look at brown trout redds on the Boise River and a short YouTube video on how to spot redds when you are wading.

The high water on the Boise this spring moved a lot of gravel and we expect to see Browns spawning throughout the river this Fall! If you are interested in participating in a Boise River Redd Mapping float later in November and December, please reach out to Troy Pearse at conservation@bvff.com. Volunteers should have good rowing skills as the water is skinny and there are downed trees to contend with. Float days will depend on weather conditions as we need sunny weather to see the redds.

OWYHEE GRAVEL AUGMENTATION

We have hired HDR Engineering in Boise to help us with the Floodplain Development Plan that Malheur County Planning and Zoning is requiring. We met with them last month and have a path forward—it will just take some time to calculate the hydrological impacts of adding the gravel. Many thanks to those who bought $Greenbacks to help fund this augmentation. If all goes well we will be adding gravel this Spring!

BOISE RIVER SIDE CHANNEL RESTORATION

BVFF has been working with IDFG on restoring year-round flows to two side channels behind Expo Idaho that were closed off by the high runoff from Snowmageddon. IDFG is leading the effort and is getting great support from local city and permitting agencies. This fall IDFG monitored the side-channel as it dewatered and confirmed that trout fry are getting stranded. They did a “fry rescue” in a couple of pools and plan to monitor other pools to see if the fry make it through the winter or not. BVFF will be assisting by helping monitor and measure water in those side channels over the winter.

BOISE RIVER CLEANUP

Earlier this month, a group of volunteers from BVFF and WFFI did a river cleanup at our Side Channel Gravel Augmentation site. The group wadered-up and pulled trash out of the river as well as cleaning up the river banks.

A BIG THANK YOU! to those who volunteered: Elizabeth Pollard, Lisa Sventes, Jose DeSousa, Barbara Emerich, Wayne Frederick, Brian Martin, Frank Jenks, Doug Olds, Mike Stahl, Matt Housel, George Butts, Jack Truschel, Ray Arguerllo, Tim DeMarco, Barbara Wagner, Mary Black, Wanda Shearer, Brenda Schwartz, Jane Mc Kevitt, Mallory Wilson, Karen Shein, Serrita Beauleu, Joe Schwartz, John Bourne. And THANK YOU! to Johnny Rogers for his efforts to coordinate and lead the cleanup.

Side Channel Restoration

Troy Pearse — Sat, 30 Sep 2023 22:29:22 GMT

Side channel habitat is one of the most important factors for a healthy wild trout population. They provide good spawning habitat for adult trout and more importantly good rearing habitat for young trout—the reduced flows in the side channel are much easier for the young trout to handle than the main river and the side channel’s extra bankside woody-cover gives young trout a place to hide from birds and other predators. Side channels that flow year-round are the most important because they provide shelter during the winter which is critical for young trout to survive into adulthood.

The Boise River through town is an urban tailwater river which over time has reduced its side channel habitat and has become a limiting factor for wild trout reproduction. Idaho Fish and Game does trout fry surveys in the Fall that show the Boise River has a healthy population of wild rainbow and brown trout. And their surveys show that trout fry populations are 7-10 times higher in the side channels than the main river. Unfortunately, there are very few side channels on the Boise River that flow in the winter.

A SUCCESSFUL SIDE CHANNEL RESTORATION

Two years ago the Intermountain Bird Observatory led a Boise River side channel restoration project at the Diane Moore Nature Center, which is located a couple of miles downstream of Lucky Peak Dam—above Barber Dam. The side channel was engineered to provide good habitat for fish and wildlife including plenty of woody cover for small fish to seek shelter.

BVFF got involved in the Diane Moore Nature Center side channel project in 2022 and helped design and install Trout Habitat signs along the side channel, followed by building an Angler Access at the site. BVFF has been thrilled to be involved in this project because it supports all three of our mission goals: Fly Fishing Conservation, Access, and Education.

The first spring the side channel had water (2022) there was limited trout spawning observed, likely because Boise River flows came up late. And in the second season (2023) we had high spring flows making it impossible to see if trout were spawning there. This summer while walking the side channel we saw small “minnow-sized” fish but were not able to identify them. So, we decided to stick our heads underwater to see what we would find! Our goal was to see how trout are using the new side channel and get an idea on numbers and distribution.

A snorkel survey is a standard way to count trout fry. We talked with Tracy Hillman, Senior Ecologist at BioAnalysts who specializes in trout habitat restoration, and he talked us through the process and gave us a great document on how to do a snorkel survey. August 29th, volunteers from Boise Valley Fly Fishers (Troy Pearse, Klaus Kissman and Dennis Moore) did a fry snorkel survey in the new side channel at the Diane Moore Nature Center. Even though it was summer, we wriggled into wetsuits to protect us from the extended cold-water exposure and debris in the water. We started at the bottom and had 2 people snorkel upstream side-by-side counting the fish they saw. This was our first snorkel survey and we didn’t know what to expect, but we were flabbergasted when we went underwater and started seeing rainbow trout fry everywhere! The side channel is about 0.4 miles long and we snorkeled sections from the bottom to the top—covering about 3/4 of the total length—counting over 2,000 trout fry which were evenly distributed throughout the side channel!

A large part of the success of this side channel is the extra effort made to add woody-cover: There are numerous downed trees and log-piles in the side channel which give the trout fry a good place to seek shelter. Observing the trout fry underwater was a great way to see this as many of the fry were tucked under pieces of wood in the water with some large pods of trout fry by logjams.

The vast majority of trout in this stretch of water are wild, as Idaho Fish and Game does not actively stock this section of river. We are excited about the potential of the side channel to increase the population of wild rainbow trout in this section of the Boise River, which is isolated between two dams: Barber Dam below and the New York Canal Diversion Dam above.

The side channel has restricted inflows in the winter but talking with Greg Kalteneker (who lead the side channel project), the side channel was designed to connect with groundwater and last winter the water station installed on the side channel showed it flowed at 1cfs - 3cfs. Hopefully that will be enough inflow to keep it from freezing. We plan to check it a few times this winter to see how it is flowing and if it is icing over.

IDFG Historical Fish Stocking Records

A SIDE CHANNEL OPPORTUNITY

As good as the trout population is on the Boise River, it is not reaching its full potential. One of the best things we can do for the Boise River wild trout population is increase the number of side channels that have year-round flow for trout spawning and rearing. BVFF is working with Idaho Fish and Game to restore winter flows to two side channels behind Expo Idaho that were cut-off from winter flows after Snowmageddon in 2017. Idaho Fish and Game will be on-site at these side channels this Fall when Boise Rivers flows drop. They will be documenting the side channel dewatering and evaluating possible trout-fry stranding, including possibly rescuing stranded trout fry and moving them to the main river. BVFF is volunteering to assist them. Stay tuned for more details and sign up if you are interested. The current estimate for flow-reductions on the Boise river is the morning of Monday October 15th, but that time could change.

UPDATE 10/5/2023: The Boise River dropped earlier than expected. IDFG sampled the side channels and identified several pools with stranded trout fry and thousands of minnows. They electrofished a couple of pools and rescued several dozen trout fry. We will help them monitor the pools over the winter to see if they ice-over and IDFG may electrofish them in the spring to evaluate overwinter survival.

Dianne More Nature Center Update

Troy Pearse — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 15:42:46 GMT

I spent the day at the Diane Moore Nature Center and Barber Pool with Brian Martin and Dennis Moore, reviewing the side channel and evaluating trout spawning habitat in the Barber Pool. We even did a little fishing!

When we arrived at 9am there were PMD Spinners, trico spinners and some caddis on the water, and there were a couple of anglers out fishing below the NYC Diversion Dam. We did a little seining and found good numbers of mayfly nymphs, some green netspinning caddis and a cranefly larva.

At the current flow of 630cfs, the water was up to the bottom stone on our Angler Access and it was easy to get down to the river. The new side channel is doing well and was widened a bit from the high flows. The banks are very sandy, making the side channel bottom sandy in areas but we found several areas with spawning size gravels. The high water moved the woody debris around, but there is still excellent woody cover and we saw trout fry scattered throughout the side channel.

Floating down into the Barber Pool, we found 4 areas that had large deposits of gravel that look to be great trout spawning habitat. Once you get into the Barber Pool the water velocity slows down considerably and deepens. There is some bank-side woody cover that is available to fish at the current flows of 630cfs, but it may be out of the water in the winter. Water clarity in this section is much better than in town and you can see 6-8 feet.

There are 2 mandatory portages on the float from the Diane Moore Nature Center to Barber Park. The first is Barber Dam, which you portage on river right. There is a set of landscape timber stairs and then a long, but well developed portage trail around the dam site. The second is Eckert Diversion, which you also portage on the right. That portage trail is much rougher with boulders and tree roots to navigate through. Definitely best for smaller, lighter craft such as a canoe or kayak.

This Fall we will be wrapping up our angler access project, including adding hillside retaining along the path; Filling in the lower stone steps with roadmix; and Installing signage. Stay tuned for more details.

Troy Pearse
Conservation Director
Boise Valley Flyfishers
conservation@bvff.com

Ada County Parks & Waterways Master Plan Update - BVFF Positions

Brian Martin — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 01:33:38 GMT

Ada County Parks & Waterways Master Plan Focus Group

Executive Summary of BVFF Positions

For the Focus Group Representatives

March 7 and 8, 2023

Key Messages to Convey

A. BVFF is a non-profit, member organization that promotes fly fishing through our core missions of:

• Access

• Education

• Conservation

B. Overarching Position:

Add fishing to the Ada County Parks & Waterways Master Plan as a major recreational activity and consider the impact to fish and anglers when making changes to the master plan, including prioritizing protecting and improving fish habitat that will improve fishing in the Boise River and other public waterways within Ada County

C. Reflect in the Ada County Parks & Waterways Master Plan:

“PROTECT, PRESERVE, AND DEVELOP FISH HABITAT AND ANGLER PUBLIC ACCESS TO ALL PUBLIC WATERWAYS WITHIN ADA COUNTY”

BVFF Specific Requests to be Included in the Master Plan of Ada County Parks & Waterways:

A. Protect wild trout in the DMNC/Barber Pool area by supporting catch and release regulations/size limitations, placing monofilament collectors to protect bald eagle and other wildlife, and providing wild fish habitat protection and enhancement. Also, provide and maintain public restrooms.

B. Maintain the Barber Park to Ann Morrison Park reach for unskilled water users and improve/provide the services necessary to protect the river corridor from the negative impacts of heavy traffic by: Partnering with Boise City and BVFF to add educational signage at access points for anti-litter, provide trash bags at all access points, provide restrooms along the corridor with signage as to location, provide trash receptacles at all takeout locations, and place monofilament collectors at fishing access points. In addition, partner with Boise City, IDF&G, BVFF and other organizations to repair and protect riparian areas and improve fish habitat through protection and management of side channels, promoting woody cover, providing spawning gravel, and increasing winter flows.

