Alsea report - Fall creek question...

[steel_beaver]

I went out his morning thinking that the rain will get a few fish moving, but this wasn't the case. The north fork barely rose (if it did at all) but it had some green color for the first few hours of daylight. I saw one dark buck caught and released before noon. I guess we need more high water

So i thought since there are not too many fish up high, I should go downstream looking for them.... well the main river had a bit more color (1-2 ft vis max) and a lot of water. Didn't see any boats or people down low. I ended up at fall creek which was crystal clear and was surprised to see some nooks still spawning (there were lots of dead stinky ones all over the bank ). I walked down to the moth and fished it for a few hours with no luck. On my way out I saw three other guys (gear guys) with nothing to report.

So here is my question. Do they release any hatchery steel in Fall creek or is it strays from the main river only? does it get any steelhead, even nates? It looked like prime fly fishing water and not too much pressure...

Thanks and good luck to all

S_B

[Siwash]

I definitely recall reading that ODFW planted a smaller % of smolts from the NF hatchery into Fall Cr (like maybe 1/3 of what the NF got, but I don't remember for sure). That was a couple years ago, however. Not sure if they've changed that since the new facility opened on Fall Cr; might be they don't want them "cluttering" the returns with the new research projects anymore.

[santiamflyguy]

According to the facility manager that I talked to last March, they are no longer planting Fall Creek, and it has only a very small run of wild fish.