Eddie,

Yes, the Cowlitz River has wild steelhead - if we accept the definition of wild as being from natural reproduction.

Most of the wild steelhead on the Cowlitz are winter run fish resulting from the reintroduction program upstream of Cowlitz Falls Dam. Unmarked adult steelhead, along with ventral fin-clipped steelhead from an upper river rearing program, are collected at the barrier dam and trucked upstream of Cowlitz Falls to spawn naturally. Smolts from upriver production are not marked, except for some fish passage tests.

If your fish was a summer run, it was not from this program. It could have been the successful result of natural reproduction from hatchery spawners, or it may have been a hatchery fish that didn't get fin clipped. Not all hatchery steelhead exhibit a deformed dorsal fin. Or it might have been a wild fish dip-in from another river system.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.