For summer steelhead season on the Deschutes river runs from July through April of the next year. The 2025-2026 season is now over and the results are mixed for the Upper Basin reintroduction effort. A total of 900 steelhead were passed from the Lower Deschutes into Lake Billy Chinook. The previous season’s total was 968. Of those 900, 424 were excess broodstock from Round Butte Hatchery, 471 adults were raised in RBH and released as smolts, and 5 adults were from natural spawning in the Upper Basin (above LBC). If you want commentary on this, see what I wrote last year. (If you use the search function on this blog you can find year’s worth of commentary on returns.) The bottom line is that the reintroduction program continues to fall far short of its goal of establishing naturally spawned fish, but with more and more adults being passed into the Upper Basin, there is still hope for success over the long term.