A TOWN FOR FISH :LAKE COWICHAN
By
Ted Burns
Cowichan Lake Salmonid Enhancement Society
It’s a sunny early May day. I’m standing on the car bridge watching a pair of rainbow trout holding above a gravel bed where they recently spawned. A few months before, coho and chinook salmon spawned on this same gravel bed. I’m also seeing a steady stream of silver bright coho smolts moving downstream toward the estuary and coho fry are heavy in a weedy backwater below the bridge. Every so often a large brown trout shoots out from under a log to chase the fry or smolts. It occurs to me that there is probably no other place on earth where one can witness such a spectacle of trout and salmon abundance in the center of a town.
I’ve lived most of my life in trout and salmon country from Northern California to Northern BC and seen much more than my share of their abundance – the still impressive summer chinook migration into the Columbia River, the huge pink salmon runs of the Lower Fraser between Chilliwack and Hope, the great interior sockeye runs to rivers like the Adams and Horsefly and the massive returns of kokanee to Kootenay Lake tributaries like Meadow Creek and the Lardeau River. However, in all my travels I’ve never seen a town that has so much productive fish habitat within or close to its boundaries as Lake Cowichan.
This town is truly unique in terms of trout and salmon habitat. We not only have the Cowichan River and lake within our borders and nearby environs, we also have twelve smaller streams, ten Cowichan River side channels, three small lakes and several productive wetlands.
The Upper Cowichan River with its abundance of superb chinook, steelhead, coho and rainbow spawning at Hatter’s Run and Little Beach, would be enough on its own to set the community apart from others that claim fame as special places for trout and salmon. Major chinook spawning occurs right in the front yards of several Greendale Road residences. But that’s just the beginning of Lake Cowichan’s trout and salmon bounty.
Greendale Brook (Tiny Creek) is a little spring fed stream less than a metre wide and five hundred metres long. It’s located in the backyards of the same Greendale Road residences adjacent to the prime chinook spawning area. A few weeks after the chinook are finished; coho spawners jam this amazing little brook. As many as 150 return in good years along with a few cutthroat and brown trout. This year, even a few chums were present. Stanley Creek is another backyard stream a few hundred metres up the road. It supports small runs of coho and has resident populations of rainbow, cutthroat and brown trout along with a few Dolly Varden. In some years, it gets a slug of chum salmon in its lower end.
Moving west into the downtown area we encounter a pair of springs near the home center that do not support fish on their own but the Cowichan Lake Salmonid Enhancement Society (CLSES) makes use of their clean, cold water to incubate coho eggs and rear some fry. The next stream is Beadnell Creek, formerly a very strong producer but it has been compromised by a concrete flume west of MacDonald Road that is difficult for trout and salmon to pass. It still supports runs of coho, cutthroats and brown trout and CLSES is working to make it easier for fish to navigate. Just a stone’s throw to the west of Beadnell is Oliver (Hatchery) Creek and Friendship Park. Oliver Creek is a beautiful little stream that has supported truly impressive runs of coho. As many as 1000 have ascended in good years. Of late, it hasn’t done so well but CLSES is working on the few factors that can be improved and it is hoped that it will soon regain its glory. It also supports strong runs of brown trout and both rainbows and cutthroats use it as migrant spawners from the river and lake and as residents. There is one more little brook on the north side of town. Tern Creek enters the river across from Gillespie Park (the little green beside the Co – Op). Unfortunately, much of its area is buried in culverts but a few coho and trout mange to hang on.
The south side of town is not quite as blessed but it does have one of the better coho – cutthroat streams in the Cowichan watershed: Beaver Creek. This creek was on its last legs before CLSES started working on it in 1983. It is now producing at very high levels with greatly improved summer flow and an improved channel and bed. As many as 600 coho have returned to Beaver after restoration.
Money’s Creek is the other stream on the south side and it was a good one. It starts in Kwassin and Grant Lakes and enters the Cowichan through the wetland on the north side of Cowichan Avenue by the new tennis courts. Not much is left after it was diverted to the Cowichan River via a blasted ditch in 1971 but some of the wetland is still present and is utilized by young coho and trout when water is present.
More excellent fish habitat is located just to the east along Hudgrove Road where a number of rich Cowichan River sidechannels are present along with Fairservice Creek and its myriad of tributary wetlands. This area will likely be included in the town in the future.
This is probably a good thing because the people of Lake Cowichan are beginning to realize that they have something very special when it comes to trout and salmon.
For those that want to learn more about Lake Cowichan fish habitat, visit my web site at www.tedburns.net..
Now is the time to see the spawning glory of salmon in the Cowichan River. Try Little Beach for spring salmon or check above the weir on the south side where half a dozen are spawning. Coho will arrive in the upper river later this month and, if we ever get some rain, will enter the lake tributaries in late November or early December. Beaver Creek is one of the best places to see spawning coho. Take the Leo Nelson Trail which starts behind the South Shore Motel.
Little Beach, an important Cowichan River spawning area