C. Oppose expansion of any unskilled water craft and removal of wild fish habitat or woody cover from Ann Morrison Park downriver to Ada County Line. If expansion is done, it should be for skilled water users only - Place warning signage at any access points stating that this section of river is for SKILLED BOATERS ONLY and is dangerous to unskilled water users

D. Along the Snake River corridor, support the development of a Regional Park and provide anti-litter signage, trash receptacles and mono collectors

E. Support wild trout habitat including year-round side channels, woody cover, spawning gravel, and increased winter flows in the Boise River to improve fish habitat for spawning and rearing for higher recruitment of fry

F. BVFF would like to partner with Ada County on preventing and cleaning up litter in the river by:

1. Leveraging anti-litter signs from the Diane Moore Nature Center (BVFF developed with IDFG) to major access points, such as Barber Park

2. Work with BVFF to add mono collectors in key locations where mono is a problem, such as at Barber Park where steelhead are released

3. Encourage organizations to join the Living Lands Adopt-a-River program. Support BVFF adding an Adopt-A-River sign on the Boise River downstream of Garden City Limits

Areas of Concern:

A. Increase in motorized jetboat use on the river at Eagle Island State Park into the Boise reach which is hazardous to fishers

B. The conversion of Eagle Island State Park to an Ada County Regional park might include increased unskilled floater access. Any conversion from State Park to County Park that negatively impacts trout habitat is opposed by BVFF

C. Rampant trash in the Swan Falls area. Also, monofilament line being left behind by anglers. This is a raptor nesting area, and they might use the monofilament in their nests creating an entanglement hazard

D. Boise River winter flows are too low to support side channel spawning and rearing habitat

E. Fishing is not listed as a major recreation activity in the current master plan. According to the Outdoor Industry Organization, nationally fishing is the third most popular outdoor activity, after jogging and hiking.

(https://outdoorindustry.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2021-Outdoor-Participation-Trends-Report.pdf) and we expect that fishing may rank even higher in Idaho. The Boise River through town is a blue ribbon trout stream that is gaining national attention through fishing magazines. Idaho Tourism data shows that fishing is one of the top activities for tourists at twice the national rate

F. The Eagle Island (including Eagle Island State Park) north and south channels are premium trout spawning and rearing habitat and should be left in their natural wild state

Go to BVFF.com for more information about our organization.

Thank You for inviting us to participate!

BVFF Board of Directors

Mike Dimmick Recognition and Retirement

Troy Pearse — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 00:06:41 GMT

Members from the Boise Valley Fly Fishers Board of Directors attended Flood District 10's Retirement Celebration for Mike Dimmick. Bill Clayton, Chairman of the Flood Department's Board recognized Mike for his efforts to join transform the Flood District and connect with the community, including calling out his work with Boise Valley Fly Fishers. Mike has been instrumental in our two Boise River gravel augmentations, both in planning the activity and helping us wade through the permitting process as well as coordinating the effort with the Flood District's winter maintenance cycle so we could utilize their heavy machinery to move the gravel into the river.

After the first gravel augmentation we asked Mike if the excavator driver knew how to identify and avoid brown trout spawning redds/nests. Mike said no, but they would like to be able to do that, if we could show them how. From that we developed our Boise River Brown Trout Redd Protection Program which provides the flood district's excavator driver maps of the locations of the redds which they have been able to use to avoid the spawning zones.

As a token of our gratitude for all of Mike's help, the BVFF Board of Directors presented Mike with a handmade fishing net with his name engraved along with a Lifetime Membership to the club. For more information about Mike's work at the flood district, see this article in the Capital Press .

BVFF is already working with the new District Manager, Mark Zirschky, who is very supportive of our efforts and wants to continue working with Boise Valley Fly Fishers on Trout Habitat Improvement and Protection on the Boise River.

(Steve Stuebner Photo)

BOISE RIVER HIGH WATER AND TROUT HABITAT

Troy Pearse — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 17:51:45 GMT

SPRING 2023 RUNOFF

HIGH FLOWS

The Boise River experienced high runoff this spring with flows staying above 4,000cfs for 2 months and reaching “bank full” flows of 6,000cfs for 2 ½ weeks. High runoff is a healthy part of the lifecycle of a river as it helps clean the bottom of accumulated debris and improves trout spawning habitat by redistributing smaller gravels. On a naturally flowing Freestone river, high water refreshes trout spawning habitat with new smaller gravels from upstream, however, on a Tailwater river like the Boise River, these new smaller gravels get trapped upstream behind the dam (Lucky Peak) which keeps them from refreshing the trout spawning habitat below the dam, which is why BVFF and TU have been doing gravel augmentations in the Boise River.

At "bank full" flows, the Boise River does harvest some smaller gravels from the banks and islands which improves trout spawning habitat in some places. We will be able to quantify that this fall when we do our annual Brown Trout Redd Counting and Mapping project. It will be very interesting to see how the high-water event impacts brown trout spawning, but my expectation is we will see an increase in the number of redds on the Lower Boise River. Watch for our Brown Trout Redd Surveys this Fall and come see for yourself!

GRAVEL AUGMENTATION

In February of 2023 BVFF added 15 cubic yards of spawning gravel on the inside bend of a side channel of the Boise River. On a normal runoff year we would expect most of the gravel to stay on that inside bend, but on a high water year like 2023 Mother Nature is going to relocate it downstream (Mother Nature knows what she is doing and is very good at placing it in locations that are suitable for trout spawning). The below photos show the gravel augmentation location at winter flows (250cfs), in May at 6,000cfs, and then in August at 650cfs. At 6,000cfs you can see water coming into the side channel across a wider area, but the river velocity is still significantly less than the main river channel and there are plenty of soft-spots behind the woody cover for trout to shelter.

GRAVEL RELOCATION

Flows on the Boise River recently dropped to 650cfs (a very fishable flow!!) and I walked the side channel to see where Mother Nature decided to relocate our gravel. The good news is that the gravel is still in the side channel and Mother Nature left it in good locations for trout to use for spawning! The figure below shows the side channel, the gravel augmentation location, and where new gravel has accumulated. It is impossible to identify our gravel from natural gravels, but I can say that there are significant new deposits of small gravel about 500 feet downstream of our augmentation-zone, below where the side channel has an “S Curve”. This is a typical location for the river to drop gravel as they like to drop it on the inside bend where water velocity is reduced, which is one reason why sinuosity is important to a healthy river (sinuosity is a measure of how many curves a river has). And because the flows were so high, some gravel was dropped above the normal summer high water mark, leaving a kind of “bathtub ring” in some locations. This bathtub ring effect can also be observed in the entry area of the side channel from new gravels being dug up from the water spilling over the banks.

WOODY COVER

As a part of our trout habitat improvement work on the side channel we worked with IDFG and the Boise Flood District to incorporate woody cover to give trout fry shelter (shown in the figure above and the photo to the right). Woody cover is just as important to improving the trout population as spawning gravel. Early observations this summer have shown some rainbow trout fry in the side channel and we hope to join IDFG on their annual Trout Fry Survey later this fall to see how the juvenile trout handled the high flows. The large pieces of woody cover that were anchored are still in place but some of the smaller pieces were carried away by the high flows and could use to be refreshed and anchored.

The high water event left some debris at the entry to the side channel and broke through the nearby New Dry Creek diversion dam, dropping the water level and reducing flows into the side channel. At 650cfs we are getting about the same inflows to the side channel as we did at 250cfs last winter. We will be doing some maintenance on the side channel in August to help clear debris to improve inflows and improve the woody cover. If you are interested please sign up for the event posted on our website.

TERRAFORMING

Below are some examples of how Mother Nature “terraformed” the side channel and where she moved our gravel. There is now good spawning gravel in the S-Turns and the tail-out below that. Before high water there was a 100' long narrow trench with a bottom of large cobble. That trench is now filled with spawning gravel and is an awesome long spawning run! Some of these locations are more suitable to rainbows to spawn at higher flows and others are perfect for brown trout spawning at lower flows. We will continue to monitor the side channel for spawning activity and report what we see.

THANKS FOR THE HELP, MOTHER NATURE!

Johnny Rogers Steps In As The Leave It Better Lead

Brian Martin — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 17:24:33 GMT

Please welcome BVFF member Johnny Rogers as the new Leave It Better Lead. He replaces Brian Martin who has moved into the role of BVFF president. Johnny has been a member since December of 2021 and has volunteered for many projects including river cleanups, Diane Moore Nature Center access, and Expo 2023 where he posed as Eddy Trout.

Johnny Filling The Net On The SF Boise 2023

The Leave It Better Lead is responsible for coordinating our Spring and Fall "Real" Boise River Cleanups, informing us of partner organization river cleanups on the Boise and Owyhee rivers, and assisting with the Adopt-A-Stream program through Snake River Waterkeeper.

Thank you, Johnny, for volunteering for this Conservation mission role! We're here to help in any way you need.

New Bill Introduced to Protect Owyhee River Canyon Lands

Jim Kazakoff — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 16:17:00 GMT

A bill to permanently protect fish and wildlife on Owyhee River Canyonlands was introduced by Oregon legislators on June 8th. The bill is supported by a coalition of ranchers, native tribes, anglers, hunters, and conservation groups, and will protect approximately one million acres of fish and wildlife habitat. This Trout Unlimited article describes the bill and the support that will be needed to get it passed.

Trout Unlimited has also released a short film, produced by the Owyhee Sportsmen Coalition on fishing the Owyee River, which can be viewed HERE.

Boise River Flows For Season Opener

Troy Pearse — Sun, 21 May 2023 19:37:58 GMT

With the Idaho General Trout Season Opener approaching, people are wondering when the Boise River System will be fishable. The Boise River Reservoirs (Lucky Peak, Arrowrock and Anderson Ranch) are managed primarily for irrigation and their objective is to capture the maximum amount of water in the reservoirs. They release water from the reservoirs as needed to capture the runoff and have “rule curves” they use to manage reservoir outflows. Looking at the Bureau of Reclamation Hydromet site you can see that the reservoirs typically reach their peak levels the 3rd or 4th week of June. This means the river flows below Lucky Peak and Anderson typically drop to their normal summer levels around that same time—a bit later on high water years.

Our Boise Tailwater rivers tend to come into shape quicker than the Freestone sections because of how they are managed. While the MF of the Boise will continue to run high well into July the SF of the Boise below Anderson Ranch and the Main Boise River below Lucky Peak will drop into shape quicker.

Here is a look at this year’s runoff flows on the South Fork, Middle Fork and Lower Boise Rivers compared to similar years of 2011 and 2019. Based on those years, the SF Boise will be running very high when the season opens and won’t drop to normal summer levels until early July. In 2011 and 2019 the Main Boise river dropped to normal summer flows by early July. This year we had more space in the reservoirs so it is possible that flows on the Lower Boise will stabilize a bit sooner in late June.

The rivers are running high and cold and are dangerous to wade. Do not attempt to wade the SF of the Boise River until flows drop below 600cfs this Fall. Same goes for the Boise in town. Make sure you check BVFF’s Local Waters page for the latest conditions, including streamflows, water temperature and reservoir/boat ramp levels.

Spring Runoff

Troy Pearse — Sat, 06 May 2023 15:30:08 GMT

This winter’s excellent snowpack is turning into runoff and our local rivers are running high. Spring runoff’s impact on river flows, both timing and magnitude, depends on whether the river is a Tailwater River (below a dam, like the Lower Boise River through town), a Freestone River (naturally flowing like the Middle Fork of the Boise River) or a Spring Creek (like Silver Creek). Spring river flows can be dangerous, so it is important to know the river before you venture out. Both the Lower Boise River in town and the South Fork of the Boise River become dangerous to wade when flows rise above 600cfs. Flows on the Owyhee below the dam have started to come up and with the reservoir filling should reach normal 200cfs flows this summer, which is a very wadable level. Checking river flows on BVFF’s Local Waters page is an important part of planning your fishing trip.

