MaxMad

Let me give you my own "opinion" why the Cowlitz is not red hot for early winter steelhead.

It all goes back to the Settlement Agreement that WDFW signed with Tacoma!

Inserts from the August 2000 "Agreement":

"The emphasis of this Agreement is ecosystem integrity and the restoration and recovery of wild, indigenous salmonid runs, including ESA-listed and unlisted stocks, to harvestable levels"

Purpose of the Agreement
"It is the intent of the Parties that this Agreement shall resolve, to the satisfaction of the Parties, all issues associated with issuance of a new license for the Project regarding fish passage, fish production, … This Agreement establishes Tacoma’s obligations for the protection, mitigation ......"

"Fisheries management and hatchery production will be consistent with the overall goal of restoring and recovering wild stocks in the Cowlitz River basin"

"Maintenance of a recreational fishery is important. Implementation of wild salmonid recovery measures shall allow for the continued support of a recreational fishery on the Cowlitz River, including the production of non-indigenous stocks, provided this is consistent with the priority objective to maximize the recovery of wild, indigenous salmonid stocks"

"“Wild salmonid” or “wild, naturally spawning”, for purposes of this Agreement, means a stock of fish that is sustained by natural spawning and rearing in the natural habitat, regardless of parentage"

"“Indigenous” means a stock of fish that has not been substantially affected by genetic interactions with non-native stocks of fish and is still present in all or part of its original range in the Cowlitz River basin."

"If hatchery production is decreased in conjunction with wild stock recovery, there will be excess capacity over time at the hatchery. Uses for this excess capacity will be, in order of priority: 1) to reduce rearing densities of listed indigenous stocks which have not yet recovered; 2) to reduce rearing densities of indigenous stocks which have not yet recovered; 3) to provide space for increasing the production of listed indigenous stocks which have not yet recovered; 4) to provide space for increasing the production of indigenous stocks which have not yet recovered; and 5) to produce fish unrelated to Tacoma’s protection, mitigation and enhancement responsibilities for the Project, pursuant to future agreements."

Remember, the agreement was signed in August of 2000 and measures have been taken to "cut back" on hatchery production at that time! You are now seeing the results!

As to the color of the Cowlitz, I agree with you. I have never had good fishing for steelhead on the Cowlitz when the water is as dirty as it is now. The bad new is; don't look for the water conditions to improve in the years to come!

When you consider that there is approximately one million cubic yards of sediment transported into Riffe Lake each year, you will begin to understand why Riffe Lake is becoming such a huge pond of sediment. That sediment has to settle, so you can imagine how much silt is lying at the bottom of Riffe Lake. In recent years, whenever Tacoma generates full power (around 14,000 cfs) it pulls huge amounts of sediment from it's deep turbine intakes. It is my opinion, this is the number one reason for the prolong periods of dirty water that we have been experiencing for last several years.

I hate to paint such a gloom picture for the years to come, but so far I have been right on the money. It appears that we will continue to have a fair run of summer run steelhead, a poor to miserable run of early winter run steelhead, and a mediocre run of "late" winter run steelhead. But the days when sport fishers could expect to catch 10,000 or more steelhead from November to January are gone forever on the Cowlitz.

And you can thank WDFW, Tacoma, NMFS, WDOE, Yakama Nation, Trout Unlimited, and American Rivers for all of this!

Cowlitzfisherman