Well Rusty it took me a little longer to come to my senses but once I did I couldn't believe how naive I had been.
Who does it benefit the most? The guides that's who! Those carpetbaggers from the valley who moved to Tillamook county after this program started and I'm sure you know to whom I am referring.
You and I don't particularly like each other Rusty but we are in agreement that this program is a POS and you apparently knew that way before I did.
Some may ask what this all has to do with the North Umpqua..simply this. ODFW is in love with this program and it has been discussed as an option for other coastal river managed for wild steelhead. The Nehalem and Kilchis are two of them and the NU also.
Another thing worth mentioning about the Wilson program. ODFW promised that they would not dump the smolt any higher than Mills or Kansas creek but they lied of course and they were released all the way up to the South Fork, some 28 miles upstream.
One Tillamook guide went so far as to say he was happy that the returning broodstock fish would be spawning with the wild fish. He said it would make for more steelhead in the river. This same guides father used to tether wild fish he landed and then carry them up the hill to a holding tank to transport to the bigger holding tank at Duyck's
I don't think he does it anymore.