TAILWATER RIVERS

Our Tailwater rivers are primarily managed for irrigation and flood control and spring flows below the dam depend on both the snowpack and the reservoir carryover from the previous year. If you have a good snowpack but low carryover—like the Owyhee drainage this year—then you aren’t likely to have high river flows below the dam. But if you have a good snowpack and good reservoir carryover—like the Boise drainage this year—then you are going to see high spring flows.

Dam managers are currently draining water in the Boise reservoirs (Anderson Ranch, Arrowrock and Lucky Peak) to make room for our great snowpack. The Lower Boise River in town is running high and expected to flow at 5,000cfs to 6,500cfs through June. Flows like this are not uncommon, Figure-1 shows how often we’ve had high flows over the last 25 years, which includes 13 years over 5,000cfs and 9 years when we reached or exceeded “bank full” conditions (6,500cfs or higher).

The South Fork of the Boise River is also running higher than normal and we will likely see flows reach 4,000cfs – 6,000cfs in May with continued high flows when the season opens Memorial Day weekend, so make sure you check BVFF’s Local Waters page before you go.

High flows on a Tailwater river tend to happen earlier in spring in order to make room in the reservoirs for the anticipated snowmelt. It is a calculated game of letting out just enough water to avoid flooding while capturing the maximum amount of water in the reservoirs. They are pretty good at managing flows to avoid major flooding—although it has been close a few times. Figure 2 shows runoff from the 2017 Snowmageddon year, and while flows on the Lower Boise River did exceed “bank full” flows of 6,500cfs and caused some minor flooding, the natural (undammed) combined flows of the N.F., M.F. and S.F. of the Boise rivers reached peaks of 15,000cfs – 24,000cfs which would have been a major flood event for Boise.

The Owyhee reservoir was sitting at 35% of capacity this winter (significantly below average) but has started to fill and is rising fast, as shown in Figure 3. Over the last 25 years the Lower Owyhee River has seen 7 years with high flows, but even though the Owyhee drainage had an excellent snowpack this year, Owyhee Reservoir had so little water carryover that it is unlikely that the lower Owyhee river will see high flows, which is too bad because that river could really benefit from higher flows to clean sediment left by side stream blowouts.

FREESTONE RIVERS AND SPRING CREEKS

Spring flows on freestone rivers like the M.F. Boise and the Wood River are 100% dictated by the snowpack and the weather. A quick warmup on a high snowpack year results in the highest flows, and with our high snowpack and cool spring there is likely to be some flooding when it finally warms up, so stay tuned to the BVFF Local Waters page and be careful. Spring Creeks can be a good place to escape high flows because they are not fed by runoff (make sure to check fishing regulations before you go to ensure it is open). Spring Creeks, such as Silver Creek, don’t see as significant range of flows, but high and low snowpack years do impact groundwater springs which changes flows some.

SPRING CLEANING

High spring flows are very healthy for a river: They clean out accumulated sediment which improves the river’s carrying capacity and keeps it connected to the floodplain. High flows clean and redistribute gravel for trout spawning, although rivers below a dam don’t get new gravel from upstream because it gets trapped behind the dam. Over time this limits the amount of wild trout spawning habitat, which is why we recently added gravel to the Boise River and are working to add gravel on the Owyhee. Luckily the S.F. of the Boise has some good tributaries that bring in gravel when they blow-out which periodically refreshes the spawning gravel on that river.

Removing accumulated sediment is good for insect life as well. For example, after high flows on the Owyhee, caddis and stonefly populations improve although some slow water insects like callibaetis mayflys get swept away and take a few years to recolonize. When planning your summer fishing trips keep in mind that high water years usually delay hatch timing because of the colder runoff, compared to low water years when rivers warm up sooner which accelerates hatches. For an example of how runoff impacts hatches see this month’s Bug Corner.

SIDE CHANNEL PROTECTION

As flows come up the Lower Boise River stays “in bank” until the river reaches 7,000cfs and the water gets very fast, compared to the Lower Owyhee River which comes out of bank quickly, spreads out and stays at a much lower velocity. High velocity flows are difficult for juvenile trout, especially brown trout fry that recently emerged from their redds/nests in March. Side channels provide refuge for trout to escape the hurtling velocities of the main river. Figure 4 shows the “BVFF Side Channel” on the Boise River at winter flows and at high runoff flows. While the main river is raging with little place for trout to hide, you can see numerous areas of softer water and good woody cover in the side channel where trout can hold. The location of our gravel augmentation is circled in the photo: We intentionally added it on an inside corner to protect it from higher flows and it will be interesting to see how much of it stays put and where Mother Nature decides she wants to relocate some of it. We will volunteer with IDF&G on their Fall Shoreline Fry Surveys again this Fall to evaluate the side channel gravel and see how the juvenile trout population fared.

Owyhee River Gravel Augmentation

Troy Pearse — Mon, 01 May 2023 20:25:35 GMT

The Owyhee River below Owyhee Reservoir in Oregon is one of the best brown trout streams in the West and a favorite place for anglers from the Treasure Valley to Fish. But as good as it is, the Owyhee River could even be better if it had more trout spawning habitat.

Boise Valley Fly Fishers (BVFF) has worked with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) to monitor brown trout spawning since 2016. The brown trout population and number of redds varies year to year, but one common theme every year is that most of the brown trout spawning happens in the top 5 miles of river and very few fish spawn downstream by the Owyhee River Ranch even though the water quality and insect population in that reach is very good.

In Fall of 2021 we began an effort with ODFW to do a gravel augmentation to improve the spawning habitat on the lower reaches of the Owyhee River. We have determined that the run below the intermittent Sand Hollow creek has the right water depth and velocity for trout spawning but it lacks the smaller gravels needed. By adding gravel to this location trout will have a productive place to spawn which will improve the trout population in the lower reaches of the river.

BVFF’s gravel augmentations on the Boise River in Idaho have been very successful and we have high expectations for the potential improvement to the trout population on the Owyhee River. We have secured partial funding through grants from Fly Fishers International and ODFW, but the cost of doing a large gravel augmentation at a remote location is considerably higher than our small gravel augmentations on the Boise River. The costs are also higher for doing any stream alteration work in Oregon because of additional permitting.

We are raising money for the gravel augmentation through our internal club fundraiser “Greenbacks For Redds” and through the Idaho Gives Campaign which runs May 1st through May 4th, 2023. Please consider helping us reach our gravel augmentation goal by contributing to the Idaho Gives Campaign. Donations made through Idaho Gives will be generously matched up to $1,000 by St. Clair Contractors, who has been a great partner in helping with BVFF’s Boise River gravel augmentation and our Angler Access project at the new Diane Moore Nature Center.

OUR THANKS goes to the people who have already purchased Greenbacks to support our gravel augmentation effort on the Boise River. Funds left over from that project will be applied to the Owyhee River gravel augmentation.

THANK YOU!

George Butts, Troy Pearse, Brian Martin, Robert Boatright, Fairlee Frey, Greg Mondin, Dennis Moore,

Dennis Fomin, Gary Gettman, Larry Hill, Kathi Rothner, Scott Lenz, Kent Christensen, Tim Hall, Terry Burton,

Klaus Kissman, Jack Truschel, Johnny Rogers, Robert Hurley, Brad Stewart, Ray Arguello, Michael Stahl,

John Slovick, Jason Hansen, Tim Opp, Jim Kazakoff, Guy Beaudine, Ron Gambassi, James Murry, Joel Peterson, Ralph Stark, Joe Barberio, and Mike Schwiebert.

Side Channel Protection

Troy Pearse — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 21:47:58 GMT

When river flows come up, side channels are a safe haven for trout to seek shelter from the heavy currents. Side channel protection is especially important for juvenile trout, including baby brown trout that recently emerged from their redds/nests and don’t swim very well yet.

Here is a photo of the side channel where BVFF has been working to improve trout habitat. You can see the main river is raging but there are numerous soft areas in the side channel for trout, including the corner where we added some woody cover. The gravel BVFF added to the side channel this Spring is tucked out of the main current and is at a good depth and flow for rainbows to spawn. We will keep an eye on it and report spawning activity.

River Flows App

Troy Pearse — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 19:55:58 GMT

Our weather is finally heating up and there is still lots of snow in the mountains to melt and runoff. Keeping on track of water conditions can help you avoid showing up at the river only to find it is blown-out, unsafe and unfishable. BVFF’s Local Waters webpage has links to current flows and water temperatures for nearby rivers as well as reservoir and boat ramp conditions and is a good tool to help you plan your fishing trip.

I also use the “riverflows.net” app on my Android phone to track river flows on my favorite rivers. I like that it includes both USGS stations and AHPS (Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service) stations that give you insights into how the river is expected to rise or drop over the next week.

Here is a look at the main screen of my river “favorites”. For some stations you will notice both a USGS and AHPS entry. Here is a look at both of those water flow graphs. You can see that the USGS graph goes back further in time, but the AHPS graph includes a forecast for the next week. As you can see in the MF Boise forecast, flows are headed up! So be safe out there.

Boise River Brown Trout Redd Protection

Troy Pearse — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 04:19:09 GMT

Boise Valley Fly Fishers has wrapped up their Brown Trout Redd mapping on the Lower Boise River and delivered updated waterproof maps to Boise Flood District 10 for use in their annual winter river maintenance. Now that the redd map is complete we plan to refloat the river yearly to identify which sites are active and communicate that to the Boise Flood District and Idaho Fish and Game. Last year the Boise Flood District reported that the redd mapping had enabled them to avoid all but one of the redd areas and the Flood District excavator driver, shown in Figure 1 holding the Redd Map along with new Assistant District Manager Mark Zirschky, told me that he has also been able to identify and avoid smaller redd areas that were not on the map. Well done and thank you to the Boise Flood District!

BVFF is tracking 50 redd sites across 22 miles of the Boise River, from the Willow Lane boat ramp in Boise down to Star. This year we were able to add the South Chann el around Eagle Island, which had fewer redd sites than the North Channel, but some of the sites had quite large gravel deposits and many brown trout redds. Figure 2 shows the area of the Boise River that we are tracking, and you can see how many more redd sites are in the North Channel vs the South Channel. There are many factors that could be responsible, but one reason is the North Channel has more “sinuosity” (a measure of the number of curves in a river channel) resulting in more areas where smaller gravels settle out that trout can use to spawn.

This year spawning redds were observed as early as the first week of November and as late as the 2nd week of December. Spawning locations were consistent between 2021 and 2022 but this year we counted fewer total numbers of redds. This is partially due to being more conservative in our counting and not including some areas that IDF&G fish biologist Tim D’Amico thought could be caused by scour from higher velocity flows, but even then the overall redd numbers appear to be down. On a positive note, the number of redds in our BVFF Side Channel increased this year because of gravel shifting into prime locations and having a little more water flowing into the channel. Idaho Fish and Game is very interested in tracking the redd locations from year to year and we will continue to report our findings to them.

This year we piloted a process of noting the location of downed trees as we floated the river, to help the Boise flood district plan their winter maintenance work, which has opened the door for more discussions with the Flood District and Idaho Fish and Game on identifying trees that would be good to try and retain for trout fry protection. A great continuation of our partnership on the Boise River.

Last year we floated in November and missed some of the brown trout redds because browns were not done spawning so this year we waited until December to make sure that brown trout spawning activity was complete. Next year we will switch to checking known redd-zones for activity which should allow us some weekend outings in November. Thanks to our volunteers (George Chen, Klaus Kissman, George Butts, Johnny Rogers, and Troy Pearse) who braved cold days on the river to count redds.

