Not sure which of them it was....



.... but one of these "wild" kings set off ODFW creel checker Brooks' CWT wand at the EMB that day. Turned in the snout and it came back Lyons Ferry Hatchery.

Lyons Ferry is a mitigation hatchery built in 1982 as part of the the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan. In 2011 WDFW lethal-spawned 578 adults for an egg-take of 1.7 million. It is THE dedicated LSRCP facility for producing Snake River falls... an ESA-listed wild stock that has recently seen a remarkable resurgence.



We as anglers generically refer to any non-Rogue bright chinook caught in the CR estuary as URB's, but there is quite a diversity of "bright" stocks moving thru the fishery. This was an eye-opening catch for me. The very fact that we even encountered a Snake fish is a pretty good indication this stock is on the mend.