Elwha river after 6 years of no dams - exciting video

[stonefish]

Bill,
There was an old hatchery on the river which was updated with the new one.
The tribes have great political influence here.
I understand their rights to fish and the want for more fish. I just wish they’d given the river a chance to see what it could do without the hatchery.
SF

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Oh well
....I guess it was too good to be true.

[tcorfey]

We should note that the hatchery is near the mouth of the river and originally installed in the 70's it is a tribal hatchery. In 2010-2011 the old hatchery was replaced with a new larger hatchery well before the dams came down. It still continues to operate but some fish have chosen to spawn in the river naturally.

Although very few salmon have spawned in the upper reaches above the second dam site. They hope as more natural spawners come into the middle river then competition for the best spawning spaces will move the fish further up the river. Interesting to me was that the native Rainbow and Bull trout populations has grown substantially since the dams came down. It is also good to hear the summer steelhead thought to be extinct are also making a resurgence. Bull trout have doubled their population and resident Rainbows have gone from 3,218 in 2008 to 24,896 in 2019.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Yes, tcorfey, we should be happy about all that.



I guess when you have a hatchery where the fish can go past it to spawn naturally upstream, like Redwood creek, it is better than a dam that stops all fish.


Redwood creek, the Mad river, the Russian river and I imagine some others let the fish go past the hatchery to spawn naturally too.

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They are finally removing small, defunct, and unused dams all over the World now and doing lots of stream bed restoration as well.

[stonefish]

Bill,
Here is a bit more regarding the hatchery. As mentioned, it is still operating today.
I should also mention I'm not anti-hatchery, as I know many of the fisheries I enjoy up here wouldn't exist with hatchery fish.
In the case of the Elwha though, I wasn't for the hatchery. I think salmon and steelhead get short changed when it comes to how resilient they are. It would have been cool to see what they could have done on their own in about as pristine habitat as you can find today in the lower 48, but we'll never see that happen.
SF

https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/n...n-elwha-river/

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Thanks stonefish,

I don't like mixing the genetics of hatchery fish and wild fish, but we need to thankful for what we get.


__________________________________________

I wish they would take a "few" salmon and steelhead rivers with potential and make them totally wild again.

No hatcheries, no dams, no AG, no logging, no development, no nets, and "barbless, single hook, artificial only, catch and release".

___________________________________________


About 40 years ago I got to fish such a river in British Columbia with good friends.........the Dean River.

The top month is August and we went in by helicopter from Bella Coola to camp at "17 mile" on the Dean for 2 weeks.

For the first week, we fished sink-tips and dark classic steelhead patterns.

In the second week, we changed to floating lines and wet flies. In the end, we were dead drifting large dry flies with great success.

This was pre-Spey on the West Coast so we used 9'6" #8 weight graphite fly rods.

The smallest fish we caught was about an 8 pound male, and we eat it that even for dinner.

It was the only fish we killed and felt kinda' bad, but it was so good.

The end of the trip all we had left was pancakes but they were delicious.

We put some in our backpacks and had them mid-day, way up or way down the river for lunch.


Catching 10 to 20 pound wild summer Steelhead on dry flies was the height of my fly fishing life.

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Worldwide I am not sure that future generations will be able to experience the fishing (and hunting) we Baby Boomers had.

.

[Jeff F]

Yes, tcorfey, we should be happy about all that.



I guess when you have a hatchery where the fish can go past it to spawn naturally upstream, like Redwood creek, it is better than a dam that stops all fish.


Redwood creek, the Mad river, the Russian river and I imagine some others let the fish go past the hatchery to spawn naturally too.

___________________________________

They are finally removing small, defunct, and unused dams all over the World now and doing lots of stream bed restoration as well.

There's a hatchery on Redwood Creek?

[cutthroat22]

The county operated hatchery on Redwood Creek was actually on Prairie Creek and closed about 30 years ago. The costs for the hatchery were very high especially the power cost of pumping water. It produced lots of coho and steelhead but very few chinook. Coho Salmon have been closed to fishing in CA for over 20 years. The steelhead fishery benefit was limited to the lower few miles of Redwood Creek. There were plenty of unanswered questions about broodstock origin, genetics, disease and associated potential impacts but it was closed for budgetary reasons. The county couldn't afford it.

According to Bill Bakke, "You can have wild steelhead in a watershed or you can have hatchery steelhead in a watershed. You cannot have strong populations of both in the same watershed. Choices must be made."

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

The county operated hatchery on Redwood Creek was actually on Prairie Creek and closed about 30 years ago. The costs for the hatchery were very high especially the power cost of pumping water. It produced lots of coho and steelhead but very few chinook. Coho Salmon have been closed to fishing in CA for over 20 years. The steelhead fishery benefit was limited to the lower few miles of Redwood Creek. There were plenty of unanswered questions about broodstock origin, genetics, disease and associated potential impacts but it was closed for budgetary reasons. The county couldn't afford it.

According to Bill Bakke, "You can have wild steelhead in a watershed or you can have hatchery steelhead in a watershed. You cannot have strong populations of both in the same watershed. Choices must be made."

Thanks cutthroat22,

Great information

I pray for a few completely wild rivers.


In the past 50 years, they dammed up almost every small, short coastal river for development or AG/wine/dope?

________________________________________

Our un-dammed Smith river has California's largest size winter-run Steelhead and largest size Fall King salmon.

And it has or had a King salmon hatchery on it?

It is also one of our cleanest clear rivers with no AG on it.

According to locals, it has a small run of smaller Fall Steelhead.

Some say that it is so clear that it is hard on fly fishers.

Local anglers push back on any serious protective regulations.

[winxp_man]

We should note that the hatchery is near the mouth of the river and originally installed in the 70's it is a tribal hatchery. In 2010-2011 the old hatchery was replaced with a new larger hatchery well before the dams came down. It still continues to operate but some fish have chosen to spawn in the river naturally.

Although very few salmon have spawned in the upper reaches above the second dam site. They hope as more natural spawners come into the middle river then competition for the best spawning spaces will move the fish further up the river. Interesting to me was that the native Rainbow and Bull trout populations has grown substantially since the dams came down. It is also good to hear the summer steelhead thought to be extinct are also making a resurgence. Bull trout have doubled their population and resident Rainbows have gone from 3,218 in 2008 to 24,896 in 2019.

The Bull Trout on the McCloud river died out because of the dam. I mean basic level of knowledge would tell us why. So with that said rainbows and bulls will make a come back the minute a food source comes bag.