Boise River Gravel Refresh

Troy Pearse — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 06:12:01 GMT

In February, Boise Valley Fly Fishers added 15 cubic yards of gravel to a side channel on the Lower Boise River located by the New Dry Creek diversion below Glenwood Bridge. Thanks to our awesome volunteers (Ray Arguello, Tim Opp, Dwane May, Guy Beaudine, Jose' DeSousa, Mike Stahl, Klaus Kissman, George Butts , Scott Lenz , Russ Dodd, Johnny Rogers, Jeff Jones, Troy Pearse and Dennis Fomin) who stuck with the project thru several delays and complications.

Two years ago we added 15 cubic yards of gravel but spread it out in 3 locations on the side channel. That worked well as a way to seed the channel with spawning gravel and since then we have seen a significant increase in trout spawning. The gravel has slowly been working its way down the side channel and Mother Nature has been sorting and depositing it in productive locations for trout to use. This time we decided to add all of the gravel at the top both to refresh the gravel in a location that rainbows like to spawn and to give Mother Nature more building materials to move downstream.

In addition to adding spawning gravel we also worked with fish habitat restoration experts at BioAnalysts and Idaho Fish and Game to improve the woody cover on the side channel to give trout fry refuge after they hatch. Idaho Fish and Game tells us that having this woody cover is the key to helping trout fry survive into adulthood.

One issue we have had during the low water fall and winter is keeping good flows coming into the side channel because the public throws rocks and logs across the top in order to cross, which reduces inflows.Brown Trout

need sufficient flows to spawn in Fall and their nests/redds need those flows continued through the winter to oxygenate the eggs. This year the Boise Flood District placed some large boulders near the top of the side channel that can be used as steps to cross--let’s hope the public uses them.

A BIG Thank You to our project partners: To Sunroc for donating the gravel again and to Boise Flood District 10 for their assistance moving it into the side channel.

A special thanks to those people who bought Greenbacks to support our gravel augmentation projects (Robert Boatright, Dennis Moore, Larry Hill, Scott Lentz, Kent Christensen, Tim Hall, Terry Burton, Klaus Kissman, Jack Trushel, Johnny Rogers, Bob Hurley, Brad Stewart, Ray Arguello, Mike Stahl, John Slovick, Jason Hansen, Tim Opp, Guy Beaudine, Jim Kazakoff, George Butts, Brian Martin, Troy Pearse, Ron Gambassi, James Murry, Joel Peterson, Ralph Stark, and Joe Barberio). We are still working to raise money for the Owyhee Gravel Augmentation. If you are interested in helping please consider buying a $25 Greenback at the BVFF Store.

Newspaper Stories about the project can be found at:

Idaho Press

Capital Press

Idaho Statesman (March 15)

KTVB Channel 7 News

Improving The Boise River Wild Trout Population

Troy Pearse — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 02:27:51 GMT

The Lower Boise River (Boise River) is a unique resource that makes the Treasure Valley a special place to live, play and visit. The trout population is better now than it ever has been thanks to the many organizations that are actively working to improve trout habitat on the Boise River, including Idaho Fish and Game (IDFG), Boise Valley Fly Fishers (BVFF), Trout Unlimited (TU), the Boise River Enhancement Network (BREN) and the Intermountain Bird Observatory (IBO). Together, these organizations are protecting the river and helping improve wild trout reproduction, resulting in better fishing for all of us.

The river below Lucky Peak Dam is considered a Tailwater fishery because the outflows from Lucky Peak come from the bottom of the dam, which helps keep water cool during the summer. IDFG regularly stocks the main Boise river with rainbow trout and brown trout (trout stocked now are called “Triploids” and are sterile). IDFG historical stocking records show that in the last three years significantly more rainbow trout have been stocked than brown trout, with most of the trout being stocked from Middleton up to Barber Park.

In addition to stocked trout, the Boise River has a good population of wild reproducing rainbow and brown trout, as well as some remaining native redband trout. The river could have more wild trout if it had better trout spawning and rearing habitat. Here is a great video presentation by Idaho Fish and Game on the Fish of the Boise River that gives an overview of the history of the river, its trout population, and factors that are important to help improve the fishery.

Spawning Size Gravels

The primary limiting factor for wild trout spawning is availability of smaller gravels. This is because the higher spring flows every year since Lucky Peak was built in 1955 have washed most of the smaller sized gravel downstream and newer gravels from up-river are blocked from refreshing the river because of the series of dams above. One way to replace those lost gravels is through a gravel augmentation where spawning sized round gravels (1/2” to 2” in size) are added to the river to improve trout spawning habitat. Side channels are the best area to do gravel augmentations both because they are the preferred location for trout to spawn and gravel is less likely to wash away because the side channels have less water velocity. The Ted Trueblood chapter of Trout Unlimited has done gravel augmentations up in the Park Center reach of the river in the side channels at Warm Springs (in 2005) and Heron Creek (in 2009), and since then the IDFG shoreline fry surveys have found that the best population of “baby” trout fry are in those areas, which is strong feedback that their gravel augmentations are working.

BVFF was inspired by TU’s success and wanted to do additional gravel augmentations on the Boise River to continue to improve trout spawning habitat. BVFF consulted with IDFG and fish habitat restoration experts at BioAnalysts to identify a suitable side channel on the Boise River in Garden City. Prior to the gravel augmentation this section of the river was considered to have a low density of trout fry, compared to the upstream areas where TU did their gravel augmentations. In 2019 BVFF obtained the needed stream alteration permits and added 12 cubic yards of gravel to three areas in the “BVFF Side Channel” that runs around New Dry Creek Diversion on the south side of the river, between Glenwood Bridge and the head of Eagle Island. Since then, we have seen a significant increase in both rainbow and brown trout spawning. Rainbow trout spawn in the Spring and they preferred to make their redds in the upper section of the side channel, while brown trout spawn in the Fall and have liked the slower water in the middle and lower sections of the side channel.

Last Fall (Nov 2022) we were able to accompany IDFG on one of their Shoreline Fry Surveys that included the BVFF Side Channel. We sampled 6 sites on the main Boise River from Willow Lane down to the BVFF Side Channel and 3 sites in the BVFF Side Channel. We netted approximately 20 trout fry at the 6 sites on the Main Boise river and 84 trout fry in the BVFF Side Channel—good evidence that the gravel augmentation is helping improve the number of trout fry. It is exciting to see this “Field of Dreams” scenario playing out, and we anticipate we will see improvements in the adult trout population over the coming years.

The gravel we added in 2019 is slowly shifting downstream in the BVFF Side Channel and Mother Nature is putting it into locations that are suitable for trout to spawn. We have applied for another stream alteration permit and plan to refresh gravel in the side channel this winter so the rainbow trout have fresh gravel for spawning and Mother Nature has more building materials to work with during the next spring runoff. The gravel refresh is estimated to cost around $1,200. We are raising money to fund the gravel refresh by selling “Greenbacks for Redds”. If you are interested in helping fund the donation, please buy a Greenback at the BVFF Online Store.

Woody Cover

Another issue that limits the wild trout population is the lack of good woody debris that helps protect young trout fry from predators as well as provide shade and habitat for aquatic insects. And although Gravel Augmentations are much “sexier”, improving woody cover is just as important to helping those fry survive their first year. But because the Boise River flows through an urban area, much of the natural downed trees are removed to reduce flood risks and improve public safety for recreational floating. This results in less cover for young trout and a lower rate of survival. IDFG would like to see more woody debris in the Boise River and in 2016 they did a project at Barber Park to improve aquatic habitat by adding engineered logjams and boulders. These logjams and boulders created sheltered areas for fish to rest, hide from predators and feed on bugs.

As a part of BVFF’s Gravel Augmentation project in 2019 we worked with Boise Flood District 10 to retain downed trees in the side channel that would have normally been removed. This woody cover gave trout fry a place to hide after hatching out of the nests/redds resulting in a higher survival rate. The value of this woody cover was evident last Fall when IDFG did their Shoreline Fry Survey as the majority of the juvenile trout found in the BVFF Side Channel were tucked underneath the woody cover. Here is a short video segment of the IDFG Shoreline Fry Survey in the BVFF Side Channel—note how the trout fry were hiding in the downed tree along the bank. FrySurveyVideo.mp4

In recent years the Boise Flood District has been working to improve their management of tree hazards along the Boise River Corridor to keep trees that are leaning over the river and providing shade. BVFF has continued partnering with Boise Flood District 10 and IDFG to look for opportunities to improve woody debris in the river where it is safe to do so. Side channels are one of the best places to do this because downed trees there are not a danger to floaters and are less likely to come loose and float away. Downed trees in side channels also provide high value cover for trout fry that hatched from trout redds in the side channel. Bank stabilization and plantings by BREN, TU, the City of Boise, and others are also helping improving woody cover on the Boise River.

Side Channel Habitat

Side channels are the preferred spawning location for trout because of reduced velocities and a naturally higher amount of spawning sized gravels that are pulled from the banks. Side channels are considered the best rearing locations because they offer protection for young trout from higher velocity flows and have a higher amount of natural woody cover. Side channels that flow during both the summer and the winter are especially important, however one systemic issue with rivers below dams is the loss of side channel habit. Essentially over time the river fills in its side channels and becomes one large “channelized ditch”. This occurs because the high water flows (such as from Snowmageddon) move large cobble into the mouths of side channels but river flows on years after that are artificially restricted by Lucky Peak which keeps the river from reestablishing flows into those side channels.

Two side channels of the Lower Boise River that were lost from the 2017 Snowmageddon high runoff flows are behind the Les Bois racetrack. These two side channels represent a mile of premium year-round trout spawning and rearing habitat but now do not flow during the fall and winter seasons. BVFF is working with IDFG on a plan to “un-plug” the entry to these two Les Bois side channels so they will again flow in fall and winter, which will open them back up for brown trout spawning and over-winter protection for young rainbow and brown trout. Stay tuned for more information as this project progresses over the next few years.

One side channel that has been reopened recently is at the new Diane Moore Nature Center. The project, lead by the Intermountain Bird Observatory, worked through the permitting to restore a historic side channel and rebuilt it, including adding spawning size gravel for trout and copious amounts of woody cover for trout fry protection. BVFF partnered with the Intermountain Bird Observatory on trout habitat signs that have been installed along the restored side channel, as well as building a new angler access at the site. BVFF is very excited to be working up at the Diane Moore Nature Center and we plan to stay involved helping protect and improve trout habitat there. One of the Trout Habitat signs we installed and a photo taken at the side channel this summer are shown below. It is rewarding to see the small fish hiding in the woody cover—just like the Trout Habitat sign depicts!

Trout Redd Protection

Rainbow trout spawn in the higher flows of spring and brown trout spawn in the lower flows of fall. Because of the lower flows the brown trout redds (nests) are more vulnerable to being trampled by unknowing anglers or equipment in the river doing irrigation or flood control work. BVFF has partnered with IDFG and Boise Flood District 10 to map the location of Brown Trout Redds so the flood district can avoid them during their annual winter maintenance activities. Mapping Brown Trout redds has been a great opportunity learn about trout spawning habitat while improving the Brown Trout reproductive potential in the Boise River. Angler education is also important, and many fishermen do not know what a trout redd looks like. BVFF has been working on angler “Redducation” so they can recognize and avoid redds in the Boise River while out fishing. BVFF has made Redducation the focus at their Fly Fishing Expo booth the last two years and are planning to attend the Boise Sportsman Show in March to increase the impact of this message. Here is a short Redducational video we did on the Boise River.

