Caught me way off guard here too!!

Especially since I was the one hired by PSE the past few years to shuttle & help do redd counts and surveys for both chum and kings from the Baker River down to Sedro as part of their re-licensing project. Our area WDFW Biologist at the time was invited out on many occasions to join us and see things for himself,...but sadly declined.

Was kinda like watching paint dry after the first week or two, but I can tell you this much,..there were redds everywhere Fall of 2002!! Bar just below the Dalles Bridge we counted & surveyed close to a hundred redds of which maybe 10-15 were dewatered in extremely low flows. About a half mile below that 128 redds in a 200 - 300 yard section of the river of which close to 30 were on the brink of being dewatered, in low flows. (spent a whole day here just on this one bar) Remember too 2002 was the year the OP was shut down due to extremely low flows and fishing here was out of this world!! Water was low here too so the fish adjusted, if anything their redds were covered with too much water during the winter (if thats possible) We also did some fry and smolt surveys in the Spring of 2003 and the numbers were impressive enough to easily catch them with a fish tank net for studying and identifying!!

Surveys included redd counts, depth measurements, water velocity readings among other things and were done at high, medium and low water flows at different times of the year. The job was very thorough and intensive!!

Most Redds effected by the Baker River are from Concrete to just above Hamilton. Only a handfull below Gilligan Creek in spots not usually fished at all and mostly in side channel areas. If the WDFW wanted to protect one of the largest Salmon runs on the Skagit that could definately support a sport fishery than they should have it open from Gilligan Creek down river at the least.