Salmon Return Numbers in the lower Yuba: September – December 2024
Through SYRCL’s participation in the River Management Team (RMT), our staff receives monthly updates on the number of Chinook and steelhead adults utilizing the fish ladders at Daguerre Point Dam. This information is collected using VAKI River Watcher camera systems installed in the North and South ladders, which snap a photo every time a fish swims past it.
It is important to recognize that passage numbers at the fish ladders are just one piece of the puzzle that helps us understand the population of adult salmon returning to spawn in the lower Yuba River. Data from redd and carcass surveys are also collected and plugged into models that will produce a more accurate population estimate of adults that make it to all stretches of the lower Yuba River. Further complicating the VAKI reporting data this season is that the system on the south ladder has been functional for less than one third of the time since the beginning of the reporting period in March. On average, about 3% of the fish that make it past Daguerre Point Dam use the south ladder.
Taking A Look At The Numbers
These numbers appear encouraging. Total salmon counts are up by 487 from last year with two more months of the monitoring season to go. Much of this increase can be attributed to a boost in spring-run this year, which migrate upstream between March and September.
More Encouraging News
We have a conservative estimate of there being 283 unique redds between September and December at Upper Rose Bar, a restoration project funded by Wildlife Conservation Board that we wrapped up on September 30, 2025 . The month of October is unfortunately absent from the data set (due to technical difficulties), so this is a considerable underestimate.
Since we can assume two adults parented each redd, at least 566 individual Chinook salmon are believed to have utilized the restoration site for their final act in completing their lifecycle. Not only is this a significant increase in the number of redds, but this also means that at least 11% of the spawning population upstream of Daguerre Point Dam is using the restored habitat at Rose Bar. This project enhanced two riffles, spawning bench, and side channel in the lower Yuba River with appropriately sized spawning gravel. This area is in one of the last locations where salmon spawning can occur before Englebright Dam and the end of the anadromous reach of river. This project took a lot of coordinated effort, and we’re thrilled with the results!
Other Passage Highlights
- 19 Pacific lamprey suctioned their way up the North fish ladder since March
- 3 stray chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) swam up the fish ladders in September (hope they found each other!)
- 4 river otters raced down stream
- At least 1 very territorial beaver made its den in the ladders
What Is The RMT?
The RMT is a group of agency and non-profit representatives that work together to better understand and promote research on the Lower Yuba River. Members of the RMT include SYRCL, Yuba Water Agency, US Fish and Wildlife Service, State Water Resources Control Board, Dept of Water Resources, Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, CA Dept Fish and Wildlife, National Marine Fisheries Service, HDR (a private engineering firm), and the US Army Corps of Engineers. The RMT helps fund restoration, monitoring, and make science-informed decisions for the Lower Yuba River.
The RMT funds Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission to provide the fish count updates, among many other monitoring tasks on the Lower Yuba River. They do so through the use of VAKI River Watcher camera systems. These cameras are located in the fish ladders at Daguerre Point Dam and take a picture of each fish (or otter) that swims past them. Specialized software then identifies what species the fish is, and biologists later confirm it. This process gives us a count, reported monthly during the RMT meeting, of the number and species of fish traveling up the Yuba.
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I would like to stay informed on the Yuba. I fished it my whole life and stopped fishing it a number of years ago because of the laws. I enjoyed taking my children there and teaching them to fish the way my father taught me how to fish on the Yuba…. My opinion; too many stripers and too many Pike, flathead , squawfish ect.in the Yuba to maintain a healthy salmon /steelhead population. I’m sure the people you have during these surveys on how many fish are in the river, fish. If they don’t they don’t know what’s really happening. Put on a size 10 hook with a worm or grasshopper and nd catch trout. Then whatever fish you catch, put a size 1/0 hook and use whatever small fish you caught, weather it is salmon trout steelhead and use for bait and you’ll see what’s happening to the salmon and steelhead. Who’s bright idea was it to put stripers in the Yuba, Feather (Rio de Las Plumas, the river of feathers) and the Sacramento watershed. Anyway, I appreciate all of the things you are trying to accomplish.