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Alright so the webmaster can't add: 1,800 + 3,000 = 4,800 not 5,800. Other story edits in brackets. [  ]

Caples Lake, Day Three: 3,000 more fish added to total making total rescue effort 5,800 [Correction, 4,800] though Thursday morning

By Jerry Neuburger
August 28, 2008 -- Caples Lake CA --  On Wednesday morning, after the fish captured the night before were moved from their pens to the trucks and then transported to either Red or Silver Lake, Stafford Lehr, Incident Commander at the Caples Lake operation was able to contact four additional electrofishing boats and their crews and requested they be released to assist in the Wednesday night operations. The boats arrived throughout the day, the last one just at dark. The additional E-boats brought the fleet to seven. 

The crew working the tally sheets had some additional good news to report, that the original count of 1,100 fish was wrong, that the actual total for the previous night operation was closer to 1,700. Sadly though, the two biggest fish, one brown trout over 14 pounds and a Mackinaw over 18 pounds, both trapped in the gill nets had died. The fish were actually too large to lodge in the nets and had snagged their teeth in the mesh. The heads of both fish were saved to do lab tests determining their age.

The gill net operation continued throughout the day but by 6PM it was determined that the mortality rate was unacceptable, even with the nets being checked every half hour. With the electrofishing only being effective at during the hours of darkness and the gill netting not working, the volunteers arriving at 2PM were asked to return at 6PM to assist in the E-Boat fishing. 

A new volunteer crew arrived at six and Chris Shutes of CSPA and Joe Ferreira, DFG checked them in. They were caravanned to the worksite and were given the now standard lecture on safety, chain of command, and job description.

With the fleet of seven boats ready, each accepting two volunteers as netters and close to twenty volunteers, some volunteers had to wait until 10PM to get their chance to work the boats. The crews and boats worked throughout the night with some crews too exhausted to complete the full 12 hour shift. Some of the DFG employees had been working since Monday with as little as four hours sleep in the last 48 hours and some of the volunteers had been up since six the previous morning. In addition mechanical problems plagued one of the boats making it's contribution to the night's efforts minimal.

In the morning, two boats were sent out the bring in the first tow net. The wind was fairly strong over the lake and in bringing in the net, one of the boats props got pushed into a section and got tangled. Not wanting to cut the net and allow the fish to escape, a third boat was sent out to assist. That boat stalled out and two more boats had to be sent out one to assist with the net and the other to tow the stalled boat back.

The fleet of three boats and one net reached the shore after battling the wind and the net brigade began. Two huge Mackinaw could be seen swimming in the nets and they were loaded singularly into nets and passed along the 16 member line into the tank trucks, both were in the 15-20 pound range. The rainbows and browns were next, scoop after scoop. Two other big Mackinaw were missing and sadly it was discovered that they had worked themselves down into the net and were strong enough to fold the net over. Once they fouled themselves they drowned. The largest was over 20 pounds the smaller about eight. Again, their heads were saved to do some age dating.

That net emptied, a second holding pen was brought to shore, this time without problem. The emptying of that pen went much more smoothly but while there were some large browns, no big Macs were in the pen.

The tank truck holding the fish was sent off to Silver Lake and another rolled into place. The third and final holding pen was brought to shore, this net full of brook trout. Because the capture operation took place at night, some extra  care was taken to sort the fish since some rainbows and brown trout were spotted in the pen and needed to be sorted out so that only brook trout would be planted in Red lake. [In the final sorting at Red Lake only one brown trout and no rainbows were found to be mixed in the tank, not bad for a night operation with no moon and some pretty strong winds.]

The final net passing began. Once that net was emptied, eight volunteers followed the DFG crew up to Red Lake to help unload. With the gill net operation shut down due to mortality rates, the daytime operations became focused on maintenance and repair, something the volunteers could not assist with.

The boats were showing the wear from use since the whole electrofishing operation is done practically at idle speed with the gear lever constantly being engaged and disengaged. Part of the day's schedule was to bring the boats back to functional condition by the time the next night's operations started. Batteries were yanked and put on chargers, problems fixed and the boats fueled.

Joe Johnson, DFG deputy commander for the operation was confident that he and his crew could get all seven boats back on the water for the final night. A new crew of  21 volunteers were due at 2PM and another 3 at 6PM. Those arriving early would be asked to start at 6PM rather than two if they could and if possible stay over till the coming night's operations were over.

Total fish rescued for the night, 3,000. Total fish rescued to date, 4,800.

Caples Lake, Day Three Pictures