Published April 18 2013
The city is seeking volunteers to watch for peamouth minnows, native fish that travel from Lake Washington to Kelsey Creek each spring to spawn. A peamouth patrol training workshop will be Tuesday, April 23, 6:30-7:30 p.m. at City Hall, Room 1E-112.
Attendees need to register at streamteam@bellevuewa.gov or call 425-452-5200. Volunteers are asked to attend the training, check streams at least twice a week for 15 minutes through mid-June, fill out a data sheet of their observations and call if they see fish.
Each spring thousands of peamouth suddenly show up in Kelsey Creek to spawn. For 12 to 48 hours, masses of peamouth deposit millions of sticky little eggs near rocks in the stream. Blue heron, bald eagles, river otters and raccoons eat the adult peamouth, creating wildlife viewing opportunities at the stream. Then, as quickly as they came, the peamouth return to Lake Washington.
In about a week, the peamouth eggs hatch in the creek, and the juvenile peamouth become an excellent food source for salmon and trout.
One of the best places to see peamouth is in Kelsey Creek near the Wilburton Trestle (near Southeast Eighth Street and 121st Avenue Southeast. The city recently added a fence, stairs and platform to this site to make it easier and safer for visitors to view fish.
See Peamouth Minnows to find other places to see peamouth or sign up for peamouth alerts.