It doesn't matter who made the decision to eliminate the early timed steelhead in the Cowlitz and plant late timed fish. NOAA, ESA or WDFW. It is what it is. Used to be incredible fishing for early timed fish. I was just making a point to SpoonFed.

C-man, You need no apology. Even before I retired in 1999 some of us fishing nuts offered to take new bios fishing. Some had NEVER even caught a salmon, and they were assigned to salmon management. Through the confusing maze of hatchery management, one was heard , by me, to say that the salmon were so much easier to manage at the hatchery when they all arrived at once!

Fixing blame is important. While WDFW is responsible for a lot of things they shouldn't get blamed for stuff they have no control over.

One point being that the early timed (Chambers) fish fish provided very popular, very intensive, and likely very cost effective fisheries such that WDFW should explore how and where to recreate them. Like a system with damn few wild steelhead and little likelihood of ever getting more. The Lyre comes to mind, but I am sure there are other situations where there is little hope for meaningful recovery of the wild stock but plenty of room to host anglers chasing brats.

Regarding the Cowlitz and changes to the steelhead program, the decision to discontinue using early timed Chambers winter steelhead stock was not the product of NMFS alone. When Tacoma received a new FERC license for the Cowlitz hydro project, a fisheries advisory committee (FAC) was created (along with some other committees). Because of the ESA listing, the FAC thought that using only late timed winter steelhead (that exhibit a genetic profile more like native wild steelhead) would be better suited and prevent introgression of the Chambers fish with the late timed stock being reintroduced to the upper watershed upstream of the dams. IMO, what the FAC failed to consider is that the Cowlitz barrier dam provides the perfect means of separating fish and preventing Chambers stock from spawning with restored wild stock in the upper watershed.

But that's in the past. Currently, the fish managers have the option of selecting broodstock from all parts of the adult return, including the earliest returns. If they want to, they can recreate early timed winter fish from the existing stock, just as the old WDG did at Chambers Creek in the 1940s and 50s. As for the number of hatchery steelhead reared, last time I checked, they were rearing and releasing 600k or more of both winter and summer smolts, about the same as 20 years ago. The reason for the poor adult returns to the Cowlitz, just like every other river in the state, is because ocean survival has dropped to a small fraction of what it was not so many years ago. Providing large returns of adult fish is simply not possible until ocean survival rates increase significantly.

Lol. You guys are crazy. The point i was trying to make is that our steelhead fisheries have been mismanaged into the ground so far, we will all end up at blue crik crossing swords. Ive fished the cow for about 30yrs so, im not a stranger to the discontinued a run. Hope this helps.

To show the salmon-centric view of WDFW on the Cowlitz, when the agreement with FERC and Tacoma was reached one clause had it that up and downstream passage needed to installed above the Cowlitz Falls dam IF Either spring chinook OR winter steelhead showed a sustainable run. The initial fish collection structure worked well for steelhead; they were close to being sustainable back then. But it didn't catch diddle-e-squat chinook. So the abandoned the successful trap (steelhead), went for salmon, and succeeded with neither.

"When Tacoma received a new FERC license for the Cowlitz hydro project"

This is a large part of the problem that let Tacoma Power off the hook.



Granted the ocean survival is a separate issue.

The average rec steelhead angler could care less who is to blame for the change in timing of the winter steelhead run on the Cowlitz. They only know that steelhead opportunity on that river (and many other rivers) is much less that what it used to be.
Salmo, If memory serves me right (which is sometimes questionable) I thought many years ago the steelhead plant on the Cowlitz was about 1 million winter steelhead smolts and 750,000 summer steelhead smolts per year. I know it is less now.

Back when the Cowlitz relicensing was taking place, I was on the fish committee as the representative for the Washington Council of Trout unlimited, not T.U. National which was represented by Ms. Kaitlin Lovell. She proposed, in fact insisted that the Cowlitz summer steelhead hatchery program be discontinued. I disagreed LOUDLY. She claimed that there were no summer runs there in past history. I went to my old high school baseball coach who grew up in Mossyrock, and he assured me that there always were sumer runs in the Cowlitz. Lovell also wanted to stop the cutthroat hatchery program. I threw a fit. T.U. National kicked me off as their rep. I told T.U. to shove it shortly thereafter. I know there are oceanic mysteries about salmon and steelhead survival, but we shouldn't let Tacoma Power or any other dam owner off the hook - pun intended. At the time I left that committee there was large woody debris being promised, as well as additional gravel to be added to the river as mitigation. Dunno what happened to that.

Tacoma Power's big money in the 60's sold the dam project, relocated people from the Riffe Valley and promised fish mitigation to help sell the project.

They did great for about 30 years.
Now between ESA and the revised FERC agreement they have wiggled off the hook.

The locals never wanted their Dam project but big government always takes what they want and fail to deliver down the road.


Many profited while selling our home river's fish down the road.
Some of those are posting here.

very true. And still blame somebody else or something for their failures. Gotta pass that buck along.

I broke out my old Statewide Steelhead Harvest reports from as far back as 1983-84. Most include smolt plant info. I did find only one year, 1992, where the Cowlitz planted 1,224,400 winter steelhead smolt. Summer, 463,900. The other years, up to 2010, averaged around 700,000 winter and 500,000 summers. I realize many places have quit planting steelhead smolt, hence the overall reduced production, but many rivers are planting about the same as they always have. SG is correct. Survival to return seems to be the major problem. A good start to assist survival, would be to manage predators better. That is a fact! Predators have increased exponentially the last 35 yrs, impacting both smolt and adult returns.

Wait, what? So it's not all Inslee's fault that there's no steelhead left to manage? Can we still blame the immigrants?
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Not to move off topic here, but this leaves some Feeling a bit dazed and confused.

That answer is close to the real problem. There are way too many people who wish to (and need to) consume too many resources. I'll bet that 300-400 years ago we had lots of anadromous fish here. Then folks moved in. And keep moving in.

And keep pumping out kids.

I'm gonna continue to practice catch and release to minimize my pumping out.

One side of my family came over on the Mayflower. So I get a "Pioneer Permit"? (I'll quit the B.S. now)

Rivers were blown when I drove over Thursday evening.

mud and stumps observed at Satsop on the way home from Mocrocks.