Meanwhile fisherman stand on the bank and horse the wild fish longer.
All looking for a grip and grin.
Outlaw some landing nets and allow quicker landing from a boat on certain rivers.
Or
Fight the fish till exhaustion.

2/08/2024

This posting is the most current from the Wynoochee Trap Report. Tacoma City Light is the agency in charge of Fish hauling but TCL does work with WDFW to haul fish from the trap to Lake Aberdeen hatchery.

Fish, Salmon and Steelhead, are removed from the trap and taken to 3 areas and then released.

1. removed from trap and taken above the "big dam" and released.

2. removed from trap and placed in the area, above the trap but below the Dam

3. removed from trap and WDFW hauls the fish to the Lake Aberdeen hatchery.

TCL has had that duty since 1990's, the trap is open 7 months of the year, October to June 30. They do not move summer steelhead, WDFW does haul some to Lake Aberdeen for brood stock, any extra are put back in the river. The trap is "dumped Tuesdays and Thursdays, except during "high flow periods".

The following is the total salmon and steelhead from October to February 1

Salmon

Above the Lake/Big Dam Coho 1063
Jacks 93
Chinook 0

Between Dams Coho 50
jacks 3
Chinook 10


To Hatchery Coho 13


Winter run Steelhead, Above lake/Big Dam

Native 17
Hatchery 657

Between Dams Native 16
Hatchery 0

To Hatchery Native 9
Hatchery 232


I've never driven to the trap on a Tuesday or Thursday to watch the process. I really should to that just to see "size of retuning fish".

I've been a 50 year fisher on the Wynoochee so I know there really were/are some really BIG Native Coho, Native Winter run steelhead and spring Chinook.

I did this because there have been comments about "no native steelhead" to the trap but to let everyone that with a plant of 170,000 +, not very many hatchery fish have made it to the trap, this year..........with no one legally fishing.

Pain in the ass to type this in.......Not how it looked when I typed it in.......grrrrrrrr but the information is there.

Back in the 80s and 90s WDF tried to see if allowing hatchery Chinook to spawn in the Deschutes would create a "wild" run. Some unmarked fish came back, but they were so few that they could have been "drops"; fish that weren't marked in the hatchery. That low number of "wild" steelhead could also be "drops" unless their scales were read.

Thanks Dr.

Thanks for the numbers Drifter. What is a little interesting to me is that the numbers I got last year were 0 wild fish above the lake. The reason being that wild fish should/would have higher success of out migrating without navigating the hydro dam. So they were released between the fish collection facility and hydro dam. I wonder what has changed? Planting location of those fish was also described to me as "in-river" above the lake. If you want to go see all these fish take a hike up there to the falls.

Can someone explain to me why this section is closed? Is the concern over the 17 wilds? Seems like you should reasonably expect interbreeding with that ratio of hatchery / wild? Or, is it that there is no fishery expectation and TCL is just doing required mitigation? Seems like there is a opportunity for a good and "clean" fishery. The QIN would be upset were fishing? They fish the same "terminal" areas at their hatcheries.

02/08/24

Don't want to use this forum to talk numbers, but there were over 50 native winter steelhead trucked above the dam, during 2022-2023.

You have to understand the ground rules for the fish trap control was written when TCL took over control of the Wynoochee Dam in the early 1990's, and TLC has followed the rules.

The problem, that I see, is the decline of Native Winter Steelhead never got to be seen as a problem until after 2010+.

So for over 30 years, and maybe longer, Native steelhead have been trucked above the dam. Maybe some spawn and smolt make it thru the dam, and maybe return as adults......BUT FOR SURE THE PARENTS NEVER GOT THE CHANCE TO MAKE IT BACK TO THE OCEAN, TO MAYBE MAKE SPAWNING RUNS AGAIN.

Put salmon above the dam, put the hatchery steelhead above the dam, but for heaven sakes have a different plan for Native steelhead.

Oh, as a last comment on the Wynoochee Dam and the lake and stream that runs into the lake.........This should be open for fishing year around!!!!

To further support Drifter's argument, I was never able to find a run of wild steelhead (with quality ages and escapement numbers) where the R/S for virgin spawners was even equal to 1.0. Repeat spawners are required to have a self-sustaining population. So, putting wild fish into a situation where they can't repeat is a recipe for extinction.

Meanwhile at the Pike Place Market, the three main fish mongers are all selling unclipped (wild?) steelhead. I expect they come from the Quinault tribe meaning the Quinault, Queets or possibly the Hoh. Tribes are just out for a buck (no pun intended). Will it ever stop?

Short answer is not until the fish disappear.

The river above the lake is some nice looking water.
I’ll have to fish it when I’m in the area in the summer to see if there are and dry fly eating resident cutthroat around.
SF

I haven't been to Pikes Place in years and thought they had quit selling river caught wild steelhead from the tribes, because I quit seeing them for sale during peak season. Prior to that, when I did see them, I would make scene in front of their stand so the tourists could hear, stating, it's unethical to be selling endangered steelhead, and that steelhead can't handle commercial fisheries. That really pissed them off. Did alot of good, right? I guess it made me feel better. BTW, I thought it was illegal to sell gamefish, unless a tribal member?

Stone, You can find native cutthroat, some nice bull trout and summer steelhead in the upper Quinault.

Above the lake is simply a pleasure. With the log load and tight deep holes something sub-surface might be worth the effort should things not rise.

Some years ago two brothers drew late September bull tags for about right there. The last day of scouting was spent walking gravel bars, wading in board short, drinking cheap beer from 25 year old Jansport belt pouches, and catching many a nice fish. There was no effort of concealment as it is a popular tourist destination. Midday a man in camo face paint jumped from a logjam to tell us, in a not so kind of voice, he was hunting there and we needed to move along. Apologizing, we did. Opening morning of elk was more amazing than 20 inch trout on a beautiful river…

Well, here we go again. I see that 150 adult steelhead from the Skookumchuck hatchery were dumped into Fort Borst Pond in the Centralia-Chehalis area. Another WDFW waste of time and a dog and pony show. Won't be long until some of the Grays Harbor lakes get their adult steelhead plants from the Nooch. Another pretty much waste of time.

There is no reason for us to expect to fish Grays Harbor tribs for winter steelhead again. That being the case, we should quit producing hatchery winter steelhead in that region immediately. It's a colossal waste of public money if nobody is going to be allowed to fish for them. If we need to keep the hatcheries going, as others have suggested, we should shift production to summer fish or even more salmon. I doubt the QIN would complain; they wouldn't need to pick those pesky hatchery winter runs out of their late coho nets anymore....

Vast majority of hatchery winter Steelhead are legal obligation mitigation for the nooch and skook dams

RG, Satsop winter steelies and Humptulips winter steelies are not mitigation fish and WDFW continues to plant them.

didn't count the hump just chehalis

Satsop had the biggest plant of winter steelhead to return this year in many years. Closed. Hump is closed again. Waste of time , money and effort.

Every fish in a gillnet is a dead fish.