"Are you saying you observed multiple redds dewatered by the May flow reductioin? I'll try to check with Dave and Stan this week and see what the records indicate."

No, because I didn't float the river after April 29th...river was blown on the 30th, and the season was over.

I can think of two spots off the top of my head, though, where adult steelhead were spawning during the last two weeks of April where the water was barely covering their backs...and not covering the backs of a few pretty large speciemens...

These weren't even in side channels, though one of the areas was in the tail of a small gravel island, in water too shallow to cover their backs...a few redds were observed in this area.

This area gets its water from a spill over the little island...I'm reasonably certain that this area was high and dry on May 2. The other area I'm 100% certain was high and dry on May 2.

Not one to quickly buy into conspiracy theories, but I find the timing of the drop to be interesting...the day after there is no one on the river to see it, the river is dropped after not only being kept high for two months, but after a large flood episode...seems an odd time to drop the river to stop letting water out due to high levels in the reservoir...that flood event had to replace a week or more of the water that had been let out previously.

There may be a perfectly reasonable explanation for it, but like I said, if they needed to keep it running high for two months to let the excess water out, allowing wild steelhead to spawn up on the beaches, why drop it not only the day after there won't be anyone there to see it, but the day after a significant flood event?

Fish on...

Todd