Was fishing the Cowlitz this weekend and picked up a four or five pound unclipped steelhead. The adipose was perfectly formed, however the left ventral fin appeared to be slightly rubbed. All the other fins looked normal. Looked to be a winter fish as it was a very fat female. Either way, back it went. I don't fish the Cow much and didn't follow CFM's posts on the Cowlitz too closely, so does anybody have any information on this? Just a stray maybe?

Probably missed the by the clippers, I find it hard to believe there is anything wild left in that fish factory of a river.

You were correct in releasing that fish even though it was a hatchery fish! I have caught a few of them like that this year! I was told that these are hatchery fish(ventral clips) that were release as smolts in the upper watershed and then trucked around the dam(s) when they were ready to outmigrate. They are using the numbers of the returning adults to the hatchery to see how the survival of these fish is!

I think, but don't quote me. Those Ventral clippled fish are planted in the upper basin. They are late winter fish that Tacoma Power are trying to re-intoduce to get natural spawning fish back into the system. In oppositon to Canyon Man, they are allowed to pass through the dams. A friend of mine is a biologist for TP. He said that the mortality rate is about 10% per dam. But that was also told to me about three years ago. They may truck them around now?

LT

LT- you are correct in that they do allow those fish to go upriver to where they were originally released. It was explained to me though that the number of adults collected is giving them data as to survival and whether or not this "program" is worth while or not!

K.T. and C.M. you are both right this is a good program when the dams were built this stop all fishing for salmon and steelhead in the upper river.The trunking program is working and people in the Randle & Packwood area get to fish again

Fish Monger,

[Correction: 5/12/04. My buddy CFM reminded me that the Cowlitz steelhead in this program are RV clipped, not LV. Sorry, we used LV in another steelhead program on another river that I once managed.]

As others posted, LV clipped steelhead are from a rearing and release program in the upper Cowlitz River. If I recall correctly, if caught downstream of the dams, you're supposed to release them, but if caught upstream of the dams, I believe you're allowed to retain them.

However, I want to address the title of your thread. There are unclipped steelhead returning to the Cowlitz River that aren't scissor-misses by the hatchery clippers. Steelhead, believed to be of native Cowlitz origin by WDFW, NMFS, and others, have been reintroduced into the upper Cowlitz River system. It began with unmarked fry plants, left to rear naturally in the habitat upstream of the dams. Some of these fish have outmigrated and returned as adults. They, along with the LV clipped steelhead and surplus late winter hatchery steelhead, have been trucked above the dams to spawn naturally. The result is a managerie of naturally produced steelhead smolts, from both "wild" (i.e. naturally reared fish) and hatchery fish.

Based on the observed differences on other rivers in survival from wild and hatchery spawners, it's impossible for me to say how many of these smolts are from the "wild" spawners and how many are from the hatchery spawners, but this is what we have. Since the number of anadromous fish in the upper basin, excepting cutthroat, was zero, you begin with what you have. The upshot is that natural spawning and rearing of salmon and steelhead in the upper Cowlitz River system is again a reality. So far, the production of steelhead and chinook is fairly low, but increasing. Coho have retaken a firm foothold it appears. A result is that you will find yourself catching more wild coho and steelhead (and hopefully chinook before too long) in the Cowlitz as these runs increase. For now, we're required to release the unmarked fish - and the LV clips.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Salmo,

So what effect, if any, will this have on the Cowlitz hatchery program?

I received an email from somebody very familiar with Cowlitz issues and he said that the fish are right ventral clipped and it talks about it on page 29 of the new rule book. He says you can keep a fish that is lv clipped in the lower Cowlitz.

I like that old hippie he hits the nail on the head every time. L.V.s get bonk those are F.O.C. fish that they help plant.Sorry hippie thats page 34 and it state release STEELHEAD with missing right ventral fin.

Fish Monger,

A primary effect of this program, and the rest of the anadromous fish reintroduction and restoration programs, is that Tacoma is allowed to deduct natural salmon and steelhead production from their hatchery mitigation requirements. For example, if an average of 300 wild, or natural production, steelhead returned over the next 5 years, Tacoma is allowed to deduct from their hatchery smolt production that number of smolts estimated to be required to return 300 adult steelhead.

The basic idea is that Tacoma has an obligation to mitigate its project effects on fisheries. For the past 30 years they have done all their mitigation through hatchery production. For the new license period, it will be a combination of hatchery and natural production.

If you're interested in more detailed information, you should really look up the license settlement agreement on Tacoma Power's website.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.