I sometimes fish a small tributary of one of the big Puget Sound area rivers. The tributary is planted with a handful of winter-run hatchery smolts, but no summer-run smolts. The main river -- the one this tributary feeds into -- receives both winter- and summer-runs. My question is this: is it possible to catch summer-run fish on this tributary? Reason I ask is, I recently ran into a guy on this tributary who'd been having luck with "hatchery summer-runs" -- more than one. Is this possible (probable?), or was the guy confused? How often do steelhead stray from their "home river" and head up a tributary of it? Thanks.

Seems to me that all it would take is TWO summer fish to stray up there, and spawn, and then you should have fish returning to it, However, Hatchery fish sometimes do crazy things, and I have seen them run up small tributaries in both summer and winter, that they don't plant at all! Just like down at rayonier mill (When it was around) and they had a water pipe come apart right down at the waterfront, there were salmon (chinook and coho) And a FEW steelhead trying to actually go up the darn thing. Not even an actual stream, and they were trying their hardest (only to get stuck on the sand in the shallow water) I think that fish not only follow their instinct, but are adventurous too...

Tom

The scenario you present is very possible and, in fact, happens to varying degrees on most rivers that have hatchery summer runs.

Straying is nothing new and in the case of summer runs, the reasons for straying range from lost olfactory(smell) of their natal river to curiosity because they are so far from being ripe. Whatever the reason-it does happen.

Whether to target a river for straying fish is a gamble. Yes, it may get the odd fish but you will likely put in many fishless miles searching for one. So, you have to ask yourself if that time invested is well spent with better producing rivers nearby? Or is it worth it for the solitude you will likely have even though the odds for connecting with a stray are minimal.

I have had random encounters with strays on 5 diferent rivers over the years that don't get planted for summer-runs. In none of those cases do I feel compelled to target them for strays as the feeling I get was they were flukes; not to mention I fish them regularly for other species and have seldom encountered additional strays.

Just food for thought!

It shouldn't take more than a pair of strays to introduce steelhead to any stream... Although we need to keep one thing in mind, steelhead and salmon used to populate almost all streams big enough to swim up... hehe.. They just slowly got weeded out due to loss of habitat, mismanagement, and overfishing!

Tom

All salmon and steelhead stray to a certain extent, both wild and hatchery. Hell I cauht a sockeye in a stream that has never had them in it. Maybe the reason that guy was getting summers in that stream is becase the conditions in the stream were better than in the main river. It may have been a few degrees cooler ..etc. No one really knows why anadromous fish stray, they just do.

I believe I may know the stream you are referring to and you might be suprised to find out that they actually do plant this river!?!?!?! Email me if you want more info!!!
Canyon Man

It would take more than a couple of stray fish to establish a self-sustaining run of steelhead. The Skamania stock summer-runs, which represent the bulk of hatchery summer-run stocks in the state, are not highly successful at spawning. Per the local WDFW biologist, after many years of planting Skamania stocks above the mouth of Deer Creek on the N. Fk. Stilly the run is still not self-sustaining and, with the elimination of plants, would dwindle and disappear. Some successful spawning obviously does take place. I have caught unmarked steelhead who were apparently the descendants of hatchery fish that had successfully spawned, but there just don't seem to be enough of them. Remember, there were only a relative few streams in the state that had native strains of summer-run steelhead and they were probably highly adapted to the peculiar characteristics of those particular streams.

As far as I know, the only native summer-run on Puget Sound streams is the Deer Creek summer-run on the North Fork Stilly. All remaining summer-runs on Puget Sound streams are of hatchery origin and they don't seem to reproduce well.

With this said, hatchery summer run wander to great lengths over the many months between entering the river and spawning. I've heard of Skykomish summer-run caught in the Snoqualmie; North Fork Stilly summer-run caught in the South Fork. Come the first rains during the fall, though, they bolt back to where they were planted. Tributary streams, especially if there in good shape (limited development, logging, etc.) can run cooler during the summer providing refuge from those August/September high temperatures.

Nice try Canyon-

I've heard that there are wild summer fish on several Puget Sound rivers including the Sky, Cascade, Deer Creek and the White Chuck.I doubt any are big runs however.

Deer Creek probably has the best-known run of native summer-runs. The Sauk also has a small run of native fish. The Cascade River run is a mixture of wild and hatchery stocks. Historically, the North Fork of the Skykomish and the Tolt had small runs of native fish, and I believe I recall reading somewhere that Finney Creek on the Skagit once had a run that has probably been driven to extinction by destructive logging practices in that watershed. The summer-runs in the Green, Snoqualmie, Skykomish and North Fork Stilly above Deer Creek, are Skamania stock from the Reiter Ponds facility, which is the best argument I can think of for somehow obtaining permanent funding for that operation.

Those Tolt summeruns were beautiful fish.
I haven't fished them in 16 years. Hope they still exist.