The most endangered run of all !!! I just heard that as many as 100 sockeye salmon have crossed lower granite dam and are headed to the stanley basin. While that sounds like nothing its actually a good return when you concider that in most years as few as 1 have made it back. Pre lower snake dams the run was in the 100,000's closer to a million. I guess I just have to say ( WELCOME HOME BABYS!!!) Is it possable that a huge run of steelhead is right behind you??? Just goes to show what several good water years in a row can do.

B-RUN:

That is good news! let me ask you this though; Is this the same strain of sockeye that returns to redfish lake? If it is, then it truly is a miracle. I remember watching a special on the redfish lake sockeye run and how they were looking for returns of SINGLE FISH! Seems to me there was a year or two where no females returned so they spawned the males and froze the milt to hopefully use later if and when more fish returned in order to preserve the genetic integrity of the run.

If this same run is up to a hundred and they can be left alone, and good river/ocean conditions persist.....I'm hopeful.

It's small numbers in the big picture but fighting back from 1 fish returns/extinction is encouraging. Now let's see how some of the other upper Columbia fish respond.

These are redfish lake fish!!! Every thing you stated was true. A couple of years none returned. Its like putting your last dollar into a slot machine and getting a 100 dollars back!!! A small victory for the snake and salmon rivers !!!! How many actually will get to the lake is still a question. A couple of years ago, a lone male was spotted at lower granite.. they named him Sam or something like that. The whole state waited and figured he did'nt make it. Then, just when everybody was about to give up, there he was in the fish trap. I have high hopes for this years wild B-run crop of steelhead... please please please swim around the nets and come home !!!!

Hey B-run, just thought I'd give a little update to your 100 sockeye numbers. I just looked at the army corp of eng. site for fish passage and as of 072900 there have been 266 sockeye counted over lower granite dam!! Yes, that is nothing short of incredible. I believe a few years back the idaho F/G blew nearly their hole wad of milt and eggs that had been stored and this is the end result. It appears that their timing was excellent (ie:lucky as hell) in that the ocean conditions were favorable for a good return of fish. Lets hope that conditions can stay this good in the ocean for a few years and mayby some of these endangered stocks can stage a comeback. Unfortunately, with all they must go through it's going to be a long time (apparently at least ten years...dams Hmmm) until they can even be a shadow of what they were. Until then it's great to see that there is some progress being made

tight lines and lets keep our fingers crossed for those big B's!

Duke

If memory serves me correctly, that solitary sockeye that made it to Redfish a few years back became forever known as Lonely Larry. There's a lot of water to cover between Lower Granite and Redfish -- what, 300-some miles? -- but having almost 300 fish past the dam is certainly an encouraging sign. So far as a good steelhead run, everything seems to point in that direction. Already seeing the occasional fly fisherman churning the water in the top end of the Mill Hole. Word around is that some guys have already picked up three or four.

Thinker, Thank-you very much for your insight into a very delicate issue. It should become mandatory reading for all!! Lessons learned!!

Sunbeam dam was removed totally. All that remains are some chunks of cement on the side of the river. This leaves the Salmon river as the longest free flowing river in the lower 48. No other fish has to go as far in terms of river miles from the ocean than these Sockeye. The steelhead and Springer also go this far. Not sure about your numbers thinker. They seem on the low side but I will look into it. I know that the Springers far outnumbered the 4136 total count you quoted for 1955. The total decline in that run can be directly traced the the 4 lower snake dams . Thanks for that post. It has some good info and I need to look it up.

B-Run Steely, just wanted to make sure that you did not think any of the numbers applied to Spring Chinook. It was strictly information on Sockeye. I did not write most of the information in my post, it is strait cut and paste from the full Army Corps report released a while ago that I downloaded to my computer in PDF format.

Thinker, thanks for the sad but true history lesson! It's easy to forget what we used to really have for fish runs here on our side of the mountains. I was aware of all the habitat destruction due to logging, farming (grazing, irrigation...), mineing and even trapping years ago but the info on the dams on the Payette and Wallowa areas are interesting. Funny that you never hear anything about those dams concerning fish recovery. It's sad that once a run is gone how fast it fades from memory.


Duke

I for one hope that the run is good this year. I only had one fish in the boat(I didn't land it) this year for over 80 hours of river time. I still have not landed a fish in the Clearwater since I got my new boat and am hoping to do so with my two new sons. I would also like to take my older brother fishing over there since he has not fished over there since graduating from Moscow high in the late 70's. I will keep my fingers crossed for your(our??) rivers.