At the end of November, Boulder Fish and Game Club got the opportunity to help out with fish salvage in a seasonal irrigation ditch. The ditch diverts from Boulder Creek at Boulder Central Park. Every early November, the ditch is closed off leaving fish that may have made their way into the ditch cutoff from being able to get back into the creek. As the water evaporates or dissipates into the ground, the fish get stranded into smaller pools which makes survival difficult during the winter months.
Pool that had formed at the head gate. Believe it or not, we rescued about 200 fish from this pool.
The Club along with Boulder Flycasters, local business RepYourWater, and Boulder City Employees were able to rescue around 200 fish in the small pool that had formed right at the gate in Boulder Central Park. Using nets and buckets, the fish were quickly rounded up and released back into Boulder Creek.
We’d like to thank Boulder city for the opportunity to help give these fish a fighting chance and Boulder Flycasters and RepYourWater for helping out as well.
Fish being caught and put into buckets where they were run over to Boulder Creek (about 100ft to the right of this photo).
Some of the fish being relocated. We saw most of the species typically found in Boulder Creek; Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, Sucker Fish, and possibly a few Dace. Sizes ranged from 2-3in. all the way up to over a foot.