CM it is said that you must know where you came from to know where you are to know where you’re going, same with fish. For Chinook most do not know of the Schafer Park hatchery that reared Chinook pre 1950 when Bingham was built. The East Fork Satsop was a Chinook stream and with a early timed Chinook or summers. Eggs got transferred to upper Chehalis to the old hatchery on Fish hatchery road and one year the 5 million egg transfer perished due to facility failure. Another grabber was the transfer of the Humptulips Hatchery Chinook to the Springs on the EF Satsop to be reared to yearlings and released. The agency refused to recognize that the Chehalis has Summer Chinook for many years as they simply wanted only a Fall Chinook designation. That thought fell apart when fall Chinook numbers said good to go but nope we now had to protect summer Chinook.

Our run timings are not close in numbers in a particular month now after many years of human manipulation. I was told that when Simpson Hatchery (now Bingham) started that they did not take Late Coho until very late Dec or Jan which is not the case now. Our late hatchery Coho are a hybrid cross between normal timed fall Coho and lates. Even the wild EF Satsop Lates are a hybrid due to many years of returns that jumped the weir or came into the holding pond prior to mass marking.

It is my understanding that wild Late Coho are struggling and I do not doubt that. Then this they are not a concern when the QIN take them as incidental as we only have Coho not a early & late stock because they would have to manage for two stocks. Unlike early Coho (called normal timed) which endure weeks in warm water holding until rain come to spawn late Coho come right upstream in cold water. Mortalities from C&R are low and can be reduced farther by gear restrictions.

Prior to the combining of WDG & WDF I got into it with a WDG bio over the planting of early Steelhead for the tribal fisheries. I was told point blank that this was for the QIN fisher would get their share and not net the “native Steelhead”. When I responded that this was damaging the late Coho he told me that was WDF’s problem. That gentleman retired just a few years back from WDFW.