Kudos, Great Editorial

http://www.theolympian.com/home/specialsections/TightLines/20040319/7286.shtml

Lots of stuff and opinions to read, it all depends which side of the fence you want to be!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001879260_steelhead15m.html
Or
http://espn.go.com/outdoors/conservation/news/2004/0322/1765594.html

Thanks CM for posting those two articles again, I thought they were fair and well balanced. However, I still don't understand how a couple of anglers from Sequim own the OP rivers.

Double Haul,

The following quote from the WSC's "Wild Steelhead in Washington Fact Sheet" keeps coming up in the media.

"In the mid 1950’s, about 60,000 to 90,000 wild steelhead were annually harvested by Washington sport fishers (harvest estimates are based on WDFW data and correction recommendations). In 2003, Washington sport fishers harvested 3,554 wild steelhead."

I would appreciate it if you, Todd or another informed person would reference the specific source of the "fact" that "In the mid 1950’s, about 60,000 to 90,000 wild steelhead were annually harvested by Washington sport fishers."

I realize that the WDFW kept statewide harvest estimates for steelhead beginning in 1950 but have been unable to find the harvest estimates for that decade.

This is an email I received from from the WSC V.P. of Conservation

When Larry and I started developing the individual river graphs, we looked for all the wild fish run data. The trouble is that they didn't separate the hatchery from the wild fish until about 1978, which is when our charts begin.

WDFW has done the longer term trends of the combined hatchery and wild., but I am not sure which publication they are in. you can probably find them in one of the annual salmonid reports or in the annual landings reports. I'm not sure just how far back they go, but I think through 40 to 50 years. I do have those reports, and will search them when I get time (right now I'm pretty busy working on the house).

Hatchery fish began making significant contributions to the total catch in about --as I remember from talking to Gibbons--about the late 1950's and early 1969's. So before that time, I think most of the totals were wild. When I did the estimate of catch in the mid-1950's for the WSC Fact Sheet, I talked to Bob and from that discussion, discounted the annual runs 40% for their stated overestimate of the real catch and 10% for the hatchery fish. The early numbers were apparently overestimates due to their method of calculating and estimating the total. At least that is what I was told and have no reason to doubt Bob on this.

And when they started differentiating they used to determine wild versus hatchery by the size of the dorsal fin which wasn't very accurate. Remember the cards to measure the dorsal?

Plunker -
The punch card catch summarizes go back to at least the winter of 1947/48. I have a partial collection of the reports going back to that time. There are some holes in the 50s and 60s. If you and/or anyone from WSC (Jerry, Larry?) wishes to look at that information just give me a call and we can set a time.

It is my understanding that steelhead have been planted in this state for at least a 100 years. However it was not until more was learned about the life history and fish culture of steelhead were true steelhead smolts released. Much of that ground work occurred in the 1940s with the first significant release of smolt at the aproximate correct size and release timing occurred in 1950s. I think you will find that the begining of some of the hay days of steelhead trace their origin back to those early releases (Puyallup?).

It was not until the use of extensive creel surveys and catch sampling could the hatchery and wild catches be reliably separated - remember all the samples the creel clerks used to collect. The wild/hatchery catch estimates are Dependent on when an individual river was first surveyed (and many have never been surveyed). The first release of mass marked steelhead smolts was in 1983 if my memory serves correctly.

If you are looking for Skagit specific data the Grandy Creek Hatchery EIS (1994?) has quite a bit of background information but I suspect that you all ready have that information. If not I also have a copy.

Tight lines
S malma

Jerry,

Thanks for the informative reply. Good stuff and much appreciated.

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S malma,

I appreciate your information also and thank you for the offer to make the surveys available.

I'll try to call you sometime next week in hopes of arranging a viewing time.

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Somewhere, just going by memory, I may have read that it was estimated that about 70% of the steelhead harvested in the mid 50's and into the 60's on the Puget Sound and North Coast Rivers combined were of hatchery origin. That ratio, if true, is interesting but of little value for determining the number of wild fish harvested without estimates of the total.