Minimum Winter Flows

Winter water flows are important to a healthy trout population, especially trout fry going into their first winter. Before the mid 1980s the Boise River would often drop to 50cfs to 100cfs during the winter, which was very hard on the overwinter survival of trout and whitefish. Over time IDFG has worked to improve the winter flows on the Boise River, and typical winter flows today are 240cfs which has dramatically improved the health of the river and the trout population. Lucky Peak is unique in that IDFG has a storage water right for streamflow maintenance. Currently IDFG does not fully use all their water right and they are investigating raising winter flows to 300cfs or even 350cfs, which would increase the number of side channels that have water in the winter and give trout access to more spawning and rearing habitat.

The split of water on the Boise River between the north and south channels around Eagle Island varies year to year, and although the main Boise River had more water the Fall of 2022 than it did in 2021, the flows in the north channel were down by 25% due to changes at the head of Eagle Island made for irrigation. In our fall 2022 Brown Trout Redd Survey we noticed fewer redds in the north channel than the year before. Our observation was that some of the spawning areas did not have sufficient water depth for brown trout to make their redds due to the lower water levels. IDFG is very interested in tracking brown trout redd trends and we will continue to share our yearly brown trout redd location information with them to help show the need for higher winter flows on the Boise River.

A Winning Recipe

When you put together spawning gravel and woody cover in a side channel that flows year-round, you have a winning recipe for improving the trout population. The spawning gravel gives you more “trout seeds” and the woody cover increases the yield of the “trout crop” that is available at the end of the year. And having an overwinter side channel helps that crop of young trout make it through their first winter and into adulthood. The BVFF Side Channel has all three of these winning ingredients, and we will be continuing to look for other side channels in the Boise River where we can apply the same approach.

References For More Information

- IDFG Boise River Aquatic Habitat Project

- BREN Boise River Plan

- IDFG 2019 SW Region FISHERIES MANAGEMENT ANNUAL REPORT

- Boise River Winter Flows

Where Did The Gravel Go?

Troy Pearse — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 18:54:21 GMT

GRAVEL MIGRATION OBSERVATIONS ON THE BOISE RIVER

In January of 2021, Boise Valley Fly Fishers added 12 Cubic Yards of gravel to a side channel of the Lower Boise River, on the south side around New Dry Creek Diversion. Based on Idaho Fish and Game’s (IDFG) recommendations we used a combination of 3/4” round rock, which ranged in size from ½” to 1” in size and 2” round drain rock, which ranged in size from 1.5” to 2”. The year before adding the gravel we observed very little spawning in the side channel, but the 2 years after adding the gravel we have seen a significant increase in brown and rainbow trout spawning and last fall, IDFG found a large number of trout fry in their shoreline fry survey. We are excited and encouraged by this success. We have observed the gravel is shifting downstream from high spring flows and we want to refresh it to help continue the spawning success. One question that both Idaho Fish and Game and the Army Corps of Engineers asked us about the gravel refresh was “Where did the gravel go that we put in last time”? A fair question that needed an answer.

We had taken measurements of gravel at the augmentation locations, and I was intimately familiar with the thousand foot side channel, having walked it with my dogs hundreds of times over the years. So, when the Boise River flows dropped to their lower winter levels I went on a gravel hunt, and here is what I found.

Figure-1 shows the locations where we placed gravel in the side channel. We made 3 rectangular beds, each approximately 8 feet wide x 20 feet long x 6” deep (shown as rectangles 1, 2 and 3 in Figure 1). One bed was near the top of the side channel, a second in the middle, and a third in the lower section of the side channel. We also ended up with some secondary gravel zones below where the piles of gravel were staged (shown as circles A, B & C).

I walked the side channel from the top to the bottom, looking for smaller gravels and changes in the side channel. Inspecting the top locations (1 & A) I found no smaller gravels left from the augmentation. I think this is because these areas are in the direct path of incoming flows and higher spring flows moved the gravel downstream. But, although the gravels weren’t in their original location, I observed that some of it had shifted downstream and settled on the inside bend directly below, which I observed rainbows using to spawn the previous spring.

Walking down to the middle location (2) I could see that gravel was also gone—moved by higher flows. But I didn’t have to go far to find it as Mother Nature carried it about 100 feet downstream and created a new little riffle area that brown trout used to spawn last Fall. Well done, Mother Nature!

Continuing my inspection down the side channel I found another new riffle about 50 feet below the secondary “Zone B”, and a pile of smaller gravels that had accumulated on the next inside bend. This gravel accumulation is out of the water now but it will be underwater come spring and looks to be in a prime location for Rainbow Trout spawning. Similarly, I found that all the gravel that we had painstakingly wheelbarrowed into “Zone C” was gone and deposited onto an existing cobble bar below. We will have to watch these two new gravel accumulations this spring to see if rainbow trout use them to spawn.

Just below this little cobble bar is the third augmentation zone. I had to be careful here because it has quite a few brown trout redds, but from what I could see all of the gravel in this zone appears to still be in place with possibly some minor shifting. This location is protected from higher flows by the cobble bar above and is a lower gradient area that brown trout have used to spawn the last two years.

In summary, the gravels BVFF placed in the side channel are all still in the side channel, but spring flows are slowly working them downstream. The river is good at transporting and sorting gravel, depending on gravel size and river velocity, and the locations that the river chooses are ultimately the best spots for trout spawning. We are working to refresh the gravel at the top of the side channel, which will add gravel in the zone where rainbow trout like to spawn as well as give the river more building materials to continue to shape the side channel below. We are raising money for this gravel augmentation. It takes about $25 worth of gravel to make one trout redd, and each trout redd will support 2,000 or more eggs. The more redds we get in the river, the more wild-trout we will have! If you are interested in helping us, please donate by purchasing a “Greenback” from the BVFF Store.

On a related side-note, while doing our brown trout redd mapping this fall we started at Heron Park in Garden City to take a look at the area where Trout Unlimited did a gravel augmentation in 2019. The gravels added along the left bank of the main Boise River have since been carried away by high spring flows and we did not see any brown trout redds until about a half a mile below. This reinforces the value of adding gravel into side channels where the reduced velocities help retain them longer than in the main river.

Greenbacks For REDDS

Troy Pearse — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 17:37:26 GMT

BVFF's gravel augmentation two years ago on the Boise River has been a HUGE SUCESS! We have seen a dramatic increase in trout spawning in our side channel and this Fall IDFG's Fry Survey found a large number of trout fry there!

Mother nature has been taking the gravel we added to the side channel and repositioning it into new gravel deposits that trout have been using to spawn. We want to refresh the gravel at the top of the side channel before spring so that Rainbow trout have gravel where they like to spawn, and Mother Nature has more "building materials" to work with during Spring runoff.

We have submitted for a permit to add 15 cubic yards of gravel to the head of the side channel and Boise Flood District 10 has volunteered again to help us move the gravel into the side channel. We expect the permit to be issued in January and we will coordinate with the Flood District to do the gravel refresh later this winter.

To help fund the gravel augmentation we have started the Greenbacks For Redds program. I estimate it takes about $25 worth of gravel for a trout to make one redd on the Boise river. If you want to help sponsor a redd, buy a Greenback at our BVFF Online Store.

The Owyhee Gravel Augmentation has been delayed due to long permitting times. If all goes well it will happen in the Spring, but it could have to wait until Fall if we don't get our permits in time. We have received grants from FFI and ODFW to help pay for the Owyhee gravel augmentation, but we have had some unexpected expenses that are raising the cost. If you want to help sponsor a redd on the Boise River, you can buy Greenbacks at our BVFF Online Store.

Boise River Redd Protection

Troy Pearse — Sun, 18 Dec 2022 18:40:23 GMT

Boise Flood District 10 has begun their annual winter maintenance in the Boise River to remove debris that could be a flood risk come higher spring runoff flows. This year the Flood District will again be using a map of Brown Trout redds to avoid inadvertently driving through them. Last year the Flood District reported that with the help of the BVFF Redd Map they were able to successfully avoid the Brown Trout Redds--and the machinery drivers even identified some redds that BVFF missed!

This Fall, BVFF members floated the river from Veterans Park to Star, marking redds and updating the Redd Map for the Flood District. There were noticeably fewer Brown Trout redd counts this year, especially on the North Channel around Eagle Island, which was where the most brown trout redds were last year. We think there were fewer redds because although flows on the main Boise River were slightly higher than last year, the flows on the North Channel were 25% lower. BVFF is partnering with Idaho Fish And Game to track the Brown Trout Redds over time to get a better idea of how they change year to year.

For more information on this program, see the Idaho Press Article

BVFF Members Klaus Kissman and Troy Pearse counting redds
in the North Channel of the Boise River.

Boise River Side Channel Success

Troy Pearse — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 18:46:47 GMT

The Lower Boise River runs from Lucky Peak dam to the Snake River and the upper section (from the Dam down to Star) has a good population of naturally reproducing rainbow and brown trout. Lucky Peak is a tailwater dam, which helps keep the waters cool in the summer, but three common issues below a dam in an urban area that can limit wild trout reproduction are: 1) Lack of spawning size gravels; 2) Loss of side channels; and 3) Lack of Large Woody Debris.

GRAVEL AUGMENTATION

The Boise River has lost much of its spawning size gravels which limits where wild brown and rainbow trout can spawn. Two winters ago, Boise Valley Fly Fishers (BVFF) worked with Idaho Fish and Game (IDFG) and Boise River Flood Control District #10 (FCD 10) Boise Flood to improve trout spawning and rearing habitat on a side channel of the Lower Boise River in Garden City. We worked with IDFG to identify areas that had suitable depth and flow for rainbow and brown trout spawning and added a total of 12 cubic yards of gravel to three areas in the side channel. We timed adding the gravel when BFlood10 was in the area doing their annual winter stream maintenance work and they donated time and machinery to move the gravel into the side channel where our volunteers raked it into place. For more details on the gravel augmentation, see these articles by the Idaho Statesman and BREN.

LARGE WOODY DEBRIS

Woody debris provides refuge for trout fry and is critical to the survival of young trout. However, flood control practices in urban areas like Boise remove fallen trees to reduce flood risk. We have been fortunate to be able to work with FCD 10 and they agreed to reposition and retain some fallen trees in this side channel as an experiment to improve trout habitat. We appreciate FCD 10’s extra efforts to improve woody debris when possible.

SIDE CHANNELS

Side channels are the best place for trout spawning and rearing. They have reduced flows that are conducive to trout spawning and tend to have the right depth and structure for trout to make their redds. Side channels with year-round flow are the most valuable because they provide opportunities for Brown Trout to spawn in November and they give young trout fry shelter to survive their first winter. BVFF’s side channel has flow year-round, although the entry sometimes gets clogged with rocks and logs placed there by the public to cross, which reduces inflows and blocks fish passage. Please help us keep side channels flowing and do not block them off.

SPAWNING

Because of the extended drought, the BVFF side channel has had lower than average flows, but we have seen rainbow trout redds in the spring and brown trout redds in the fall in the areas where we added gravel. A recent review of the gravel we placed in the stream two winters ago shows that the gravel at the head of the channel is making its way down the side channel from higher flows during spring runoff and mother nature is using it to make a new spawning area, which brown trout used this fall to spawn. The gravel at the top of the side channel is getting thin and we are working on refreshing it this winter or next winter.

FRY SURVEY

This Fall we were able to accompany IDFG on their annual Lower Boise River trout fry survey and see firsthand how the habitat improvements were working.

