Bank Walker, how can you call the 2004 summer run season even mediocre when Reiter did not open until mid-October? 2000 was a banner year? Do you remember 1990's when it opened in early July and there were 50 fish caught per day, every day? The last "above average" year was 1997, IMO.....straight downhill since then. Every year its harder and harder to get their lousy 350 fish.

Anyone who has spend any time fishing or hunting in WA should by now realize that populations of deer, elk, grouse, upland birds, FISH, etc. run in cycles due to many factors - harsh/mild winters, El Nino, etc. Hopefully this the the bottom of the cycle and it will start to improve.

Salmo, I have laid off our fish managers due to the even worse drop in steelhead numbers on Vancouver Island, who I thought were doing a much better job with the same resource.

But this "ocean conditions" thing is a little confusing. I mean, how can ocean conditions be so awesome for salmon (evident by large runs of big fish - 15 lb pinks and 20 lb coho?) and so pitiful for steelhead? How can the Snohomish watershed have such crappy steelhead habitat yet have primo salmon habitat that foster runs of 200,000+ coho?

How critical is habitat as it pertains to returning numbers of hatchery fish? Maybe some as outgoing juveniles, but isn't it more of a numbers game? I mean this years Cow return is from a plant of 159,000 smolts, two years ago the return was from a plant of 650,000 fish. I bet they will have fewer fish in the Cow this summer, regardless of habitat or ocean conditions, right? I bet if the Sky plant was 207,000 instead of 107,000 fishing would be much better on the Sky at present.

Habitat is a very critical issue when talking about winter/spring wild steelhead, but for summer hatchery fish?

Due to the absence of Sky summer fish I have been scouting other rivers and am having quite a bit of fun. Finding other species to target helps too, like this 4-5 lb Dolly I got yesterday.



Ike