I was up around the Fortson area today and was suprised to see several coho in the rearing pond and even more spawning in the stream that flows into it. All of them had an adipose fin, so I would assume they're wild. They were so thick in the stream that one could probably walk across their backs.

Are salmon reared in the pond or is it just steelhead? If only hatchery steelhead are being reared, then how do they keep coho and steelhead smolts seperate? I would think that when the steelhead are being fed pellets (or whatever they're fed) that the coho smolts would be getting an easy meal, which would explain why there are so many retuning adults.

Waker -
The ponds you were looking at are the Forston Mill Ponds; south of the old railroad grade. They are old ponds from the days the mill was active. The Whitehorse steelhead rearing ponds are on the north side of the railroad grade and is found several hundred yards upstream on the creek that enters the top end of the Forston Hole.

A large number of coho (all wild) use the Fortson Ponds; it is not uncommon to see hundreds of coho spawning in the creek between the two ponds (especially around Thanksgiving). WDFW doesn't raise coho at Whitehorse though the ponds are used for short term rearing of the supplemental chinook (from wild brod stock) raised
by the Stillaguamish Tribe.

Tight Lines
Smalma

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I was thinking it didn't look like much of a rearing site, especially since they load it with hatchery trout and have a big opening day derby there. So if the stream flows out of the ponds, does this mean that coho or any other species can't spawn above whithorse ponds?