I started fishing it in 79 or 80 and at that time there were no winter run plants, all wild fish and quite a few of them. I later found out about a yearly plant of summer run up by the Mashel that only a hand full of us knew about. It wasn't a great run but it was a fun run that on some years ended up being pretty productive.

Also as I recall, the official sport catch, according to punch card data and the factor number they used to come up with the totals, seems to me it was around 1,200 fish. Bill's estimate of 5,000 seems way high! The fishing was good but not that good. A normal day in February or March for me was hooking 3-6 fish and landing one or two. I did have one day that I made three cast for three fish. One chrome bright, one with a line down the side and one down river fish. I doubt I'll ever have that kind of fishing here in Washington State again.