Happy Thanksgiving.

When I 1st started fishing Steelhead on the Sky, Pilchuck etc long ago, Thanksgiving was always the unofficial start of winter steelhead.

We didn't have the internet, Flow Graphs (We'd call a NOAA phone # dayly to get Gauge Heights), on-line reports etc. I'd make my 1st trip to Reiter, say hi to some people I hadn't seen in a year and see what was happening.

Thanksgiving was also the day we got a look at some great information about Plants, Catch Data etc from the Everett Herald & Great Wayne Kruse. He would Rank the Top 10 Rivers in the state as far as the previous seasons catch reports. If I remember right, it was a Multi-Page section. In the 70's he would also publish a List of the biggest fish monthly. My brother got a 20+lbr one year and weighed it at Jacks in Snohomish. He caught it on the Upper Sky but had Jack report it came out of Ebey Slough.

Today I looked at the online version of the Herald. It's sad to see like so many others that it is a shell of what it was.

K&P,
Happy Thanksgiving bacatcha !

I agree, sadly- about the fall of our rivers. Same story here, just change the names of water to The Cedar, The Green, The Puyallup, the Snoqualamie, and Nisqually. Sad really, to watch the state manage Steelhead fishing out of existence in just 20 -30 years + /-. Save the wilds, kill the sport fishing, change run times, add regulations and restrictions , and close down all opportunity with one exception as directed by political and the new aged progressive ideology.

Anyways itz thanksgiving, so it’s time to figure out another way to skin the fish. So I’m looking forward to a great summer fishing season, with Pinks way high on our hit list. Can’t wait. Unless they close the sound to the 2025. Pink Fishing, then it’s back to the lakes and streams still open.

Always a cup half full, or a fisher dreaming of open waters.

Feeesh On !

The Chehalis (or Centralia) newspaper has been posting historic pictures on FB. Right now, many of them are of successful deer hunters. As a kid in Sacramento I remember the Bee having a weekly table of trout fishing in the Sierra; catches and so on. Always had stuff on the hunting and fishing seasons. I remember upon here, which started in '72, that OD was big deal whether trout or deer/elk or birds. Lots of articles and pictures. Now, nothing.

The past sure seems like a long time ago now. Your post reminded me of the good times we had, but sadly, those days are long gone. If Steelhead fishing ever returns to what it was, it will never be the same with the increased population we have here in Washington State.

I learned how to fish for Steelhead on the Nisqually in the early 80s. Back then, a typical trip from mid-February to early April would result in hooking three or four fish and almost always bringing at least one wild fish home. The limit was two wild fish, and more often than not, the river was all mine to enjoy below the tank crossing. There were very few other sportsmen around, until WDFW decided to publicize the river through newspapers and fishing magazines, bringing much more traffic and pressure to the fishery.

How good was the fishing? Pretty damn good most of the time. In early January and February, the river would be packed with Chum. We’d complain about hooking so many Chum while we were trying to target Steelhead. It wasn’t unusual to hook Chum one after another, and the river would stink of rotten carcasses. Dead fish would line the banks and it was impossible not to step on them as you fished. Your Thanksgiving post took me back to a float we did during the Thanksgiving holiday many years ago. We floated from the tank crossing bridge to the handicap access bar, and there was several tribal members fishing that day, getting a good number of early Steelhead. We even managed to hook and land one ourselves—again, this was in November!

Another trip that comes to mind was when I was fishing a big gravel bar above Clear Creek. I made three casts for one chrome bright Steelhead, one with a red strip and one which was spawned out. That type of fishing, those experiences, are something I highly doubt I will ever see or witness again in Washington State.

Now, I no longer own any drift boats or sleds, and I haven’t even bought a fishing license for five or six years.

It’s good to reminisce about the good old days, but it's also a reminder of how drastically it has changed and in such a very short period of time.

The problem with being around for a while is the changes you see. To me, on the positive side, we have a fair number of watersheds, like Nisqually, the north coast rivers, the Elwha and maybe some others that are in relatively good shape and most seem well protected.

