Fish Rescue at Bullshead!

Hi Everybody!

Every once in a while you meet a very dedicated passionate person who wants to do what is right! I knew Jeff loved Bullshead. He is affectionately known as "Beadhead" on a forum I occasionally check out. Just before heading to Bullshead, I wandered by the Fly Fish Calgary Forum and found out that Jeff was organizing a fish rescue at Bullshead right while we were there.

During the spring melt many rainbows in the reservoir took a crazy trip over the spillway and into the creek below the reservoir. Jeff realized that there were lots of rainbows just below the spillway and he hoped to capture many of them and get them back to their rightful place in the reservoir above.

Jeff was able to get the farmer of the surrounding land to lone a quad for the first day. Jeff was able to get special permission to conduct the rescue. There was a great crew on the day of the rescue. Unfortunately netting the fish did not work out so out came the fly rods to capture the rainbows. At the end of the day, 99 rainbows made it back to the lake; many of them were very impressive in size.

Jeff and his buddy John, meet Larry, his brother and I on day two. We had no quad so the work was going to be tougher. We did get close to 35 rainbows back to the lake before we ran out of energy. You can tell that catching the fish was the easy part. Humping the fish back up the hill to the lake was serious work.

Unfortunately we had to head home at short notice because of a family matter. 140 plus rainbows made it back to the lake and I suspect that Jeff will be at it a few more times.

I am sure that many of you have heard the "star fish" story. Putting a single star fish back into the ocean made a difference to that star fish! The last few days 140 plus rainbows made it back to a quality fishery. Those rainbows will grow large. Some will be harvested once they get to the 50 cm mark, many will enjoy being in the reservoir!

Way to go "Beadhead", I appreciate your passion. You made a big difference.

Jeff and his buddy John heading up the hill with a cooler full of rainbows.

Jeff and John releasing 5 more rainbows back into the lake!