Stam,

Laffin' is right, uh-huh. Fishermen can be a good source of information, but the track record proves they are also the source of the least reliable information. I know, I know, you've never, ever, heard a fisherman lie, but not everyone lives in your small bubble Stam. As for state records passing for knowledge, I'll say that it's one part of knowledge and a place to begin. Just as the track record proves fishermen info is often notoriously unreliable, state or other gov't. records are frequently incomplete - which was a good thing for me as it got me a temporary job surveying - guess what? - spring chinook.

RR,

Straying is what fish do, especially early run fish like spring chinook and summer steelhead.

Drifter,

You're one lucky old man!

Red,

You're very right on the first count, but not so much on the second. The Chehalis springer run is so small that it defies meaningful conservation biology to allow a fishery on it.

Rvrguy,

You may recall about the Skook dam that old WDG was very aggressive about getting full fish and wildlife mitigation from Pacificorp, thanks to the hard work of a bio I'm sorry to have forgotten his name (it's on the plaque by the wildlife area). Old WDF didn't pursue salmon mitigation nearly as hard. Don't know why.

The Chehalis basin is atypical of westside springer habitat, but if you look at where the springers spawn (or did), it is in the areas that most closely resemble spring chinook habitat. I hypothesize that the run is a relic of former times when climate and watershed conditions were more favorable for them. And given the elevations, it probably never was a large run, but has always been well known and played a significant part in Chehalis Tribal culture.

While the EF has no doubt always been a chinook stream, I think it's under-cutting it to say primarily chinook. The EF also has ideal steelhead, cutthroat, and coho habitat, the latter two species in the upper section especially.

A lot of bucket fish biology has gone on in the Chehalis basin for sure. Looks like you have the inside track on a lot of it.

LarryB,

It's likely that they did, and equally likely that not a single recruit returned from the effort.

Strike Zone,

Hey, I'm not the one who called the late 80s and early 90s "back in the day." OK, I'll stay off your azz. Now go trim your mullet.

Eric,

Way to throw a stone in the soup! It would take more info than that bit from Suckley to sort it out. I doubt PS tribes would travel to the Satsop to fish, since they had local rivers and fish. Like Rvrguy mentions, the probability for a summer chinook in the Satsop would be far more likely than springers. The springs (water source) on the EF are an important water source that would facilitate a summer stock. Not sure of the stock, but I saw Sept. spawners in the EF 40 years ago.

Sg