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Ashley Hayes Reporting There is a fish run going on at Strawberry Reservoir right now. Thousands of Kokanee Salmon are leaving the reservoir and swimming up stream.
There's a lot to see. We were up there while biologists collected the salmons' eggs.
The fish are a dark red color. Even their eggs are a brilliant orange.
We're going to let you take a look, but not being a fisherman, I want to say it might make you a little squeamish.
At Strawberry Reservoir colors are changing, both above and below the surface.
Alan Ward/ Biologist Project Coordinator: "It's a big attraction. We get a lot of visitors every year that come up to see those fish."
The fish are Kokanee Salmon. And this time of year it's hard to miss them. They've turned a dark shade of red and are swimming up stream to lay their eggs.
Alan Ward: "We do let some of the fish go up and spawn naturally."
Most salmon won't make it that far. Biologists with Wildlife Resources trap Kokanee, and kill the females to harvest their eggs.
In the wild, the fish die naturally after they breed.
Once the female salmon are bled out, the fishery biologists spawn the female's eggs. They say out of the more than two million eggs they expect to collect this fall, 80 to 85 percent of them will survive in the hatcheries, as compared to three percent in the wild.
Biologists fertilize the eggs before moving them to hatcheries. School children on field trips get to watch the process. The fish provide economic as well as educational opportunies.
Increasing the Kokanee population has attracted more fisherman to the area.
Alan Ward: "We end up with more fish and are able to move fish back in the reservoir. There will be more for people to catch."
But if what you're looking to catch is a glimpse of the colorful fish, you'd better hurry. Like the fall leaves, they won't be here much longer. Biologists say people have about two more weeks left to see the fish.
If you check with the visitors center, you can watch the biologists process the fish. They are out there two days every week.
