The falls were impassible (or nearly?) until the fishway was built on the 1950s, same money that built, err partially built the Sunset falls fishway on the Sky and the Granite falls fishway on the SF Stilly. The push was to get fish up into vacant habitat to make more and free fish!

The Deschutes fish passage issue came about after mass marking had entered the scene and harvest rate management on the unmarked fish became the metric. Like Carcassman indicated, it complicated the fishery in that, you had to manage for these free fish (naturally produced in the Deschutes, as if they were wild ESA fish. Easier to just not pass them.

And yes, all food grade fish end up at the food bank, via the state contracted buyer.