As such, we can't blame extreme habitat loss or hydro for the declines. We have a pretty good idea of the fish populations they need. I think we pretty much know but aren't willing to act.

I will add, too, that the Nisqually for quite a few years had a reasonably large commercial in-river fishery for chum and still had one of the best wild steelhead runs in PS.

The Nisqually tribe just announced they’ll be fishing for chums starting today through Tuesday. They mentioned it is the first time in nine years they’ve targeted chums starting. We used to some super bright chums out of there while fishing for steelhead. Not the colored up fish like you see in most fall chum fishing.
Lots of chums everywhere this year. It will be interesting to see if they open it for sport angling. I’d doubt it.
SF

The Nisqually has Winter Chum, the latest run in the Sound. They really don't even show up in-Sound until early December. They are also, at least anecdotally, larger than the run of the mill Summer or Fall fish. One of my former bosses, while sampling fish at a buyer's, saw two Nisqually fish that were 56 pounds for the pair.

Probably larger due to more ocean time. Glad that they are back to reasonable abundance levels. Back in my day they were a very valuable commercial and sport species.

The last few years the Nisqually was open for chums, it seemed like the run timing sort of shifted earlier. We'd start seeing good numbers of fish in November but then everything would peter out in December, usually following up with a closure. I'd heard that explained away as the seiners up north pounding on the run, which I don't have a lot of proof of (sort of like "well, they're just late this year").

Used to look forward to Christmas break every year when I was growing up to fish down there, not a ton of people and lots of fish. It was a much different place in the '90s for sure.

It was what seemed like a long time ago but by WA state law the NI fleets is shut down November 30. In rare exceptions they have gone into December. IF it was a northern commercial fishery that got them it would shift the run later.

Ahh the Nisqually memories. I never started fishing it until April after the Puyallup closed. Not much of a boater back then, I liked best to bank drift fish above the powerhouse on the Fort Lewis side. No bobbers back then. Had to register with the Fort for access, and had to call into the range center to enter the East Gate entrance (No gate back then). If they were lobbing bombs you didn't get access. When CCL was generating the river would drop significantly between above McKenna at the diversion, and the powerhouse. In Fort Lewis, I would drive up along the river as far as you could and fish down on some great water when it was low. Was a pretty little apple orchard there. Also hiked and bank fished McKenna down. Floated from Combat City down to the Tank Crossing a few times but never liked the water below the powerhouse. I always wanted to, but never did float from Mckenna down to Combat City out of fear of a really bad stretch in the canyon. Heard if you didn't float with someone that knew it, to stay away. I remember often seeing a guy in a blue Lavro w/ curley blonde hair and his buddy floating it. I think he was a guide later? Anyway lots of brute nates around in April to C&R on. Miss those days. But can't take away the memories.

Used to live in Evergreen Valley, which is just south of Lake St. Clair and abuts the fort. Used to run on the roads there. Really nice loop, almost never ran into anybody. Then I needed to call and get approval and then we moved.

Had a friend who did spawner surveyed for salmon on the fort and every once in a while found a live round in the stream.

Forgot to mention many a Apache Helicopter gunships flying at tree top level along the river while fishing. Never hear them coming until they are on top of you. Quite the rush!

Anyone remember the returns on the Puyallup in 1985, if I recall correctly. Crazy good fishing with a huge return. It was never like that again after that. I think the last year they planted it, they got like nine fish back to the hatchery or something like that.

@RUNnGUN I remember those copters. I had a range pass one day and encountered some soldiers in camo hiding in the bushes. I thought they had screwed up by issuing a pass that day, but I never was told to leave so I just kept fishing.

