A neighbor of mine grew up along the Cedar River and is about 50 now. When he was kid, there was a run of kings returning to the river in the 40-50 lb class. He said that a lot of people would use pitch forks on the fish when they were in the shallow water. This pretty much wiped out the big fish over time. My neighbor used to catch a lot of steelhead in the Cedar but it has been closed for quite a few years now. Herschel and his buddies are a major factor in the decimated steelhead runs. About 18 years ago I helped build a steelhead hatchery at the Landsburg dam site which spawned fish caught in the Cedar. After a few years the Dept of Wildlife squeezed the original Puget Sound Anglers group who conceived the idea and did the site labor, out of the program and I suspect let it lapse. They now spawn sockeye at the site which are taken at a weir down river by the mobile home park.

DEEPWATER