Fish Count Question?

[Slow and Low]

I just noticed some minus fish counts over Bonneville. Are these fish migrating back to the ocean or just a mathematical correction. It would be cool to think some of these fish actually return to the sea.

[Steelie Mike]

Some of the summer fish that pass over Bonneville can be from Lower Columbia River tributaries. Try Comes talks about this Fly Fishng For Steelhead. Apparently tagging studies at Shears Falls have shown fish that steelhead have swam back downstream to rivers like the Washougal and Kalama.

Summer steelhead generally spawn in late winter and early spring. I know that timing varies, but I think you would find a downstream winter fish sooner then a downstream summer. It would be nice to think that we still have some races of steelhead that spawn multiple times above Bonneville, but I personally have my doubts.

[cphatts]

Pacific State Marine Fisheries Commission was a customer of mine at a previous job and I was able to tour Bonneville with them a few times. They had told me that it was very common for steelhead to go back and forth between the dams either on their way upstream or downstream. Similar to Mike's story about the Deschutes, they told me about one tagged steelhead that swam all the way up to McNary then dropped back through the dams to the Lewis. I've witnessed a few downstreamers going through their smolt pipe on accident, so I am quite sure it happens often. It all just adds to the the mystique of steelhead.

[Two Fister]

Originally Posted by Steelie Mike

Some of the summer fish that pass over Bonneville can be from Lower Columbia River tributaries. Try Comes talks about this Fly Fishng For Steelhead. Apparently tagging studies at Shears Falls have shown fish that steelhead have swam back downstream to rivers like the Washougal and Kalama.

Sam,
I had a friend that works for the Warm Springs tribes in their fishery department tell me about fish that they've tagged at the trap at Pelton that swam all the way back down river only to be caught later way upstream on the Clearwater. Talk about a wrong turn.

Hope you're starting to thaw out a bit!
Dan

[FishWonk]

Originally Posted by Steelie Mike

...It would be nice to think that we still have some races of steelhead that spawn multiple times above Bonneville, but I personally have my doubts.

A few are still able to make it back for a second and even third spawning, but as you can imagine, the dams make the odds even tougher - these are valuable fish! And all those B-run 'strays' from Idaho are one part of what make the Deschutes so exciting!

From: http://www.osti.gov/bridge/product.b...osti_id=903087

"Iteroparity, the ability to repeat spawn, is a natural life history strategy that is expressed by some species from the family Salmonidae. Estimated rates of repeat spawning for post-development Columbia River steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss populations range from 1.6 to 17%. It is expected that currently observed iteroparity rates for wild steelhead in the Basin are severely depressed due to development and operation of the hydropower system and various additional anthropogenic factors."