The other thing I really miss is winter blackmouth fishing. That provided a ton of fun both from our boat and shore.
SF

The Puyallup return in 84-85 was off the charts. The stars aligned that season and state wide saw huge returns. I remember something like 10,000 steelhead were caught that season placing the Puyallup catch at #1 in the state over the Cowlitz. The total run must have been double that? I caught and released over 100 that season, just out of the Puyallup. Soo glad I got that opportunity! We also had a boat dry docked at Narrows Marina back in the 80's. Blackmouth were thick in the So Sound then. Mooched with herring produced limits whenever you could get out. Thanks for the memories, that's all we got left!

RnG,

I never did fish the Puyallup back then, but I did fish the Carbon in the 70's. I'm trying to remember what year it was that I had such a great year on the Wynoochee and Satsop. It seemed like '87 but I could be wrong about that. Steelhead everywhere, especially on th O.P. big streams. What's your theory about the demise?

Overfishing is the big thing.

First, too many salmon are harvested so fewer spawn. We need significantly more spawners to feed the streams. Overfishing the food fish so there is less to eat. Destruction of the preferred food for predators, so the switch to salmon and steelhead.

Steelhead are overfished in a couple of ways, Too many are killed because managers do not factor in the need for repeat spawners. When you kill a fish this year you have also killed a fractional fish (with significantly more eggs) in succeeding years. C&R is stressing fish and if steelhead are like Atlantic Salmon, C&R'd fish produce fewer smolts.

And channelling my inner Canadian (Bob Hooton) the increase in the use of boats, especially increased access, has removed refuges that previously gave fish a break. If 50 years ago you were able top access 25% of the water, from the bank, and now you can do 90% it simply exposes more fish to kill/stress.

Lastly, there are simply too many of us trying to live on this little blue ball.

Maybe it should be steelhead were overfished at one time.
With the lack of recreational opportunity now and the tribes not fishing for them on many Puget Sound systems, overfishing doesn't seem to be the case today. There hasn't been a recreational season on the Nisqually since 1993. So much for the theory that some want. If you shut it down the fish will come back. 31 years and counting.......

The marine environment is certainly an issue. Its interesting ever year to watch the results of the Survive the Sound event put on by Long Live the Kings.
SF

My uncle started me out steel heading on the green back in the late 60's and it was always crowded. Then in the early 70's started going on the cowlitz and chehalis and really found out what big kings are. Sad it just a memory but still fond of them and my uncles.

And yes the marine enviroment is a big key. Started black mouth fishing in the early 80's and at that time point defiance did hold a good number of fish but now with the way its been shut down I quit going. And even in elliot bay.

Got me thinking? My theory? I'm no scientist but have observed lots over the years. I think the demise is a bunch of stuff all at once. I killed many. I'm as guilty as anyone for killing wilds back then. It's what you did? I guess anglers have to progress slowly to learn and accept total C&R. That's what happened to me.
Ocean conditions must be a factor, because the whole west coast has had survival issues even with some great habitat available. Pop growth and the pollution that comes with it doesn't help.
Netting. Since 1974. Most early wild runs are gone because tribal commercial fisheries focused on the early returning hatchery fish and netted out the early wild strains. Steelhead cannot take commercial fisheries! I think the early hatchery fish do less damage than some spout. I think co-mingling has occurred, but not at the levels some promote. IMO the early Chambers fish were early enough to not threaten the later wilds, but provided great opportunity before Christmas. Today, state wide, very few of those early hatchery fish are available to target.
Predators. With all the above going on at the same time, the predators populations began to increase. I never saw Cormorants back in the 70's and 80's in the rivers like you see now. Same for seals. I do remember a seal made it up the Puyallup in the early 90's as far as the island below the Hwy 162 bridge outside of Sumner. It didn't last long there. Also, I watch to this day every spring, during the outward smolt migration, flocks of Cormorants that work the lower Puyallup and Green. They are not eating candy?
Cost. Hatchery Steelhead are expensive to raise. WDFW cost cutting, hatchery closures and terminated programs, has made less hatchery fish available, placing double pressure on the few programs that remain. These days it's tough to get a return on your investment. I do think the overall economics of fishing adds more $$ to the economy than folks think. Trying to educate state legislators about that is another story. Their priorities are in different places. WDFW has changed it's recreational management focus from a consumptive approach to the opposite. Nothing wrong with conservation, but currently the pendulum is way to far that direction. The WDFW "Dysfunction Report" that recently came out proves that! Steelheaders have always been a small but special part of the fishing community. Back when, in the WDG, employees were fishermen. They had a stake in producing Steelhead because they fished for them. I knew a few of them that fished and enjoyed Winter Steelhead. The populations that have come here the last 40 yrs care little about fishing, and the WDFW employees are not engaged in it like they used to be.
Instead of writing this, I should be fishing on a run of what's left of early Winter Steelhead. I have hope this season Steelhead numbers may follow better ocean conditions and some good salmon returns. I had fishing plans this week but mother nature put the kibosh on that. Not into the off work Christmas crowds. Maybe hit a small stream if a rain break happens. One thing for sure, Steelheading as we knew it is gone. Good Luck!

