Sockeye on the Columbia?

[graybeard]

I can remember my grandfather cleaning some huge fish when I visited him in the 1950's. He told me they were sockeye salmon caught on the Columbia. Does anyone know about this run? Is there still a run of sockeye in the Columbia?

[bait boy]

Yes there are still sockeye in the Columbia. Just look at the Fish passage data for the last few dozen years.

That said, Good luck if you try and catch them...

[graybeard]

Thanks bait, I shoulda thought of that! :grin:

[GutshotApe]

GB - Until about 1928, fishwheels used to catch tens of thousands of pounds of sockeye (searun kokanee :wink: ) that swam in huge runs close to the riverbank. There are still runs that go up to Lake Wenatchee, Lake Osooyos(sp?), and a handful to Redfish Lk in Idaho. Runs to Wallowa Lk, Kachess/Keechelus Lks (Yakima River) and Suttle Lk (Deschutes) and probably others have been exterminated by dams built without fish ladders. :depressed:

About 10 yrs ago a run of 200-300 sockeyes developed in the South Santiam from kokanee dropping down from Green Peter res. ODFW killed off this run because of disease concerns.

[ 10-29-2002, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: GutshotApe ]

[Trick]

Seen a sockeye caught off of Rainer beach a few months ago. That was the first sockeye I ever saw caught in the Columbia, though I have heard of several others. A freind landed one down by Clatskanie a couple seasons ago. The dam counts are respectable but these little boogers do not bite often. The one I saw landed was only about 5 lbs.

[ 10-29-2002, 01:06 PM: Message edited by: Trick ]

[graybeard]

I should clarify. I do not want to catch these endangered fish. I was just curious as to what happened to the huge runs. My grandfather was a farmer and not much of a fisherman, so if he could catch them, they must have been easy pickings. I was curious because I haven't heard talk of this run since I was a kid.

Paddlefish, you hit the nail on the head. Those fish seemed huge to me because I was a pre-teenager, and it was the first time I'd seen anything larger than a trout. Their heads and tails stuck up out of a sink, which would make them in the 10 lb class.

Thanks for the info guys, I'm saddened to find the run is so depleted. Hopefully the powers that be will find a way to to bring it back.

[garyk]

I believe the Snake River dams are largely to blame for the sockeye's demise. As noted prior, these salmon spawn in the furthest headwaters.

The good news is the Tribes are serious about getting fish passage both upstream AND down at the Pelton RoundButte complex, and are making progress.

They're more interested in getting chinook back into the Metolius system, however, if successful it would likely get the sockeye run going again. We might again see both kokanee and their bigger brother Sockeye coursing up the Deschutes to the Metolius and up Lake Creek to Suttle Lake. Pretty neat, eh?

[321mx-r]

Hey- Last year my 9 yr old son caught and released a Sockeye on the N. Fork of the Lewis. I figured it to be a washover out of Merwin. I spoke to my dad about the catch and he said back in the 60's he would catch a few along with a chum every now and then.
Too bad the" powers- that-be" don't try and rejuvinate some of these runs.

[GutshotApe]

The Columbia is closed for sockeye salmon fishing. It may be to protect the endangered run of a handful of sockeyes that go up the Columbia/Snake/Salmon Rivers to Redfish Lk. The runs that go up to the Wenatchee and Okanogan Rivers are much more plentiful.
Few sockeye are ever caught in the Columbia because they make fast upriver transits and don't bite bait or lures very well. That there are any sockeyes returning to Idaho's Redfish Lk is a miracle because the Salmon River which drains the lake had an impassible dam (Sunbeam) blocking all anadramous fish for a decade or more in the 1930s-40s. The few Redfish sockeyes must be derivitives of kokanee that reverted to anadramous lifestyle? :whazzup:

[Paddlefish]

Graybeard:

The only thing which makes me hesitate about this whole thread is the mention of "huge fish."

The Columbia sockeyes aren't typically very large fish. Somebody correct me if I''m wrong, but I don't think they typically reach 10 pounds.

Maybe it's because you were a wee lad in the 50s and they ALL seemed huge to you! :grin:

(And they would have seemed doubly, hugely huge if you lived in Iowa in the 50s like I did!!) :grin: :grin:

That said, there are typically some caught in mid-summer on the Columbia, especially in the years of greater abundance. I'm not sure that I've ever stumbled across a well-developed technique for targetting them on the Big River, though. You could start with some of the Lake Washington techniques, I suppose. (I used to fantasize about fluorescent orange or pink squid flies fished on sinking fly lines off Bradford Island, but never got around to it.)

Oh, and pay close attention to the regs: some years they're off limits entirely. :shocked:

Good luck with the exploration!

[Miss B Haven]

Paddlefish- I think that was huge "runs" not huge "fish." :whazzup:

[Hummingbird]

Graybeard,
I also heard of the Columbia Sockeye when I first came to Oregon in the early 60's. My uncle would take me fishing back then until they started trucking them to Wapato Lake. :grin: :grin: :grin: . Good Luck in your conquest!! :cheers: Tight Lines, Tom

[lost_sailor]

very much the endangered species.