Out of the canal and into the Shoshone River they go as Trout Unlimited bails out boatloads of trout from Garland Canal and other irrigation waterways.

“Right now we’re at 3,497 trout,” Bob Capron of Trout Unlimited said Monday morning. “That’s average or a little more.”

By mid October, water diversion to irrigation canals is discontinued. Then, leftover water accumulates in pools where fish that wandered from rivers into the canals earlier in the year are trapped. Without retrieval, the fish would die as the pools evaporate or freeze.

Screens to divert fish from the canals cost upward of $1 million, and irrigation districts can’t afford to install them, said Trout Unlimited member Dave Sweet.

TU and friends planned to work the canals for eight days, averaging 7-8 miles per day, Capron said. Lake View Canal on the South Fork of the Shoshone River was scheduled Monday.

Capron, conservation chairman for Trout Unlimited’s East Yellowstone chapter, has been leading the canal rescue for more than 20 years. He reckoned this year’s final trout tally would be 3,700-3,800.

Garland run

“Brown (trout), brown, brown. Two browns, two suckers,” Capron said Friday as he counted off the species.

Trout Unlimited and volunteers were working the Garland Canal east of Ralston, concentrating on the drop structures where the trapped trout prefer to hole up.

“I see one rainbow, one brown ...,” Capron says as his catch flaps vigorously in the net. Captured trout are deposited in an oxygenated tank on loan from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Very soon, Capron will return his catch to the Shoshone River, from whence they came.

“Beep, beep, beeeep,” chirps the battery-powered backpack, like an agitated alarm clock. A couple guys bear the packs with long wands attached. The wands discharge a 1 amp electrical shock to stun the fish. Once the only slightly stunned trout rise toward the surface, volunteers with nets and 5 gallon buckets catch the fish for quick conveyance to the tank on the canal access road above.

In some stretches, the water is little more than ankle-deep. Elsewhere, the water laps against the top of the volunteers’ chest waders. The deepest areas are below the drops, in gloomy opaque water. The canal bottom, often slick as ice, increases the difficulty.

“Here they are,” calls a man packing a wand, as the guys drive the fish into shallows just downstream of a drop.

The crew approaches the base of a drop where the fishing — so to speak — is best. It’s tricky where the bottom is unfathomable in the dark water. Lots of stunned suckers and whitefish float on the surface like shiny driftwood, but the guys are after trout.

“There he is, a big old brown,” said Jason Burckhardt, Game and Fish Department fisheries biologist.

Despite the hard work and deep water, the guys are having a blast landing trout left and right.

“It doesn’t get any better than this,” said Dave Crowther, east Yellowstone chapter president.

Altruistic anglers

Merit Energy Company provided two or three volunteers each day, Capron said.

TU receives plenty of help from entities such as Game and Fish, irrigation districts, energy industry and from locals who pitch in, Capron said. “We really appreciate all the support from the community.”

Trout Unlimited members from other locations came to help, Capron said. “They think it’s a great project.”

Brett Prettyman, TU intermountain communications director, recorded a segment of the rescue for Trout Unlimited’s Facebook page. Fifteen minutes later, Prettyman said he’d had 1,000 views.

The video is online at www.facebook.com/TroutUnlimited.

This was Prettyman’s first canal rescue outing.

“It’s a good feeling. It feels like you’re doing something right,” he said.