R&G,

Thank you for your provocative response. I agree with all the examples you list. Some of those issues are fixable, some less so. I keep hoping that some one on the Commission will see the light, but continue to be disappointed.(I look at the Willamette steelhead success when since sea lions have been more controlled as an example of what could be done) Politics continue to be the with biggest hurdle, maybe surpassing bad management. Regaining habitat is good, but we can't "get there" with our limited habitat. Sport anglers continue to be stupid and dis organized (sorry to say that). If each steelheader would contribute the cost of one breakfast, about fifteen bucks, we could have a war chest of around three million dollars to hire lobbyists, contribute to campaigns, sue those who need to be sued, etc. But we won't get together. PSA disagrees with CCA, Trout Unlimited left the planet years ago, small groups contradict those who are better prepared, etc. And our Commission system is not accountable to the citizenry.

C&r’d fish produce less ? Wow, best get those fly flogging crowds on the Yakima to quit fishing perhaps. And not to forget the Madison, Jefferson, the Ruby and more. And stop the Experimental c&r efforts on the Skagit.

And how is it that the folks to our immediate north still get to bang on the black mouth, I mean “Winter Spring kings” in the straits, but no one else to the south. Lotsa hatchery fish in that catch outta Victoria to be sure.

Asking for a friend.

It's C&R on close to spawning fish. Resident trout, especially the spring spawners, have all winter and early spring to recover. They are seeing issues in New Zealand, though, with C&R Browns. It does take some serious looking into.

The Canadians fish because they don't have the catch sharing with US tribes while we do down here. Buy a Canadian license and go fish up there. Or Alaska.

Up there is the Staits between the two countries. Almost the same waters from the blackmouth’s POV.

Of course it is. But they are accounted differently by the bean counters. Which is why AK hammers our Chinook.

I know there was an issue with water quality in Percival cove. I believe that was where most of the blackmouth came from if I recall correctly.
Weren't they also concerned with straying? Regardless, that program wherever the fish came from provided a lot of fun and opportunity.
I wonder if there is a chance to revive the blackmouth program once they finish the proposed Capitol lake rehab project?
SF

Capital lake once had drag boat races, then hydroplane races, great salmon fishing, and tons of fish.

It was a clean free flowing area back before the Evergreen State Collage hippies decided it should become a worthless swamp.

There used to be a guy that would fish Capitol lake who only had one arm.
I remember seeing him catch big kings.
I also saw some steelhead caught by the old brewery back in the day. Never caught any there myself.
SF

The Deschutes upstream from the brewery provided some good steelhead plunking. way bac when. There was at one time a holding pond quite a ways upstream. I also heard that there were egg boxes. WDFW quit planting steelhead in it some time ago. WDFW is good at quitting programs. Many years ago old Game released cutthroat into the system just prior to the trout opening in late May. Small planters, but many came back later as beautiful large trout.