I am very pleased to report that we found dozens and dozens of brown and rainbow trout fry in the side channel!

Most of the trout fry were located in the large woody debris, which underscores the importance of woody debris. IDFG Fish Biologist Tim D'Amico, who led the fry survey, was very impressed with the number of trout fry in our side channel and commented that it was one of the most productive spots they had sampled that year.

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

A side channel that flows year-round, plus spawning size gravel and woody debris is winning trout habitat combination to improve the trout population. BVFF has adopted this side channel and we plan to continue to work on habitat improvements as well as do regular river cleanups in the area. We are talking with IDFG about the potential to restore year-round flow to other side channels that have become dry over the winter—something that would continue to improve the wild trout populations in the Lower Boise River.

Another critical factor for success is the partnerships between BVFF, IDFG and FCD 10, working together to improve and protect trout habitat on the Lower Boise River. And we couldn’t do it without the support of our members and volunteers.

We are raising money to do additional gravel augmentations. Please buy a "Greenback" from the BVFF store to help support our efforts to increase trout spawning in the Boise River.

HABITAT SIGNS

BVFF added a trout habitat sign to the side channel to help educate people about the importance of side channels and the lifecycle of brown and rainbow trout. Since then we have added similar trout habitat signs at the Diane Moore Nature center as well as the first anti-litter sign on the Lower Boise River!

THANKS

Our thanks to all of our project partners and volunteers that made this project happen.

IDF&G and BioAnalysts who helped us plan the gravel augmentation
Boise Flood District 10 who helped move the gravel into the river
Sunroc for donating the gravel
FFI for funding the Trout Habitat Sign

Plight Of Idaho Salmon and Steelhead

Troy Pearse — Sun, 23 Oct 2022 16:46:22 GMT

I just got back from swinging a fly for steelhead on the Clearwater river. In my 30 years of fishing for steelhead, the last few years have been the toughest I have experienced. Since retiring from HP I have been able to log way more hours chasing steelhead but have only caught a small number of fish compared to just 10 years ago when I fished a fraction of the hours.

I had beautiful Fall days on the Clearwater: The sun was bright and the Clearwater river was low and clear. But there were not many fish to be found, and everyone I talked with had the same experience. I expect the rain this week will pull some fish into the river and fishing will (hopefully) improve. I did manage to swing one up on a small pink Klamath Intruder--a 35" hen that was holding in some boulders at the base of a riffle. What a thrill to connect with something that WILD! (Sorry, no Fish Photo. I held her in the water for a brief moment to revive, thanked her, and sent her back on her way.)

Talking with Rick Williams yesterday, he had a similar experience swinging a fly on the Salmon River near Riggins. He reported that he had nary a bump or swirl...and that it felt like he was fishing an empty river.

While swinging I had plenty of time to think about the plight of the steelhead (and salmon). The speaker for BVFF's last club meeting was fisheries expert Dr. Rick Williams, who painted a grim picture of the future of anadromous fish in Idaho unless big changes occur soon to the river and management. The BIG take-away messages I got from his talk were:

In order for a species to survive, it has to produce at least 2 offspring that can reproduce to replace the parents. Reproduction metrics show that the steelhead and salmon in basins below the four Lower Snake dams are meeting this criteria. The ones above the Lower Snake dams are not. Over time, this pattern leads to extinction.
Spawning habitat, while important, is not the limiting factor in Idaho. Tracking spawning habitat use in the M.F. Salmon drainage you can see that on most years only a fraction of the spawning habitat gets used. I dug up some hatchery smolt release data from Idaho and found that they pretty much release the same number of smolts each year, regardless of the previous year's return, which again emphasizes the number of smolts produced is not the limiting factor.
Idaho steelhead and salmon smolts migrating downstream to the ocean experience a high mortality rate. Every dam has an incremental mortality rate and slows the smolt's outbound migration time. The biological process of smolting has a time restriction and Idaho smolts have a long way to travel to make it to the ocean. If we want to save Idaho salmon and steelhead then we have to get those smolts to the ocean quicker and with a higher survival rate. I wish there was a way to open up the locks on the Lower Snake dams to turn it into a more free flowing river during April and May when the smolts are ocean-bound. But the dams weren't designed to do that.
Idaho has the best high-elevation spawning habitat in the entire Columbia basin, which is important as the climate warms our rivers. Improving salmon and steelhead returns to Idaho is critical to not only improve our runs, but to the future of Salmon and Steelhead in the Columbia Basin.
Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson's plan recognizes that in order to succeed, not only do we need to replace the function of the Four Lower Snake Dams, but we need to recognize and replace the dependencies that they have created. This really resonated with me after recently reading Blaine Harden's book, "A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia", which gave me new insights into the subsidies created by the dams. I encourage you to check it out of the local library. It is an enjoyable read and you will learn something.

BOTTOM LINE: If we want to save Salmon and Steelhead for future generations, then we must return the Lower Snake River to a free-flowing river and get Idaho smolts safely to the ocean. Time is not on our side in this issue. Please share this message and support Congressman Simpson's plan.

My thanks to Link Jackson for his "Grant Me Freedom" artwork.

New Angler Access on the Lower Boise River

Troy Pearse — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 17:01:12 GMT

In October 2022, volunteers from the Boise Valley Fly Fishers (BVFF) built an Angler Access to the Boise River at the Diane Moore Nature Center . The set of landscape timber steps replace a steep, erosive social-trail that had developed at the site and give anglers a safe way to access this section of the Lower Boise River.

The project design team was led by retired landscape designer Randy Lancaster along with Greg Kaltenecker from the Intermountain Bird Observatory, local water enthusiast Steve Steubner, and Klaus Kissman and Troy Pearse from BVFF. We had an awesome set of volunteers who worked hard for two days to get the landscape timber stairs built. You can't ask for better volunteers than these guys! My thanks to Klaus Kissman, Troy Pearse, Brian Martin, George Butts, Kent Christensen, Mike Stahl, Joe DeSousa, Tim Opp, Jack Truschel, Scott Lenz, Jay Pryor, and Tim DeMarco.

You can see some video of the project construction on our YouTube channel, and more photos were uploaded to our Facebook Group Page (note, you do not have to have a Facebook account to see these).

DAY1-PHOTOS

DAY2-PHOTOS

The project was a collaborative effort between BVFF and the Intermountain Bird Observatory, which has been championing development of the Diane Moore Nature center under the direction of Greg Kaltenecker who is the Diane and Winston Moore Family Endowed Director. Funding for the project was provided by a grant from the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Foundation and BVFF. BVFF is excited to be working at the Diane Moore Nature Center and is thrilled with their work to restore a historic side channel which adds important spawning habitat and rearing habitat for wild trout in the Boise River.

BVFF collaborated with the IBO and Idaho Fish and Game on trout habitat signs that were installed in August along the restored side channel. One of the habitat signs explains the trout's lifecycle and encourages catch and release fishing in this area which is primarily wild trout. We were lucky to get an awesome piece of artwork designed by local artist Link Jackson for the second sign which describes the importance of "woody debris" to the survival of young trout. BVFF is proud to have also helped design and install the first anti-litter signs on the Lower Boise river and we hope to see more of them at other access points.

Trout and wildlife need clean habitat. Please pack out all trash. Keep it Wild! #FillTheNet and #LeaveItBetter

Owyhee Water Levels and Water Temperatures

Troy Pearse — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 14:37:56 GMT

Flows on the Owyhee have dropped for the year, and you can see the dramatic shift in water temperatures as they changed from running water through the power turbines to the bottom outlet works. Water temps were ranging from 50 - 55 degrees daily and have dropped down to 49 - 50 degrees. The reservoir is at critically low levels but thankfully we made it through the season without the power turbines pulling in warmer water from the "epilimnion" warmer surface layer.

BVFF has been working with ODFW, BofR and the Owyhee Irrigation District on a plan to switch outflows to the lower "outlet works" if needed. For more details about that, see our Conservation News Article

The cooler water temps will get the BWO hatches going, especially as we get cooler and cloudy weather. The cooler water will also trigger browns to start spawning, so if you go over to fish the Owyhee, please remember to avoid brown trout spawning areas. For more information on how to identify brown trout redds, see our Conservation News Article.

Brown Trout Spawning Season

Troy Pearse — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 17:42:38 GMT

October is here, and it is one of my favorite months to fish. Hatches are picking up with Fall Caddis and Blue Winged Olives, and the trout have the feedbag on preparing for winter. But with October comes the brown trout spawning season. The exact timing of spawning depends on water and weather conditions but generally brown trout on the Owyhee start to spawn in October with activity peaking in November and tapering off into December. And on the Boise River in town, browns typically don’t start spawning until the first week of November.

Brown trout like to spawn in gravel that is ½” to 1.5” in diameter, in water that is 1’ to 3’ deep and has some mild current. The tail-out of a run is one of their favorite places, especially if it has gravel. Gravel tail-outs are also an easy place for anglers to cross the river, so it is important to keep your eye out for redds to avoid wading through them.

Redds can be identified by the gravel being rubbed clean as fish build their nest. Redds tend to be circular to oblong shaped and are about the size of a hula-hoop. If there is a large gravel deposit, then you will often find multiple redds built next to each other. Here is a photo of a group of redds at the end of a small side channel on the Boise River. Note the size of the gravel and how it has been rubbed clean. There is also a single redd built along the far bank.

Side channels and bank edges are another common area to find brown trout redds so look before you step into the river. Here are some photos of brown trout redds on the Boise River from last year, and a short REDD-U-Cational Video that shows some brown trout redds in a tail-out.

When you see brown trout working their redds, it is best to leave them to their task as we all want them to succeed and make more brown trout! That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go fishing. It is perfectly ethical to fish other sections of the river where brown trout are not spawning. There are plenty of rainbow trout that are snacking on the stray egg patterns and fishing in the deeper run below can be quite good. Last year the a pink salmon colored “Eggstacy” fly was my top egg pattern on the Boise River. I was amazed at how well the eggstacy material worked. Tim Camtasia has a nice video on how to tie it.

So get out and enjoy some fall fishing, but remember to watch where you wade. Brown trout redds are vulnerable for several months while the eggs are incubating--in our area that is typically into the month of March. Over time it gets harder to identify the redds as they silt-in from river algae and deposits, so it is best to avoid walking through gravel areas during the winter, especially on the Owyhee where there is so little spawning habitat. In 2019 BVFF worked with ODFW to put signs at vulnerable spawning locations to alert anglers. Watch for those signs, and tredd carefully.

Owyhee River Water Temperatures

Troy Pearse — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 20:23:16 GMT

Between 2015 and 2020 there was a concerning drop in the brown trout population on the Owyhee River in Oregon, particularly in the lower reaches between the tunnel and the concrete bridge 10 miles downstream. Several years ago the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) started looking into the causes to try and protect this precious fishery. The leading suspects were 1) Anglers wading through brown trout spawning redds; 2) Predation of brown trout fry; and 3) Excessive warm water temperatures.

To help address the first issue, BVFF worked with ODFW in 2019 and installed Redd Protection Signs at major spawning sites. To help reduce the chance of brown trout eating their own fry, ODFW increased stocking of rainbow trout fry in the river, which is why there has been a sudden increase in the number of rainbow trout being caught.

