B-Run- Thought I'd get back to you about some issues, that weren't bear related, with a new post.-- Yes, it is very sad to think about the once great runs of strong salmon that made it almost 1000 miles back to beautiful Stanley Basin near the headwaters of the awesome Salmon River. Before the dams it was full of all species of salmon and steelhead too. Now the return of native sockeye salmon to Redfish Lake, at the base of the Sawtooth Mountains, is down to around 4 per year! I flyfished for trout up there in the late 80's. We saw the sore nosed Springers in the hatchery ponds nearby. Even seeing hats up there was inspiring. But what now? After we have killed off the nates and the hats are hurtin'? Do you think the dams will actually ever be removed? In time? Too bad we didn't have the foresight about the fish and river destructiveness of the dams before they were built. Or did they?? When money is to be had we are not informed of many things- EVEN things very bad to everyone's health in our society. [Bleeeeep!]!- I saw a TV news piece a couple years ago showing movie actress Jamie Lee Curtis standing over 2 red colored sockeye nates penned up in the shallows of Redfish L. near a creek mouth. The Idaho F&W Dept. is trying to mate the last of these fish for broodstock genetics in an attempt to restore that run. I loved the symbolic publicity gesture. I hope miracles do happen! But talk about too little WAY too late!- About the Snake R. dam removal issue: Sportsmen from NW Oregon & SW Wash. recently towed over 100 fishing boats to a Portland conference on this issue. So we have let the powers to be know that we will at least be heard. However, remember the money. I sat thru much of this conference and listened to mostly special interest groups (such as the power industry, barging industry, agricultural industry, etc.) argue only of their money interests; and influence. Ugly, but some of their points about dam removal do have some merit. It would be immensely complicated and fraught with uncertainties. Also enormously expensive for everyone in the NW. The NMFS or the Army Corp of Engineers didn't seem real impressed with what pro-dam removal speakers had to say. I personally would love to see it happen, with as minimal negative impact as possible, to restore some of the lost natural habitat and of course to help salmon restoration. But I'm not going to hold my breath in anticipation. We'll see. I hope in time to save some native runs.-- Hey B-Run, you forgot to tell me what you know about any salmon or steelhead nates that may still make it up thru the Clearwater River into the Locksa and Selway trib.s to spawn. Or are there only the big B-run Dworshak hats that go up the N.Fork? Let me know what you can find out about it. It would be more than good to hear that some are still there. Magical in a sense. Take care, Steve Hanson

Your right Reel, I took off on your other post. As for your question. Some steelhead still make it up to 3 forks. A small run of naits has been trying to re-establish itself in the south fork of the clearwater also. As for salmon, I don't think so. If there are it would be very few. They used to get all the way up to selway falls. When I was a kid, you could go outside stanley and see salmon spawning in valley creek (in the big meadow there in the valley) I think those fish are totally gone now. I really don't think those 4 damns are going anywhere. My greatest hope is that the reality will sink in and the other items that can be addressed will be. The Idaho elect have been sitting with their thumbs in their butts watching this happen. They are so worried about giving up some water that they can't see the forest thru the trees.

A while back, I was watching a program ( the in fisherman) sorry guys.. fishing shows root me to the couch like nothing else besides maybe Heather Locklear.. Anyway, these guys Al and Ron Linder where in the columbia hooking up on some pretty nice walleye. The one guy is telling the other that as soon as all the political stuff gets settled that the columbia could become the largest walleye fishery in the world.. In effect, when the salmon are gone we can turn this river into a perch hole and get down to real fishing.. That was disturbing to me to say the least..

On another note, I pick up my new boat today and thats pretty cool. Going to shift gears and go after some other stuff for a while. I have been fishing some sturgen (its all catch and release over here) and thats pretty fun. The lakes are starting to thaw out so fly fishing will start soon also. That will make me less cranky for a while anyway. Got a hot tip on a lake in the desert that was putting out some fish 20-26 inches last fall, going to go see what they did over the winter.