Capitol Lake was mostly over with before I arrived in the area in 1999. I do remember a co-worker bringing in a bronzed-up king he had caught somewhere near the highway bridge and being kind of impressed circa 2002. Probably a mid-20s fish, and for all I knew at the time, it was quite the trophy. We have lost a lot, even since folks like me showed up around the turn of the century.

I guess the decision has been made to return Capitol Lake to its original state as a natural estuary. Not sure I'll get to see the finished restoration in my lifetime, but I'm glad there is intent to restore the flushing capacity the Deschutes drainage once provided to the South Sound. It was never an anadromous fish factory (the falls are a natural barrier), but it's good to know the plan is to restore the estuary. Hopefully, the South Sound will be cleaner a few years down the road, and that could only help fisheries at points north.

Explain to me how the Deschutes will now flush the Sound better. That is a flow-through lake. What comes in goes right out. Making the estuary won't get you any more flow unless there are diversions in the lake I am unaware of. Same volume of river water will enter Budd; just now at the base of the Falls instead of at the bridge.

The 5th Avenue Dam and Bridge removal will restore tidal exchange and a new bridge will be constructed with vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian lanes. Restoration of the Deschutes Estuary will improve ecological conditions, achieve state water quality standards, improve climate resilience, and restore recreational water access and fishing.

https://deschutesestuaryproject.org/

That doesn't answer my question about how the estuary restoration will allow the Deschutes to flush more. It will flush the area now acting as a lake. What removal of the lake will do is put significantly more nutrients now captured by lake plants and send those nutrients to the inlet for capture by marine algae; we'll have more algae in the Inlet in the summer.

I could certainly be wrong, but the dam which is actually a tidal gate restricts things as it isn’t very wide as I recall the last time being down there watching kings come up. I’d think removing and widening the lake exit to the sound would allow more water movement both ways through the area, especially during high water events and king tides. Maybe not….
After Olympia flooded last year on a 18’+ king tide, I wonder if they’ve factored that into their plans.
If they do this, it will be interesting to also see what changes occur to the beach around the estuary. It’s kind of an ugly area right now.
SF

Was he a plumber named Rich?

Yup and yup.

I never knew his name. Just saw him fishing there a lot.
His arm was missing at about the elbow or so.
He’d stick the rod butt up in his armpit while fighting the fish.
SF

Taking the dam out and widening the opening may allow more water into the lake/estuary area but the amount of freshwater won't change so I suspect that velocity around where the dam is will actually lower over most of the tidal cycle which will allow greater sediment deposition.

From a nutrient standpoint, the Inlet will now deal with the N and P which the lake used to capture in summer.

Thinking of the past, I'm reading Enos Bradner's "Northwest Angling" published in 1950. Wow! Salmon and steelhead fishing was good nearly everywhere then, and the state was just beginning to tinker with raising hatchery steelhead. So when anglers caught steelhead, and they surely did, they were wild fish, and they killed them. Did that adversely affect the steelhead populations? I'll take the chance and say no. It didn't affect the runs because there were still enough uncaught steelhead to escape and spawn. The reason I'm confident in saying that is because the human population of WA was only a little more than 2 million, compared to nearly 8 million today. And although habitat was being degraded and destroyed at a rapid pace, there was a lot more and better quality than remains today.

It remains popular to blame over fishing in years past for the small steelhead populations of today. That is mis-guided thinking. Over fishing of wild steelhead more likely than not occurred from about the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. And the over fishing that did occur was to the early winter wild steelhead whose run timing overlapped with the hatchery winter steelhead that became abundant from the late 1950s through the 1960s. Sport fishing may have contributed to that over fishing beginning in the mid to late 1960s. Then adding the treaty Indian fishing that began in earnest in 1974, over fishing of early timed wild steelhead that were mixed in with the December - January hatchery steelhead was all but certain. And it kinda' remains that way to this day, where wild winter steelhead populations are concentrated in the latter part of the run. However, a slight but noticeable increase in the proportion of early timed wild steelhead in occurring due to wild steelhead release regulations and just plain river closures.

