More on Salmon
Brandon and I went diving in the lake yesterday, near the Methodist Church. We were trying to find a site where, allegedly, the guy I bought my house from had found some WWII china. We spent about 35 minutes peering through a pretty concentrated algal bloom, dense enough that it was hard to see the bottom and keep up with one another. When we could see anything at all, we spotted a lot of micrometer-sized fry, and one or two parr that were rather interested in our fingertips, but for the most part we didn’t see much, certainly not the china we were seeking. We’d turned around and were making our way back along the shoreline, ready to call the dive a bit of a bust, when Brandon spotted a large fish-shaped object hovering a few feet away in the gloom. The shape came closer and became recognizable as a male Sockeye sporting his classic red and green breeding colors, festooned with a huge kype. Soon we spotted a few more Sockeye, mostly males but also the occasional female languidly passing us by. In all we saw probably a dozen fish, all cruising back and forth over an area dotted with several redds, some of which were close to five feet across. They didn’t seem particularly bothered by us and some swam as close as only two or so feet from me, totally nonplussed by my presence. All in all it was a most interesting end to what would have otherwise been a rather boring dive.
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