Upper Cowlitz Steelhead...

I have a few questions about the trucking of S.H. to the upper Cow. and Tilton rivers that was mentioned in a thread below. Is this an attempt to permanently reintroduce the fish to the upper watersheds? Will a steelhead live out it's life apart from saltwater? Or is this just a way of making use of extra fish? Any info availible about this program? I used to love trout fishing on the Tilton years ago when there were some nice fish to catch and the thought of fishing there for steelhead someday is cool. Can you imagine hooking a summer run on the upper Cispus in July?

Trailrat,

Yes, this is an attempt to restore anadromous fish to their historic habitat in the Cowlitz River upstream of Mayfield, Mossyrock, and Cowlitz Falls dams. Smolts have been collected at Cowlitz Falls for several years now. It needs improvement, as the collection efficiency was about 45% last spring. Nonetheless, over 345,000 wild coho smolts were collected and tranported downstream below the barrier dam. Over 70,000 coho smolts were passed at Mayfield Dam. Much smaller numbers of steelhead, cutthroat, and chinook were collected and passed downstream, but salmon and steelhead restoration are very much under way.

I'm not sure where you can get detailed information about it. BPA printed a restoration plan as part of the Cowlitz Falls project, so maybe you could get a copy of it from them. Other references to it are in the Cowlitz River hydro projects relicensing EIS. You can get that online from FERC. Unfortunately, I don't have their website address handy.

As far as fishing the upper river, it has been open, providing several opportunities. Coho salmon are most abundant, as Tacoma hauled over 70,000 adults above the dams this fall and winter, but some steehead are hauled up there too. You can keep ad clipped fish, maybe ventral clipped ones too - check the regs - but not the unmarked "wild" steelhead.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Thanks for the info Salmo. It's much appreciated.