Originally Posted By: Carcassman
There is one small bit about ocean conditions being outside WDFW control that disagree with. The Keogh River study showed that increasing stream productivity through either the addition of fertilizers or big salmon escapements reduced the age of steelhead smolts. Also, the younger smolts were more abundant than older smolts. That is, a stream can produce more age-1 smolts than age-2 because the younger smolts are smaller going into winter. The more abundant smolt outmigration returned at high enough rates (in poor ocean conditions) to replace the brood. In the White River (WA), at least through about 2010, the R/S for steelhead was higher when the smolts were younger. I believe that WDFW managed for salmon escapements of at least 1kg per square metre of summer low flow that we would see increases in steelhead returns.

In the last few years I have bought licenses and fished in AK, Wyoming, Iceland, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Australia and it was all well worth the expense. And it was generally better than here.


Sorry I omitted that thing that WDFW could do. It will be a cold day in hell when the Washington Department of Salmon increases salmon escapements for any ecological benefits, let alone to increase steelhead productivity.

My point about my MT fishing license giving a higher return on investment is that MT doesn't spend my money to raise hatchery salmon to be caught in Canada. They spend it on things like numerous public access sites and boat ramps on rivers, something that is in very short supply in WA. Of course there is less need for those ramps and access sites since the treaty tribes have increasingly closed rivers to recreational fishing.