Anyone know how to access Winter and Summer Steelhead Smolt Plant information documents from the WDFW website by year? On the website, access to posted publications only go back to 2015. I'm looking for older documents. I know they exist at least back into the 70's. Tried the document search page and came up with nothing. Not sure if my search titles are accurately worded. Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I dont think WDFW has any of that old release data linked on their website. Historical salmonid releases going back to nearly the Jurassic can be found at RMPC.org, the coastwide data base. What years and rivers are you looking for?

Interesting that WDG used to put out a one-page document that had smolts releases that fed the coming year and the previous year's sport catch by stream by month and it was available early enough to plan your fishing.

Yes. I have various publications from the mid 80's to early 90's. Used to call Bob Leland from Steelhead Programs to obtain them by mail before the season to plan trips. Before the computer access days. The whole state info. on a page or fold out. Looking to fill gaps in years I don't have.

WDFW seems to want to hide any historic data. "Historic" meaning before last year.

Luckily the WDFW has made it pretty easy to plan your steelhead trips this year. Most of our options are closed waters now, so that really simplifies things
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12/8/2021

Smolt numbers---Before the change to the new format, they were available for many years BEFORE 2015.....unless they wiped out complete storage drives, that information should be available.

If you get "stone walled"......A Personal Document Request(PDR) can loosen the access......

Good luck......

Hey, tried the following.....got 420 "hits", picked one.....had LOT'S of Data but on right hand side had "smolt numbers

Here is what I typed in search bar ......... smolt plants, western Wa, 1995

I'm assuming that you might be able to "do it by river, maybe by Region"

WOW, was able to do it.....tried same wording, nothing ????? have no answer...grrr

Yeah, that was handy. I might still have some of those old print outs in my files, the dusty files. Funny how with this high tech computer age and a re-designed WDFW website, standard information is either hard to find or not accessible via the website.

That's a good point. If I fish a couple rivers this winter I should be able to meet every steelheader in the state!

It does surprise me, Salmo, that back in the day WDF and WDG could do in-season updates, daily management, provide planting and catch records with all that ancient technology. I would have thought that advances in technology would have improved the information delivery.

technology advances require people who can and want to make information available. Old game had strong roots in the local communities and as is now that was not the case with wdf.

Excellent summary. That's it in a nutshell.

I have actually asked for information about tribal harvest numbers, ones that used to be on their public website. I was told that the information was unable to be given as it was privileged information and could not be shared due to tribal rights. At the same time, others in the department provided the same information on other locations with no problem. I think in some cases it has more to do with laziness than anything, but it shows how they can hide information if they want.

Some of the historical steelhead data (up to 2005?) can be found here -

https://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/000150

Go to the appendix of interest scroll through to the river/system (summers or winters) of interest. Believe that the data set has is updated regularly though don't have a handy link to those latest updates though the WDFW has provided them to advisor groups.

Curt

I inquired from WDFW and just received an Excel Spreadsheet for Steelhead Smolt Plants, but it won't post here. The sheet is titled plants from 1921-2021. Some interesting info. Was hoping to obtain something like the old style sheets that listed specific rivers plant numbers for a given year. I have those starting from 1990 to present. Really want specific river plant numbers from the 70's and 80's when I started fishing. The spreadsheet, prior to 1995 listed State plant totals only and no specific river numbers. One thing is for sure per this data. State wide Hatchery Steelhead Smolt Plant numbers have declined in numbers since 1995, where they peaked at 10.3 million. The steady decline is at the low of 4.9 million today. Just through my experience I have witnessed that. Now one can argue that survival conditions are crap today making things worse. But I still believe that if 10 million were planted today, viable recreational Steelhead opportunities would still exist. It's just the choice has been made not to.

Don't know why the link in the previous post does not work.

The appendices are from the report

Oncorhynchus mykiss: Assessment of Washington State's Steelhead populations and programs.

Maybe just another example how hard that data is to get.

Curt

The link states "Page not found"?

Ok. Will search that report title. Any guidance as to where to start?

12/09/2021

I was trying different wording to get "smolt numbers from the old days"....found the following document dated 2018


https://wdfw.wa.gov/sites/default/files/...02018_final.pdf

Steelhead At Risk Report:
Assessment of Washington’s
Steelhead Populations


Mind overload for me but some might find the 181 pages helpful..

NOT funny...