Wild steelhead, like most salmonids, are resilient fish. Meaning that populations bounce back readily from sudden declines. Wild runs that were reduced in the 1970s very readily bounced back in the 1980s, due largely to more restrictive fishing regulations, both sport and treaty. The "recent" downward trend in steelhead runs began around 1990 or so. And it had and has nothing to do with fishing, since fishing regulations have protected spawning escapements. Early marine survival has crashed, due in large part of increases in predation on smolts. And open ocean survival has declined for reasons known and probably unknown. And that ocean productivity appears to vary widely.

For the reasons listed above, I've made the argument over the past few years when anglers are complaining about WDFW steelhead mismanagement that if all steelhead fishing coastwide, sport, commercial, treaty, everything had been completely shut down since 1980, wild steelhead populations in all WA rivers would be just about exactly what we have observed in all these recent years. Total escapements may have been slightly higher in some cases where incidental harvest or other mortalities have occurred. But in general, wild steelhead runsizes would be just about exactly what we have seen with the likely exception of the Queets and Quinault Rivers due to the Quinault Tribe's management policies (i.e., hatchery and wild fish are the same). While this has been a "back of the envelope" calculation, from all the runsize and catch data I have seen, it should be a reasonable accurate assessment of the situation.

Catch and release (CNR) seasons do affect wild steelhead escapements in terms of incidental mortality. A conservative estimate of 10% is used and more than covers the estimates of actual population loss. And CNR still doesn't adversely affect subsequent run sizes. How do we know this? Because, in general, when larger than average spawning escapements occur, the subsequent run size 4 years later (or you can figure in the various cohort ages and get no significant difference) is nearly always smaller than that large brood year escapement. If the habitat were under-escaped, those resulting run sizes should be larger as more of the available habitat would be used. That not being the case, the most logical conclusion is that most rivers are being used at their contemporary carrying capacity for the species, even though the ESA recovery population goals are quite a bit larger (which is one of the reasons ESA "recovery" will not be achieved.).

The south sound's Deschutes River and Capitol Lake are what you get from the highest quality lip service. The Deschutes River has a natural barrier just upstream of its historical junction with Puget Sound. It has no natural anadromous fish runs except for the naturally occurring sea run cutthroat trout. The Deschutes watershed is naturally infested with nanophytes, a parisite of fish. Consequently no natural runs of Chinook or coho salmon or steelhead have developed there even though the barrier falls was laddered by WDF in about 1956. The native cutthroat trout have developed some resistance to nanophytes, and since fish passage was installed, the river now hosts a decent population of both resident and sea run cutthroat, for a degraded watershed, that is. The headwaters of the Deschutes are in Weyerhauser's Vail tree farm. I think the last of the old growth timber was finally harvested in the 1970s. The usual logging practices, along with runoff of some farms in the watershed, are the source of the sediment that has filled Capitol Lake several times.

The amount of sediment coming downstream should be decreasing as a result of the Timber, Fish, & Wildlife agreement of 1988 and the Forest & Fish settlement of the early 2000s. But it will likely persist at some rate as long as forestry is practiced in the watershed. To be fair to Weyerhauser, I should add that the sediment rates would likely be higher if the forest land were converted to other land uses. Something to keep in mind. When I was in high school we could swim and water ski in Capitol Lake. Now that would be dangerous due to poor water quality and not being deep enough for boat traffic. Restoring the estuary, if it ever happens, will most likely improve the water quality due to daily tidal flushing. But I don't expect it to make a whit of difference to the fish populations there. The native cutthroats will keep doing their thing, and the hatchery Chinook will continue for as long as WDFW continues with the hatchery program.

