Eldon Ladd and more salmon stats!

[Jennie@ifish]

This just in from Eldon... I haven't heard from him in a long time!
He is known for his awesome steelhead reference book, available through Amato Publications, called... "Steelhead Reference Guide" by Eldon Ladd.

Anyway, I posted the chart he sent me, HERE.

I hope you have no trouble accessing it.

Anyway, here is his letter, in part:

I came across the 2003 Oregon Salmon & Steelhead Fishing Guide on the ODFW
website. The web address is:
http://www.dfw.state.or.us
Look under the Blue heading of FISH, then click on the Main Fish Page (first
listing), then look under Hot Topics on the next page, then click on the
2003 Oregon Salmon & Steelhead Fishing Guide. The ODFW has already taken my
advice and listed this guide under Hot Topics. Notice that it is also
listed under the Fishing Information heading.

I think you and your readers will really like this simple guide and format.
It complements the work I did in my book, but it is geared to 2003 runs and
it is more general in nature. I thought of your as soon as I looked at this
guide.

Next topic, I researched the Spring Salmon runs from 1977- 2003 over
Bonneville Dam and put it into an Excel spreadsheet & graph. I have
attached this in this email and you have my permission to put in on your
website, or use it as you please. I hope you enjoy it! Note: the recent 4
year runs are the best on record since records were kept at Bonneville when
it was built in 1938. "It's the Ocean - not the Dams"!! Our environmental,
luddite, dam breaching neighbors just hate this kind of data. Don't get me
wrong, dams are a detriment to fish, but there is so much more we can do to
restore habitat, etc. and keep the dams and still have fish.

Lastly, I am happy to tell you I caught my largest silver salmon, 17 lbs.
above McNary Dam of all places last October. The very next week I caught a
wild steelhead which we estimated at 23 lbs. in the same spot with the same
Red Herringbone Wiggle Wart. We released the fish and never netted it, as I
hate to net wild fish. Then, on April 15th this year I caught a 40 lb.
Springer which was 43 inches long at the Wind River on a Reba McEntire
magnum Wiggle Wart. We bled the fish just after catching it and cut out the
gills and guts and 12 hours later it still weighed 32 lbs dressed weight!
Oh, and it was mighty good eating!

I guess I should just stop fishing, but there are so many fish to still be
caught! And, if you believe the biologists at the University of Washington
fisheries program, they have a theory of a duo-decadal cycle every 20 years
in the ocean. And, we are about 3-4 years into a favorable cycle in Oregon,
Washington, and British Columbia.

Jennie, thanks for listening to my ramblings and keep up the good work.
Also, let me know if you would like a couple of my books to give away and I
will send them to you.

Happy Catching,
Eldon Ladd

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">Interesting stuff! You should read his book!
--and he IS sending me some for some contests. :smile:
YAY!
Jen