I've been out of the loop for a while. Is the Kalama even open this year? I know they shut it down the last 2. Thanks in advance

i dont think the rivers even there anymore.

I was there yesterday morning. No fish, no hits.

It's been a slow year for springers, not unlike the past several. I've only heard of a few fish being landed. I got one springer on Sunday, around 14lbs, on shrimp/eggs under a float. In the driving rain.......

Spring steelhead are showing, but they're hot and cold.

Lots of drift boats, and a fair number of bankies. The river is in great shape, a bit high, but the color is terrific. This warm weather might bring it up, and increase turbidity, but as of yesterday, it was great.

A call to Mahaffy's might provide more information.

I'm still scratching my head about how a river that has 500,000 spring chinook planted can have a return of less than 1000?

WC - I agree. At a return rate of 1%, that would be 5000 adults. The most adults that have EVER returned to the Kalama was 7000, and that was in 2007. The next highest was 3500, many years ago. But more to the point, the Kalama struggled to get 1000 adults back to the hatchery in 2008, 2009, and 2010. In fact, the river was closed to spring Chinook fishing in 2008 and 2009 because of low adult returns. Even more puzzling is that spring Chinook harvest in the ocean is almost zero (based on coded wire tags). Given the low success rate on the Kalama so far this year, another spring Chinook closure is possible this year, perhaps likely.

So, why does WDFW keep stocking spring Chinook in the Kalama River? If they are not returning as adults, why produce them as juveniles? Not a pleasant thought if you fish the Kalama River regularly, as I do.

Perhaps if WDFW stopped stocking springers on the Kalama, then every other river in Washington State with a hatchery program with a chronically low adult return rate would also be on the chopping block. That's a much more difficult situation. So WDFW continues to stock the Kalama (blindly) hoping that next year will be better.

This has been a dome scratcher for quite a while now and it's not just the Kalama. The Cowlitz and Lewis aren't a whole helluva lot better with their return rates many years. Aren't spring chinook a non-native stock in the Kalama? I'm pretty sure that's the case(I think) and if so, it could be as simple as poorly adapted genetics from wherever the stock originated. Along the same line, it could also be a burned out/dulled genetic robustness (producing a less-hardy fish) from too many years of selective hatchery spawning......not enough variation like you'd find in a true wild stock.

Whatever the case, there are no Columbia dams to contend with and the fish are just an earshot from the ocean. Puzzling too is that the Willamette basin fish seem to return better just across the Big C.

The other head scratcher is why did the kalama and lewis have such big returns from 04-07 and have such little returns now. Whatever the issue is it affected both rivers. Can't just blame the kalama hatchery program because the lewis has been in the same boat. The cowlitz has remained fairly steady, the cowlitz didnt see a major bump in returns in prior years like the kalama and lewis but has remained steady while the other 2 have failed. I do believe a lot of springers get caught up north by the lodges and AK sport fishers in the salt. Our ocean conditions are said to be much better now than in the 04-07 frame but returns have gone down. Kalama and lewis were not the only rivers to have big returns than either, drano, wind were gettin bigger numbers back then too. Very puzzling.

i was talking with a fish checker recently about the kalama. he rolled his eyes and said there is diffenitly something wrong with the managers on that river. he had nothing possitive to say about the direction of kalama now or in the future. the conversation was based on the spring and fall salmon.

not a warm fuzzy feeling.

i had heard the kalama and lewis runs went in the tank because the smolts got allocated to the safe zones. i don't know for sure, but the lousy fishing sure didn't seem to affect the number of fishermen down there the last couple of years.

Stock origin is the problem. They're using strains of fish that don't do well on the Kalama and the Lewis...... They need to go back to Carson stock, they faired very well in my younger years...

Stock Origin of Kalama:
This is a mixed stock with composite production. The current stock is composed of fish that are surplus to the needs of hatchery production. Hatchery broodstock has been released into the Kalama from a variety of sources including Eagle Creek (Oregon), Willamette (Oregon), Cowlitz and Little White Salmon rivers, although the hatchery broodstock is still about 88% native (Myers et al. 2002), and genetic analysis has shown them to be distinct from Willamette and other lower Columbia spring chinook stocks.

Stock Origin of Lewis River:
This is a mixed stock with composite production. The native component of the stock may have been extirpated or largely replaced by introduced hatchery stocks (Myers 2002). The hatchery component has received more out-of -basin introductions than the Cowlitz or Kalama hatchery spring chinook broodstocks. The Lewis River Hatchery broodstock was originally taken from Cowlitz and Carson National Fish Hatchery stocks in the 1970s. Since then, this stock has been propagated largely from returns to the hatchery; however, eggs and adults have been brought in from Kalama and Willamette (Oregon) hatchery stocks. The present naturally spawning spring chinook population in the Lewis River is composed primarily of hatchery returns, and as a result, most naturally spawning chinook are likely hatchery strays.

Just my humble opinion....

Keith

I spoke with the department last year and was told the fish for the safe areas are surplus fish, over and above what is needed for the hatchery stock. He specifically mentioned the cowlitz and the lewis. At least two hatcheries are used to raise the extra fish.

I do not get down there to fish like the old days. not since my mom passed. Many great trips though from the late 70s thru the 80s.
hooked my first springer in the Kalama. and many fine steelhead lands and lost fish.