When I was young and didn't know any better, we would occasionally fish for returning Chinook by the old footbridge that long ago washed out near the river mouth. They were always dark fish, since I don't think they pass upstream of the 5th Ave. dam until they begin to color up. It was fun entertainment until I learned of places to fish for salmon that were suitable for eating. I fished for cutthroat, not knowing the difference between resident and sea run, only that they were either large or small. In the 1960s, WDG would plant rainbow trout near the Weyerhauser day use park by the Military Road bridge (it's a housing development for the last several decades). I would wade down the river fishing from there to the Silver Spring Ranch, and that is where I learned to tell rainbow trout from cutthroat trout. While I'm reminiscing, that's also when I learned that keeping a limit of trout (12) was a waste because my mom always over cooked fish. That may be what first got me into catch and release fishing, now that I think about it.

Unfortunately I never fished the Deschutes during the years that WDG or WDFW stocked hatchery steelhead in it. I have had a couple neighbors report that they enjoyed some decent fishing there along the old Olympia Brewery and golf course area when the runs were relatively decent (the 70s and 80s).

From what I gather, removing the 5th Ave. dam will allow the Deschutes River sediment to deposit in the west Olympia boat basin. Since boat owners are community movers and shakers, it appears that the cost of sediment removal will be born by city and county taxpayers (yea!). How cool is that?

The sad environmental situation is this: For more than sixty years the Deschutes had a salmon run that produced naturally spawning salmon, permitted by fish ladders. The natural spawning run created a healthy ecosystem for many miles upstream until it was blocked by the falls near Weyerhaeuser country. Bears, birds, streamside foliage, salmonids and many other critters thrived in an agri/wilderness environment. HPA enforcement was vigorous to protect salmon, etc. Now the Chinook run does not exist above salmon spawning structure! WDFW a few years ago decided to kill any component of a natural producing run, disregarding the ecosystem health. Now all surplus salmon are sold, mostly for catfood or fertilizer. Despite this, the river is OPEN to salmon fishing without salmon in it to be harvested! Talking out of both sieds of its bureaucratic mouth about creating opportunity, WDFW contradicts its own policy. Male chinook should be let upstream to maintain the ecosystem, and provide recreational fishing. There is no conservation needed. This wouldn't hurt anyone and the Squaxins coulld still maintain their fishery on hatchery stock.

I see no reason why there isn't a major annual plant of steelhead into the Deschutes. There are no native steelhead to interbreed with, the hatchery stocks tend to be reproductively incompetent anyway, and it would allow for a nice walk and wade fishery. I know of a number of filks who did quite well back when there were steelhead stocked. Just WDFW lip service to anglers.

I caught one of my first steelhead on the Deschutes, at the HWY 507 bridge. I was headed to the skookum chuck and stopped to take a look. I a one move around, so I walked down with some chum eggs and ended up catching him a few casts later. Never saw another one since. That year I did real well on the skookumchuck. On day I drove over during a downpour. The river was completely wiped out below bloody run. I got out and saw that the creek was blown out, but the last 1/4 mile or so to the dam was actually low and clear. no one else appeared to have bothered to go up that far to take a look. I had no idea what I was doing, but hooked and lost several on the big bend hole. Took a look and realized my line was frayed all the was down. As I was trying to strip some off, another guy walked in and tossed out some eggs. I could see he was immediately snagged up, but didn't say anything. After about 30 seconds, one came up and grabbed the eggs and took off. Presentation didn't seem to matter as the hole was plugged. Next time down there was an older gentle man plunking that hole. I hooked one there and then walked up to the next hole and got my second one and was done in about 20 minutes. The older man had one on the bank when I walked back down. I later heard he got his second, went home, got his wife, came back and helped her hook her limit. Good memories for sure. It's a joke now.

Spent many hours fishing the upper Deschutes around 1980. Caught 5 one day. Still have pics.
The wolf haven nut job used to keep his wolves in the woods above Henderson Blvd when he first arrived in the area.
What a pile.

Fish quality aside, I still don't understand why we can't have an urban fishery on the Deschutes kings. They stack up by the thousands at the mouth, or at least they did before the dam was opened up. I've never seen a reason why you shouldn't be able to fish for them down in front of Bayview.

