Does the Lyre River have summer run Salmon or Steelhead and if so what months do they run at.

Yes, all summer,May-Sept. You will need super light leaders, camo, and the ability to crawl through nettles.

If you look at the punch card returns, the Lyre looks like a dud. I suspect that this reflects the difficulty of fishing this brushy little river more than it does a lack of fish. Years ago, my father and I fished the Lyre for cutthroat one summer and I remember my surprise and disbelief at hooking up a beautiful little four-pound steelhead hen, rather a handful in the brushy confines of the Lyre. She was a fat, silvery little torpedo, absolutely perfect except where a piece of the lower lobe of her caudal fin had been bitten away. I regret, now, killing her. I suspect that these fish are part of one of those sparse native runs (anybody have any accurate information on that?) that can't stand a lot of pressure. Treat 'em with respect.

Ok.. I live practically right next to the Lyre... just up the road, and I can tell you that 95% of ALL fish on that river are hatchery originating fish... Clipped or unclipped. AS far as summer runs go, you cna do real well if you know what you are doing, and know where to fish... I can think of several 10-15 fish days, however, if you don't know how to fish it properly, GOOD LUCK are two words for ya... hehe... The fish can be very spooky, and locating them can be fun, and even treacherous. I've almost killed myself probably half a dozen times fishing that river....

Tom,
Who's planting these summer-runs? Admittedly, I have a hard time making heads or tails out of the WDFW smolt plant data, but I can't find any reference there to the Lyre. I used to fish the Lyre quite a bit in the winter but rarely in the summer, and the last time was probably fifteen years ago. I suppose my experiential information is kind of out of date, but at that time summer-runs were pretty rare. I can well imagine that brush-crawling on the Lyre could be a hazardous pastime.

I was just up there and cought a 26 in. summer run hatchery and saw one other summer run get cought. I talked to a gamewarden a few years back and he said the fish come from the Elewa hatchery

That is only partially true about the Elwha plants... The winter run fish are planted from the Elwha hatchery, and all the summer runs for the Elwah, Lyre, etc, etc... Come from the Calawah Hatchery... Last I checked anyway..

Tom