One other "little thing" that many of you are forgetting about. It is a direct factors and result of the dams on the Columbia River; its call Total Dissolved Gas (TDG). TDG kills untold thousands of salmon and steelhead each year in our rivers. It kills fish even when it's not coming or occurring from spill.

And yes, many of the damn fish ladders also kill as many as 3% to 10% of the returning adults. Many of those fish that are killed are wild fish also.

So add up the adult kill; 3% average for each dam on the Columbia, 3% or more for each dam on each major tributary of the Columbia, 100% for each dam without fish passage (smolts), 10 to 15% smolt kill from TDG, 20% to 30% kill from predators, 10 to 20% adult kill from gill netters, and then top of all that off with what ever kill is done by sport fishing. Oh I forgot about habitat and dredging and pollution.

Even if my figures are off a bit, the numbers speak for themselves!

And we all wonder why our fish are not returning like they did before the dams went in!!

If I had to point one finger…guest who I would point it at? The damn dams have change the fishery management and are the number one problem. They (the dams) have affected the entire management of our fishery on the Columbia, and its tributaries.

Cowlitzfisherman
Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the hook????