I used to fish at Tumwater falls park a lot when I lived downtown, it was a great way to kill a spare 20 minutes. Tossing a #5 vibrax would usually get me into a fish within about 5 casts, then the school would spook and shut down for a while. Usually a bit easier to get them to bite eggs after that.

Capitol lake has been closed since 2009 due to the nebulous New Zealand mud snail threat. But other waterways in the state have them as well, and they aren't shut down. The cynical side of me thinks they were traded away at NOF for ocean impacts.

Just look at the rotonda on the hump above the lake.
Looks like an upside-down toilet bowl.

The chit ran down the hill into the lake.

I was floating the Nisqually one morning, fishing the drift where Muck Creek dumped in. Heard the helicopter coming up river. It comes around the corner just above the water, takes a turn right over the top of me and lands on the gravel bar. I thought I was in trouble for something or ?. My heart was pounding.
It lands, the door quickly slides open and a soldier jumps out and starts puking on the gravel bar. The other guys on board where all laughing at him. He finished puking, they loaded up, waved at us and took off.
Miss the Nisqually spring days. Put my father in law and young son on a fish the last day it was open for steelhead. Didn't know then it was the last one I'd ever catch there.

The short, and probably Agency-Approved answer, is that the NI share is already taken "outside". To pass share inside would mean a reduction in PS and ocean fisheries; at least on paper.

The second might be a concern for a disorderly and snag fishery. Since there is regularly a surplus at the hatchery it seems some sort of fishery is appropriate.

Its always interesting to look at the fall chinook hatchery escapement reports at the end of the year compared to the measly quotas and seasons some Puget Sound marine areas now get each year. The Deschutes was just under 10K this year.
I've been cleaning out my desk at work for retirement and found a bunch of past steelhead harvest and plants info. Damn depressing......
SF

Tug,

While the Deschutes did, and still does, produce a lot of salmon, very few of them were naturally produced. Although thousands of returning hatchery Chinook were allowed upstream to spawn, very few viable smolts resulted, considering the number of spawners. Nanophytes, the parasite that I mentioned in my post above, kills most of the juveniles before they make it to salt water. But since some number greater than zero may survive, WDFW chooses to not let any returning adults go upstream to spawn because those would become ESA protected "wild" Chinook. Crazy, yeah, but that's the way things are set up. WDFW had to go through a lot to avoid having the Deschutes included in the ESA-listed Puget Sound Chinook unit.

I agree with you that sending those Chinook upstream is an environmental benefit, but WDFW may not wish to establish a precedent of allocating salmon to environmental benefits. It could conflict with harvest management priorities.

C'man,

I think the reason the Department discontinued stocking steelhead is because the SAR - smolt to adult return rate was too low to sustain even hatchery production. I think the fish came from Chambers Ck - S. Tacoma, where the adult returns were no longer enough to even sustain the hatchery run that started it all. Pretty sad, because if the rate of return were comparable to the 1980s, it would be a perfect hatchery river with no ESA conflicts.

Chum Man,

WDFW could allow fishing there and in the approach waters that have been closed for a while now. There are some bright Chinook when they first show up. Now that fishery is exclusively for seals when the Chinook are stacked up in there. Share allocations aside, it's hard to argue that a lot of fish that are produced solely to be harvested are deliberately being wasted by the state.

Back in the day when the Deschutes had steelhead and real men wore hip boots.

To put some results onto Salmo's comment about Chinook in the Deschutes, WDFW did a study there where passed a lot of adults to see the returns. The unmarked returns were so few in number that they easily could have been "drops"; hatchery fish that were not marked in the mass-marking process.

For quite a while, the Deschuites was one of the wild coho index streams for PS. Smolts were trapped, adults enumerated, etc. I think that when the Deep SS survival issue for yearling smolts surfaced the run petered out. The system could produce coho returns but not Chinook.