For counting purposes, the 2024-2025 steelhead season on the Lower Deschutes ends on April 30 and I will post final numbers and needed explanation after that. There will likely be more fish moving up into Upper Deschutes Basin tributaries from Lake Billy Chinook through May. (This recent post is a bit of a preview.) I have been talking to folks about the program recently, however, and have a few comments to make now.  As readers of this blog know, this year has been positive for the reintroduction program.  Many steelhead redds have been spotted in various upper basin tributaries so perhaps naturally spawned fish will be a non-trivial part of the returns in a few years.  What’s troubling is the ongoing lack of management of the Crooked River for steelhead as well as many steelhead moving up the Metolius River.

The chart above is only the most recent example of dramatic and abrupt changes in flows.  A few days ago flows were dropped from 1850 cfs to 1140 in only three hours.  Two days ago they went from 1150 cfs to 1720 in only one hour.  This is ridiculous in so many ways.  Think of steelhead redds being dewatered among other things. As you can see in the graph below, dramatic changes in flows have been common this year. Sure, flood control is a primary driver of releases out of Bowman Dam, but they don’t have to be so dramatic.

In the past, perhaps there was some justification for this given the 10(j) status of reintroduced steelhead.  10(j) means “nonessential experimental population”.  That designation expired on January 15 of this year, however, and steelhead above Round Butte Dam are now a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act as are steelhead in the Lower Deschutes.  Isn’t it time for some appropriate action by the Bureau of Reclamation to control flows out of Bowman Dam to accommodate this threatened population?

Switching gears, there have been reports of anglers unintentionally catching steelhead in the Metolius River this year. It is widely believed that steelhead were not historically present in the Metolius River. So, why are they there now? There are a few potential explanations that probably all contribute to their presence.

As I have noted many times, steelhead being reintroduced into the upper basin are from the Round Butte Hatchery that have been inbred for decades. Degraded genetics and highly altered life histories certainly play a role.

While these fish are from RBH stock, and are incubated at RBH, but when they reach fry stage they are trucked to Wizard Falls Hatchery on the Metolius River, reared to smolt stage, and then trucked to a tributary like Whychus Creek where they are briefly held in acclimation pens before release. Spending many months in Metolius River water at Wizard Falls likely imprinted that water on these fish far more than a few days in an acclimation pen.

It could have been the case that steelhead historically did move up the Metolius for spawning at least in small numbers. In large part, steelhead and rainbow trout are genetically identical. Why some choose to remain as trout in rivers even when they have access to the ocean and others choose the steelhead life cycle is a mystery. One hypothesis is that poor seasonal river conditions such as lack of food or low flows triggers an out migration to the ocean if possible. If river conditions remain good, however, sub-adult steelhead are known to often “residualize” or remain as trout in their natal river.

Conditions in the Metolius River are very favorable to a resident life history. So, even if a spawning pair of adult steelhead built their redd in the Metolius their offspring may never turn into smolts and head to the ocean. This could also explain why the Crooked River was historically the source of most upper basin steelhead. Flows in the Crooked River watershed are highly seasonably variable, providing ample motivation to head to sea.

A final comment in this already too long post. If reintroduced steelhead do spawn in the Metolius, and their offspring residualize, it is bad news for Metolius trout. The resident redband trout population will not benefit from mixing their genes with reintroduced fish.