ODFW’s first review of water temperatures showed that the river stayed plenty cool for trout during the summer, all the way down to Snively Springs. But further analysis of historical water temperatures at the Bureau of Reclamation stream gauge (about a mile below the dam) showed that during the extended drought years 2013 – 2015, Owyhee Reservoir levels dropped to the point that the power turbines started pulling in some warmer surface water which caused increased water temperatures to be released from the dam. We estimate that water temperatures released from the dam in August of 2014 and 2015 were 60 – 65 degrees compared to the normal summertime 50 degrees. This puts water temperatures in the lower reaches of the river into the upper 70s to low 80s, which is in the lethal temperature range for brown trout.

Over the last two years, BVFF and ODFW have been researching the water temperature issue. We found that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license for power generation at the Owyhee Dam requires that outflows be managed to ensure water temperatures needed for trout in the river below. Using this information, ODFW has been able to successfully negotiate with the Owyhee irrigation district to change dam operations to pull from deeper in the reservoir when needed. Luckily with our super-wet spring the Owyhee reservoir levels were higher than anticipated so it has not been a problem this year, but we are very happy to have this agreement in place and are thankful to ODFW for their work to help alleviate another warm water event and protect the brown trout on the Owyhee River.

The brown trout population on the Owyhee river continues to recover, although the lower river is recovering slower than the upper river, partially because of having less spawning habitat. Our club’s gravel augmentation project this Fall will give brown trout new places to spawn and hopefully will increase the population of brown trout on the lower half of the river.

Special thanks go to Kirk Handley and Dave Banks at ODFW for their ongoing efforts on the Owyhee river. My personal thanks go to BVFF member Forrest Goodrum for his help digging through the FERC dam licensing documents and to Ryan Hedricks from the Bureau of Reclamation for his help understanding the Owyhee dam operation and being a liaison between the different groups.

Adopt-A-River-Mile

Tue, 30 Aug 2022 14:44:43 GMT

by Brian Martin, Leave It Better Coordinator

We are looking into a national river adoption program that began in Illinois on the Mississippi River by an organization called Living Lands & Waters. Check out their website at https://www.livinglandsandwaters.org/. This is a river stewardship program designed to keep our waterways clean providing a healthy environment for fish to thrive.

Our plan is for BVFF to adopt a 1-mile section of the Boise River in the area of our gravel augmentation in Garden City. From there we hope to partner with the cities, counties, and other jurisdictions from the Highway 21 bridge/diversion dam down through Star and possibly further. Each mile section would be adopted by a concerned organization or group. The Women Fly Fishers of Idaho have already expressed an interest in adopting a section if we get the ball rolling.

This is a huge undertaking and will take a while to come to fruition. If you have contacts in any of the governmental jurisdictions along the river corridor let us know. Together we can plant the seed of this idea in their minds and watch it grow.

Your help is always appreciated. If you would like to volunteer for any of these projects, let us know or go to our website and register when they are posted.

Diane Moore Nature Center Trail and Signs

Tue, 30 Aug 2022 14:09:41 GMT

By Troy Pearse

FISHERMAN ACCESS TRAIL

BVFF has received a grant from the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Foundation to build a formal fisherman access trail at the new Diane Moore Nature Center. The access trail will formalize a current “social trail” that is causing erosion and give anglers a formal path to the river while stopping bank erosion and protecting native habitat. We will be working with the Intermountain Bird Observatory to create signs to educate users about the Nature Center and Barber Pool conservation area. It will be a 2-day project in early October. Stay tuned for more details. We will need a good number of volunteers to help build the access trail.

NEW SIGNS

In August BVFF volunteers installed Trout Habitat and Anti-Litter signs along the restored side channel at the new Diane Moore Nature Center, located between Barber Park and Lucky Peak. The signs look great, and we are very excited to have the very first anti-litter signs on the Boise River. We are hoping to be able to leverage them into more access locations in the future.

We were joined by Link Jackson, local outdoor enthusiast who designed artwork for the Side Channel sign, as well Greg Kaltenecker from the Intermountain Bird Observatory who has been leading the development of the Diane Moore Nature Center. Thanks to our volunteers: Scott Lenz, Randy James, Klaus Kissman , Jack Truschel, Jon Fishback , Jose' DeSousa, Tim Opp, Johnny Rogers, Kent Christensen, Brian Martin , George Butts, Jeff Jones and Troy Pearse.

FFI Grant For Owyhee Gravel Augmentation

Tue, 30 Aug 2022 14:04:53 GMT

By Troy Pearse

BVFF has received a $3,000 grant from Fly Fishers International (FFI) to help fund our gravel augmentation project on the Owyhee River. We have also applied for a $2,000 grant from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and will hear from them by the end of October. My thanks to BVFF member Forrest Goodrum for his help in submitting for the FFI grant.

The gravel augmentation is planned for early November, which is the beginning of the “work window” for doing in-river work in Oregon. We have targeted the lower end of the river for the augmentation because it has much less suitable spawning habitat and less brown trout spawning activity. If all goes well, this gravel augmentation will improve the productivity of the lower river and make for much better fishing in years to come.

Keep watch for volunteer opportunities in early November to help with the project. It should be quite a show to watch the gravel-slinger truck shoot 100 cubic yards of gravel into the river!

The Impacts Of Monofilament

Troy Pearse — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 18:31:03 GMT

One of the unfortunate realities of fishing is you break-off and lose fishing line and flies/lures/hooks, and those monofilament remnants and hooks can cause problems for birds and animals. When you break-off, it is good to try and retrieve what you can. And while out fishing, it is good to be on the lookout for wads of discarded monofilament and pick them up—just be careful, as there can be a hook at the other end, and you don’t want to hook yourself! Fishing line is especially hazardous to birds, who sometimes pick it up to line their nest, and mono caught in trees is especially dangerous to birds who get trapped in it and die. To help encourage others to pick up monofilament, please take a photo of your “find” and post it to our Facebook Group Page. If you’re not into Facebook, you can email me the photo (conservation@bvff.com) and we will post it for you.

George Butts is leading a new project to build and distribute mono-collector tubes to local area lakes and fishermen access points. The current design of mono-collectors has several issues, including birds building nests inside and getting trapped and the public thinking they are “trash collectors”. We are investigating new designs to help alleviate these problems and plan to submit for an Idaho Fish and Game Community Challenge Grant next Spring to fund building and servicing new mono collectors.

Be A Trout Hero

Troy Pearse — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 05:50:16 GMT

Imagine if every time you hit the stream, you make it a little bit cleaner. Imagine if you go fishing two times per month, you could effectively take twenty four bags of trash from the wilderness each year. Now imagine if 100 people build this new habit. That’s twenty four hundred bags of trash from the wilderness. Now imagine of we get to one thousand anglers, then ten thousand anglers.

These Trout Hero mesh bags are great to have on the river to pack out trash. And Pescador On The Fly will send you one for FREE! Be a Trout Hero! To get your very own mesh bag go to Pescador On The Fly and use code TROUTHERO at check out.

River Cleanup Events

Troy Pearse — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 05:40:44 GMT

In past years, BVFF has joined other organizations in river cleanup events on the Boise and Owyhee Rivers although we have organized a few ourselves. Beginning this fall, we will have a cleanup event planned for late September or early to mid-October. It will be on the Boise River in Garden city at the section where we did the gravel augmentation. Keep an eye out for details as we approach that timeframe.

One thing we want to avoid is becoming known as the Boise Valley Trash Cleanup Club nor do we want to overburden you with far to many events like this. There’s fishing to be done.

For future river cleanup events, we plan to have two categories: BVFF Sponsored Events and Informational Events. They’ll be distinguished on our website under Events based on these categories. Here’s a further description:

1. BVFF Sponsored Events – these will be events either we organize or events put on by organizations that focus on the rivers and actually get into the water. These include VICE Outdoors, Indianhead Fly Fishers, and BREN and the Golden Eagle Audobon Society mono cleanups. Consider these thoughts:

a. Safety is paramount. You determine what is safe for you. If you are not comfortable with any action, don’t do it,

b. We will do cleanups in the spring and fall, before and after irrigation season raises the water to unsafe levels,

c. We want to get into the water where the fish live. We will need some folks in waders as trash collects in tree branches and strainers. When anyone is in the water, they must have a partner on land who is willing and able to enter the water to assist in any way. Carry a cell phone to call for help before you enter the water,

d. Waders are not necessary for all who volunteer. There’s usually plenty of trash on dry ground,

e. These events will be posted on our website and will have a “Register” button,

f. I’m sure I’ve omitted some thoughts. Please send me any that you have to brian@lfprinc.com.

2. Informational Cleanup Events – these will be events put on by organizations that don’t get into the water. They usually cleanup along the greenbelt which is beneficial as it keeps that trash from going into the river. On our website you’ll see these events posted under Events as informational only and they will not have an option to register. Here’s an example of an event coming up.

Another Boise River cleanup being held by the radio station "River Boise". This one is August 13th, meeting at the Greenbelt parking lot at Marigold/Glenwood. They have some fun prizes and SWAG for folks. Consider volunteering. More info and a link to sign-up in their post below.

Sign up for our NEXT River Restoration with Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co.! River clean-up is 8/13 at Fish Park off Glenwood, after-party at Ironwood Social. We'll have tons of prizes at the after-party, including concert tickets, swag, and a beautiful red cooler. Everyone 21 and up is eligible to enter for the Leinenkugel canoe full of brew, given away at the final clean-up September 10th! Please sign up today.

Thanks for everyone's help to Leave It Better Than They Found It.

Brian Martin
BVFF #LeaveItBetter Program Lead

Leave It Better

Troy Pearse — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 05:32:32 GMT

How are you all? I hope your summer has been filled with travel, adventure, family, and friends. And FLY FISHING!

Can’t forget that. I’ve had the opportunity to fish with several BVFF members on the Owyhee and the Middle Fork of the Boise. We’ve had some terrific outings: caught some fish (I’d tell you the size, but you wouldn’t believe me) and have gotten to know each other a little bit better.

As I’ve driven the roads into each river and parked my car, I notice trash here and there. I must admit, I don’t always stop to pick it up, though I often do. I encourage you to take a few minutes from your fishing outings to pick up what others have left behind. Here are a few ideas:

Where you park your car look around. There’s usually something to pick up,
As you are fishing, look along the shore and even in the river. I’ve found Korker soles, lures, monofilament, bait containers, and a fine pair of nail clippers. I’ll often stick these items in my chest pouch, set them on shore, and pick them up on my way back up or down the river,
Walking back to your car on a trail or along the road after a day on the river is often productive.
Ziplock bags from your lunch are great for picking up microtrash like cigarette butts or plastic water bottle caps.
The Boise Greenbelt has some "Muff Mitts" for picking up after your dog, but they also work well to pick up trash.

Be sure to take a picture and post it to #FillTheNet and #LeaveItBetter, the BVFF website, BVFF Blog, or send it to George Butts. Your example is needed to encourage others to follow. As to the swag that George sends, if you don’t want it, just let him know.

Thanks for everyone's participation. If we all pick up a little, it adds up to a lot.

Brian Martin
BVFF Leave It Better Program Lead

Using A Thermometer To Improve Your Fishing

Troy Pearse — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 04:27:57 GMT

Water temperature is the “master variable” in fishing because it drives trout metabolism, which effects how often they eat and what kind of water they hold in. By using a stream thermometer and understanding the impact of water temperature on trout, anglers can improve their fishing.

PREFERRED WATER TEMPERATURE

Trout have a window of preferred water temperature where they are the most active and using a stream thermometer can help you find fish that are more likely to eat your fly! For example:

In late Fall, water is often warmer below a Tailwater Dam than it is in a Freestone River, which means hatches will be better and fish will be more active.

