In the 70's, the South Fork of the Calawah from the put in at the creek down to the forks was a great place to beat the crowds and fish for both native and hatchery steelhead. There was a place above the lower end bad stretch where with a 4x4 you could take out and not have to run the rock garden. Very pretty river.

Later the state put a hatchery in at the mouth of the Calawah near the Bogachiel Ponds and I'm wondering if that affected the fishing up river.

Is the South Fork still worth fishing or is all the action now at the mouth near the hatchery where the crowds hang out? There is a lot of water above the hatchery but I never hear much about people fishing it.

There are just a few hatchery fish above 101 ... some are dumped there at Hyas Creek ... but 95% of the fish are in the last bit of the river. I usually don't consider fishing in the S. Fork until the 1st of February any more ... the effect of the hatchery and the ensuing harvest of the co-mingled early wild fish by both tribes and sporties has a lot to do with the absence of early fish now ... please see our discussion regarding the liberalization of limits out this way.

The road into the hole below the high bluff has been closed for some time now ... as has the 'ramp' at the Forks ... so you have to go all the way to 101 ... which means you have to run "Hell's Half-Mile" ... not highly advisable for the vast majority of boaters.

Bob, thanks for the update! You've got quite a board here...it's great.

I'm planning to do some steelheading again after a long spell of not fishing, just trying to figure out what's changed in the last ten years or so.

I'm not good enough on the sticks to run the Hells Half Mile stretch, although I was through it a long time ago. That's why I took out at that hole above the bad stretch. Looks like my options are all gone now - along with the fish apparently.

I don't really understand why the state put the hatchery where it did and wasted all that beautiful river that could support lots of fish and fisherman. I suppose from your reply the holes on the main Calawah from 101 down to the the last quarter mile or so are also not holding fish like they used to due to the problems stated. That wild slot a ways down from 101 - I guess it's sort of behind the sewage pond now - kept me from boating it when I had a drift boat, but walk in was possible from those 4x4 trails behind the radio station. I suppose those are closed off too now.

As you might have guessed, I'm trying to avoid the rearing pond to Wilson/Leyendecker due to high density of fisherman/boats although it's a really nice drift and put out tons of fish, but maybe you can't beat the traffic now for the early run. And I thought the boat traffic was out of control a decade ago through that stretch. I heard they even paved the takeout at Wilsons and the swinging bridge is gone. So this will be some new exploring it looks like.