Heard a rumor the state was gonna plant a bunch of sockeye there. That should be a fishery we all should get to enjoy. The skokes and sporties can share the river 50/50. Hooked up on some mondo sized kings outta there and got some good footage on the old camera! Could make a cool video on that fishery.

There are plans for sockeye in Cushman. At least at present, the Skoks weren't allowing recs on the lower river as they claim it. State hasn't, that I have heard, fought it.

4/17/2022

Wow, sockeye in Cushman might be a good fishery.

I'm sure the lower river in closed to rec fishers, something that was brought on by "some sportsmen". Same type of sportsmen are causing problems in the Southern Willapa rivers, time will tell if NOF, this year will cause changes in the sport fishery in the Willapa rivers??????

Baker sockeye have been transplanted to Cushman. The TP hatchery that stands alongside Hwy 101 by the Potlatch boat launch is the sockeye salmon facility. I haven't checked to see how the introduction program is coming along. They should be getting adult returns the last year or two.

04/18/2022

Cushman has no fish ladder.

So does that mean any sockeye placed in the lake become, by definition, Kokanee?

I remember fishing Lake Cushman, for Kokanee, in the late 70's.... I also seem to remember that my success was limited......and lost a few "gang trolls"

Drifter, I remember fishing Cushmamn with my dad back in the day. We pretty well on kokanee. Also caught some cutts. I also caught a landlocked chinook back then also. About 6-7 lbs. You could keep them then but I think they are catch and release now. Also some really big dollies in there but also protected.

We also lost gear on the stumps in there.

Out go-to rig for kokanee was a gang troll and behind it we trolled a small flatfish with the hooks removed. After the tandem trebles were removed ,we would tie a short leader (4-5") to the screw eye of the flatfish with a pair of small worm hooks. Then put a small garden worm on the two worms hooks (Don't ball up the worm) but stretch it out on the two hooks. the action of the flatfish would make that worm wiggle and it drove the kokanee nuts. That trailing worm hook would catch a light biting kokanee pretty much every time. Tried the same rig at Summit lake with great success on the koks there also. Haven' been to either lake in years. Oh well ,a little off subject but just the mention of Lake Cushman brings back great memories.

04/18/2022



Sometimes ya gota do, what a guy gota do!!!!! Thanks for the input and memories also........

Interesting anecdote here.. was hiking the little trail at today he head of Cushman where the NF Skok feeds into it. This was January 1st I specifically remember because my girlfriend at the time and I wanted to get out there to start the new year.

Anyways, this was well before I got into salmon and steelhead fishing, just trout at the time, and we see these two giant salmonids basking in the sunlight. Me, not knowing the run timing of them, just assumed they were salmon. Could’ve been Coho I suppose, but I’m guessing maybe early Steelhead? I’m not aware of them passing Coho into the reservoir. We sat and watched them for five or ten minutes.

Pretty cool at the time, and still cool to think about. Really hoping they were steelies. Great habitat once you get above that damn reservoir.

Big Dollies? There are some huge ones in there. Also there is a self sustaining run of chinook salmon in Cushman. Both are protected . Never heard of any coho being caught in there when I fished it.

Either kings or bull trout.
We used to fish Cushman a lot in the 60’s and 70’s for Kokanee.
Had good success. If I recall correctly it was a 16 fish limit back then on kokes. Our go to was lead core line, long mono leader and a silver with red head triple teaser. Caught some nice big cutts as well.
Never caught any bull trout but a buddy got one that was about 12 lbs or so trolling a spoon.
Would have loved to have seen the NF Skok and the gorge and lake up there before it was inundated.
Visiting the old Marcus Nalley cabin on the other side of the lake was always a fun experience as a kid.
SF

Not that they don’t exist, but these would’ve been 10+ pound dollies. Certainly a possibility, but why not Steelhead? Does seem a tad bit early for presumably wild fish, but still.

It is quite possible for there to be a small number of adfluvial rainbows existing within Cushman that utilize the feeder creeks and north fork for spawning, however the lake and the north fork in particular are known for their sizable bull trout. My guess would be that what you observed were bull trout.

The other possibility is that you saw chinook or some exceptionally sized sockeye, but the likelihood of it being these is probably much lower. Highly unlikely to have either been coho or steelhead.



Steamy

Makes sense. Good to know. They were pretty cool to watch.

There were no anadromous fish above Cushman until very recently when the Skoks may have introduced sockeye. The two large salmonids where Chinook, which were probably introduced from Hoodsport in the 50s but may have been residualized anadromous fish trapped by the dam, and Bull Trout (closely related to Dolly Varden). They regularly exceeded 20 pounds into the late 70s when the effects of overfishing on the spawning run (fall spawners) occurred. So, those were very likely a couple of big Bulls.

Drifter,

It's true that Cushman has no fish ladder. A ladder would not work for fish passage at that dam because the water surface elevation fluctuates 40 feet or more from late winter to summer. A ladder cannot adjust to that much variation. What TP has done is install a Floating Surface Collector (FSC) very similar to the successful downstream juvenile fish collectors used at Upper and Lower Baker dams. For upstream passage, TP has installed a fish trap at the base of Lower Cushman Dam that uses a tram to raise trapped fish up to a fish sorting facility at the top of the dam. From that point fish are transferred to the new hatchery facility at Potlach (the sockeye hatchery) or the new hatchery facility near Lake Kokanee (the spring Chinook and steelhead hatchery), or they can be released directly into Lake Cushman. It ain't natural, but then there's nothing natural about a river with two dams that are each over 200' high either. Nonetheless, these are effective methods for passing anadromous fish up and downstream in an effort to restore runs that have been extirpated.

There have been large bull trout and land locked Chinook in Cushman for who knows how long. I've seen dark Chinook near where the NF Skok enters Cushman as late as December, so it's certainly possible that you saw the same species on Jan. 1. I don't think TP and the other stakeholders have begun passing coho or steelhead into Cushman yet, but I should check since I've been out of the loop for about 6 years.

this is from the TP website for Cushman Fish Project report for 2020;

"Our release goal for sockeye is 2,000,000 each year, but obtaining the eggs has been a challenge.

“Puget Sound Energy’s Baker Lake stock provides us with the eggs, but, due to scarcity issues, they have only been able to provide 250,000 to 500,000 eggs per year, and this year they won’t be able to provide any,” Andrew said. “They are our only option – no other basin that has a large-enough run that could spare any. Thankfully, we had 127 fish return, about half of which are female, so we should have roughly 100,000 eggs.”

Let's just say you have plenty of time to get your sockeye gear ready.

What don't they get eggs from the Cedar?
It can't hurt, since the chances of ever having another Lk WA season again are slim to none with the ridiculous escapement numbers needed.
SF