In Spring, the water below that same Tailwater Dam will often be colder than a Freestone River. This means bug hatches and fishing will be better further downstream where the water has time to warm up.
In the dog-days of Summer, water can exceed the trout’s preferred water temperature and turn fishing off. During this time, fishing early in the morning or further upstream will give you better results. Remember that water temperatures often fluctuate 10 degrees during the day, so remember to re-check water temps in the afternoon.

TROUT HOLDING WATER

Water temperature impacts where trout will hold in the river and paying attention to water temperature will help you choose the most productive water to fish. In general, remember that:

The warmer the water, the faster the trout’s metabolism and they will gravitate to faster water.
The colder the water, the slower the trout’s metabolism and they prefer to hold in slower water.

In the summer when water temperatures are in the upper 50’s to low 60’s, trout can be in any water type (riffles, runs and pools). Trout eat constantly at these temperatures and they can most often be found in faster riffles and boulder pocket-water where there is more food and oxygen.

As water cools in the Fall, trout will start backing out of those fast riffles and when water temperatures drop below 45 degrees trout will gravitate to the transition water between the riffle and the run below. Once water temperatures drop below 40 degrees the trout’s metabolism slows and they move into deeper, slower runs and pools where they will hold all winter.

In early Spring, as water warms, the trout’s metabolism starts to increase. As the sun angle gets higher in the sky, water temperatures start warming considerably during the day. By the end of March water temperatures on a sunny day can rise 10 degrees, often warming from the upper 30s to the upper 40s, which gets the bugs hatching and the trout eating! During these days trout will hang-back in the slow deep water in the morning, but by the afternoon they will be actively eating up at the riffle transitions and even move up into the lower ends of riffles. A good time for a Skwala dry fly with a nymph dropper!

HATCHES

Trout metabolism is closely tied to bug activity, and as water warms, bug hatches pick-up and the trout’s appetite increases. Your stream thermometer can help you anticipate what bugs are likely to hatch. I find this particularly helpful in late Winter and early Spring. Some key water temperature ranges for Springtime insect hatches are:

Midges like to hatch when water gets into the low 40’s.
BWOs will hatch starting in the mid 40’s and continues into the low 50’s.
Skwalas like to hatch when water temperatures get into the upper 40’s.

CUTTHROAT TROUT

If you are going after the BVFF Cutthroat Challenge, it is helpful to know that Cutthroat trout prefer colder water than their Rainbow and Brown Trout cousins, which is why they are found in higher mountain streams. Idaho’s Westslope Cutthroat Trout have adapted to live in mountain streams where water temperatures have more extreme variation and they tend to migrate to find their preferred water temperature, so it pays to use your stream thermometer to find them. For example, studies have tracked Westslopes migrating over 100 miles on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River: In the winter they held in the Main Salmon River where it was warmer and in the summer they migrated up as far as Bear Valley creek to find cooler waters.

On hot summer days trout can often be found hanging out at the mouth of cooler tributaries. One Idaho Fish and Game snorkel survey on the upper Salmon River found that the majority of trout were holding very close the mouths of cooler tributaries. Something to keep in mind when you are out fishing this summer.

Owyhee River Gravel Augmentation Study

Troy Pearse — Sat, 16 Jul 2022 19:42:44 GMT

Owyhee River Gravel Augmentation Study

The Owyhee River has an amazing brown trout population. Initially when the dam was built, the river below was intended to just be a put-and-take fishery but the stocked brown trout were able to successfully spawn and their population exploded. The best habitat for brown trout extends from the dam down 15 miles to Snively Springs but the density of the brown trout population is notably higher in the first 5 miles of the river. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) has been counting brown trout redds on the Owyhee River for over 15 years and one consistent trend is that even though water temperatures and quality are excellent down through the lower reaches, there are significantly fewer redds per mile there compared to upstream.

BVFF has been volunteering with ODFW to help count redds on the Owyhee river for several years and has been talking with Oregon fish biologists Dave Banks and Kirk Handley about the possibility of doing a gravel augmentation on the river to increase the amount of spawning in the lower reaches of the river. For an area to be suitable for a gravel augmentation it needs to have the right water depth and velocity for brown trout to spawn plus logistically be close enough to the river for us to add the gravel. Working with ODFW we have identified a riffle and run below an intermittent creek called Sand Hollow that looks promising as well as a tail-out nearby below the lower concrete bridge.

In November and December of 2021 BVFF volunteers met at the Owyhee river to help ODFW to evaluate the suitability of the proposed gravel augmentation sites. We started by measuring the depth, flow and bottom composition at redd locations in a highly successful spawning run in the upper river, below the Hollywood Hole. We found that browns typically built their redds in water depths of 1 – 2 feet in riffles but would build their redds as shallow as 6 inches deep in a riffle to as deep as 3 feet as the riffle dropped into a run.

We then took cross-sections of the proposed augmentation sites to compare with the successful spawning area and we counted brown trout redds in the area. We found a total of only 20 redds in the 2 ½ mile lower spawning reach below Sand Hollow with none of the redds being in the proposed augmentation areas. For comparison in the riffle and run below the Hollywood Hole we there are 65 or more redds in a 100 yard riffle. Our depth and flow measurements have confirmed that our proposed augmentation sites are suitable locations to add gravel. Having these measurements not only validate that the sites are good but gives us supporting evidence that we can use to apply for a grant from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to help fund the gravel augmentation. We are working on the grant and permit paperwork now and if all goes well, we will be doing the gravel augmentation in November 2022. Stay tuned for more information and opportunities to volunteer to help.

This article first ran in the Hackle Bender club newsletter. Check out our old Hackle Benders!

Diane Moore Signs

Troy Pearse — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 02:19:06 GMT

BVFF has partnered with Idaho Fish and Game and the Intermountain Bird Observatory on Trout Habitat and Anti-Litter signs for the new Diane Moore Nature Center. We are excited to be able to call this a "Wild Trout Area" and encourage Catch and Release fishing and to get our first wildlife-focused anti-litter sign on the Boise River!

The signs will be installed along the newly restored side-channel in August. Watch for a BVFF event announcement soon.

Tips For Matching The Hatch

Troy Pearse — Sun, 12 Jun 2022 17:56:36 GMT

Trout make their living by eating bugs. During non-hatch times they feed opportunistically subsurface but during a hatch they get tuned-into looking for a specific “bug-target”—ignoring everything else. During these times the angler who matches the size, shape and color of the “bug-target” will get more fish to take their fly.

SIZE

Matching size is critical for success but anglers often midjudge it or don’t give it much thought. To us the difference between a size #16 and size #18 fly doesn’t look like much but realize that a size #16 is 25% larger—enough for an educated trout to notice.

DETERMINING BUG SIZE

To accurately measure the size of the hatching bug you need to obtain a sample. Wade in below the rising fish and use a small aquarium net to scoop up your prize. Compare the bug sample to your flys and choose something that matches the size, shape and color. It helps to measure the bug-size for future reference. You can use a small ruler but I recommend the Bugometer, which is a pocket sized “bug ruler” that has hook sizes printed on it. The Bugometer is a critical tool to carry to help you match the hatch and is available thru Dry Fly Innovations.

BUG SIZE VARIATION

Bug-size varies throughout the season and across locations. As a general trend, Nymphs and Terrestrials get larger through the season while adults get smaller. For example a Skwala nymph is a size #14 (3xl) in October, growing to a #12 in January and a #8 by the time it hatches in April. Similarly Grasshoppers will be a size #12 early in the summer but can grow to a size #2 by Fall. While Adult PMDs can be a size #14 when the hatch starts, shrinking to a size #16 a few weeks later and are often a size #18 by the end of the hatch. BWOs tend to be larger in the Spring and smaller in the Fall and have significant size variations through the hatch.

SHAPE

Bug shape is generally considered if the natural has an “up-wing” (mayfly), “down-wing” (caddis) or “flat-wing” (stonefly). But it is also important to take note of the phase of the hatching bug. Does it have an emerging shuck? Does it have the outspread clear wings of a spinner? Does it have the egg-ball of an egg laying adult? Matching the phase of the bug on the water can often “crack the code” of what picky rising trout are taking.

COLOR

Color is often what anglers pay the most attention to but matching the exact shade isn’t usually needed. When matching the color pay special attention to the bottom of the bug, as this is what the trout sees.

PAY ATTENTION!

Paying attention to hatches pays dividends. In late June I noticed these fresh Golden Stone shucks at the river’s edge at the M.F. of the Boise—indicating a golden stone hatch was underway. I tied on a fly to match and BOOM! Fish ON, first cast.

This article first ran in the Hackle Bender club newsletter. Check out our old Hackle Benders!

Sharing The Water

Troy Pearse — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 21:59:02 GMT

With the rapid increase in population in the Treasure Valley and the influx of people fishing due to the pandemic, showing consideration for fellow anglers and river stewardship is more important than ever.

Last year BVFF submitted a request to Idaho Fish and Game to add anti-litter and fishing etiquette information to the general fishing regulations. We included some simple graphics as examples to emphasize key points, as well as asked them to adopt some of the fishing etiquette information in one of their Steelhead Fishing pamphlets. IDF&G added an excellent graphic titled “Keep Idaho Waters Clean”, which we are very happy to see, but they declined to add anything on etiquette at this time, citing limited space and publication costs.

BVFF is continuing to look for ways to get fishing etiquette information out into the fishing community. We leveraged some excellent guidelines from Fly Fishers International into some materials for the Fly Fishing Expo last January and asked all presenters to incorporate the concepts into their presentations. We have created a new “BVFF Code Of Angling” web-page that contains all of this information.

The FFI Angling Code document is excellent but is long and very detailed. I have reduced the FFI Angling Code to three items I feel embody the essence in concept without the details. They are:

1. Take care of the fish. This includes proper fish handling, leaving spawning fish alone, and avoiding fishing when waters are too warm.

2. Respect other anglers. This is the set of good behaviors about sharing the water.

3. Leave it better. This is practicing river stewardship so the resource is available for the next generation

The days of having miles of every river to ourselves are behind us. Moving forward we need to learn how to respectfully share the water as well as look for new waters that hold new challenges. We are looking for help to get this fishing etiquette information out to a wider audience. If you are interested in helping us promote the BVFF Angling Code, please contact me at conservation@bvff.com.

Rainbows Spawning In BVFF's Side Channel!

Troy Pearse — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 22:17:08 GMT

I am pleased to report that Rainbow Trout are spawning in the side channel where BVFF did their gravel augmentation in January of 2021! The river flows are lower than normal, but a few rainbows have started using the upper gravel area.

The large woody debris in the side channel continues to improve. The lower gravel augmentation area had some wood fall into the side channel over the winter, but we worked with the Boise Flood District to leave it for fry protection.

We continue to have issues with the public putting rocks and logs across the top entry to the channel so they can cross to access the area below the diversion dam. We are working on an approach to limit the impact to inflows into the channel.

Idaho Fish and Game has added the side-channel to their yearly fry survey and we look forward to hearing what they find this Fall.

Boise Flood District #10 Honored

Jim Kazakoff — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 22:42:02 GMT

Boise Valley Fly Fishers has recently honored the cooperative work by Boise Flood District #10 with their efforts to map and avoid brown trout spawning redds, and improve the area for trout spawning, during the flood district's annual Boise River flood maintenance.

You can read about the conservation project HERE.

KTVB Channel 7 March 30, 2022

Idaho Press Tribute March 31, 2022

Capital Press April 1, 2022