An AP article. It is small sampling but encouraging. Seems to me that in years in which there is enough water in the streams/rivers then the next year the Steelhead show a "comeback". Even in the north of British Columbia steelhead have been C & R for years-- and the fishery is being maintained. Maybe steelhead are the early warning system for all of our river/stream fisheries.
The 10/87 post by KJE re: seeing lots of smolts on American is other proof of a good year for steelhead?
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Signs steelhead trout making Calif comeback
Associated Press October 18, 2010 04:53 AM Copyright Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Monday, October 18, 2010
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(10-1 04:53 PDT Santa Cruz, Calif. (AP) --
Steelhead trout appear to be making a comeback in California.
The Santa Cruz Sentinel says scientists on the lookout for steelhead in the San Lorenzo River are finding more young fish making their way back to sea.
Santa Cruz water resource manager Chris Perry says this year's numbers bode well for a steelhead population that once boomed along the Central Coast. In 1997, the fish was listed as threatened species.
The October numbers haven't been compiled. Although it's still too early to tell if there's a solid rebound, Berry says the results so far are startling and it's clear something's going on.
Steelhead, like salmon, spend most of their adult life at sea but spawn and rear in freshwater rivers and creeks.
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