I have been ignoring the drivel that continues to come out of the Deschutes River Alliance, but a local fly shop asked to me to comment on a recent post the DRA made titled “What’s Happening With Bull Trout on the Lower Deschutes?“. So, I took a look and, as usual, the tin foil hat crowd is off base. Yes, bull trout are ESA-listed which means that they are managed by the US Fish & Wildlife Service. Not Portland General Electric and not the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife. USFWS is the agency that has told Portland General Electric to transport some bull trout from Lake Billy Chinook to the Lower Deschutes. To reiterate, this is not a decision made by PGE and ODFW has nothing to do with it.

Yesterday was the 31st annual Deschutes fisheries workshop. I can’t recall exactly when I started attending these but I think I’ve been to about half of them. I’ll post again when the presentations are made available online, but here’s a summary. The headline is that, once again, real science shows that the Lower Deschutes is in fine shape. Anadromous fish reintroduction has not been a success but it is not negatively impacting the lower river.

For over three decades Portland General Electric has held an annual “workshop” that discusses the health of the Lower Deschutes River and related topics. Presentations are from a variety of biologists from a range of agencies. If you wanted to hear real, peer-reviewed science about the lower river I suggest you attend. Here’s a link to the registration form. I have been going for many years and have found it invaluable, here’s my post summarizing last year’s workshop.

Last December, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council issued a report stating that salmon and steelhead returns were “holding steady” in the Columbia River. A couple of news outlets covered this report and I pointed out issues with both of them here. The primary problem is that hatchery and wild fish were not separately counted and increased returns compared to the 1990s are due to increased hatchery production. Oregon Public Broadcasting recently reprinted an article from Underscore Native News on the same topic making the same omissions. Nevertheless, I found the article worthwhile as it reflects the troubling stance of Columbia Basin tribes, including the Confederate Tribes of Warm Springs, on hatcheries. I wrote some thoughts about this here. Increased hatchery production, as being pursued by many tribes in Oregon, will not recover wild fish. The science on this is clear. Hatcheries absolutely have a role to play but they do not lead to “restoration”.

Yesterday, the Oregon Hatchery Research Center and Oregon State University held a day-long seminar on “hatchboxes” (yes, it seems to be one word). Broadly, a hatchbox is any type of device where fertilized fish eggs can be placed in a river or stream, or right next to it, and be protected at least somewhat until the fry are ready to live in the river. Speakers from academia, government agencies, and tribes discussed their experience with hatchboxes, their pros and cons, and applicability versus traditional hatcheries. I was invited to attend as a board member of the OHRC. I have heard anglers who target coastal anadromous fish advocate for the use of hatchboxes as a way to make up for the loss of natural spawning grounds and was interested in what the science tells us so I made the day trip to Corvallis.

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

As readers of this blog know, I have mixed feelings about fish hatcheries. Fishing license sales in Oregon are dominated by anglers targeting trout. There is no doubt in my mind that we need hatcheries to satisfy the angler who wants to put a trout on their plate but we also need to keep hatchery fish out of wild trout habitat. The most vocal and powerful angling and environmental groups are focused on anadromous fish (salmon and steelhead). These groups represent very different constituencies with largely incompatible viewpoints and the tension between them has been high for decades. What’s new is the recent strong support by many tribes for increased hatchery salmon production. I have been thinking about this a lot and remain conflicted.

Update: I forget to include this presentation on adult returns in the post. You can find them all here.

The annual Deschutes Fisheries Workshop hosted by Portland General Electric and the Confederated Tribe of Warm Springs occurred on July 18th. I have attend approximately the last 15 of these meetings and always appreciate getting the updates. Presentations were made by scientists from a variety of agencies and once again it is clear that the Lower Deschutes is in great shape. Just ignore what the tin foil hat crowd continues to say, as usual they were not in attendance to hear real science. As usual, ODFW’s annual surveys confirm that redband trout are in great shape and there is some good news on the effort to reintroduce steelhead into the Upper Deschutes Basin. Water quality continues to meet the overall targets set for the project, with some minor seasonal variances that are not negatively impacting fish health or abundance. The keynote was a talk from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration which I found information and perplexing. Keep reading for a few highlights.

The final Deschutes Fisheries Workshop presentation that I will dive into was a report on fish population in Whychus Creek. It was “shocking” in the words of one fisheries biologist. I agree and had to go over the data again with the presenter to make sure I understood what was being said, which I did yesterday. Here’s the presentation. Keep reading for a discussion of what it says and some background that gives important context.

As readers of this blog know, the pursuit of bull trout using fly fishing gear dramatically changed with the reintroduction of steelhead and spring chinook salmon in the Upper Deschutes Basin.  Prior to this, fly anglers would target bull trout chasing kokanee smolts in late winter and early spring as they moved out of the Metolius River. (The Metolius arm of LBC opens March 1, be sure to get your tribal permit.)  Since reintroduction efforts began, however, salmon and steelhead have been planted in the Crooked and Middle Deschutes Rivers and their tributaries, making those arms of LBC attractive places to fish as well.  This year there will be no salmon smolts planted due to insufficient hatchery production.  100,000 steelhead smolts will be released, however, half into the Crooked and half into the Deschutes.  The first release is scheduled for tomorrow, February 23^rd, in a tributary of the Crooked River. There will be 10 releases in total, the last occurring on April 27^th.

The Conservation Angler has a good blog post on 2022 Columbia River steelhead returns, which obviously includes all Deschutes River steelhead. You should read the post, but the bottom line is that Columbia Basin steelhead remain in terrible shape. 2022 returns of wild fish were only 30% of the 2001 to 2010 average. While I was certainly tempted, I refrained from fishing for steelhead on the Deschutes this year, remain dumbfounded by people who did, and am disappointed with TCA’s comment that it has been enjoyable to fish for them. Of course, this is an all too common human trait: short term satisfaction at the cost of long term benefit.

As I wrote 2 weeks ago, steelhead returns to the Deschutes are better than last year but still very low. This post from The Conservation Angler adds more to that discussion and notes that while July returns to the Columbia River were good enough to get ODFW to lift the closure on the Deschutes, since the end of July the returns have plummeted. As of August 10, the steelhead returns are 34% below the last 10-year average. Wild steelhead returns are 45% below. As I have asked many times in this blog, is the thrill of catching one of these fish worth the impact, even with best catch and release practices, when they are barely holding on?

UPDATE: Today ODFW released updated fish counts at Sherars Falls below Maupin on the Deschutes. So far this year a total of 4 steelhead (2 wild and 2 hatchery) have been counted. Last year at this time 12 fish (9 wild and 3 hatchery) had been counted. Again, not all steelhead go up the ladder at the falls, so these numbers are best used as a year to year comparison. Thus far, that comparison is not good.

As expected, yesterday ODFW announced that unmarked summer steelhead counts over Bonneville Dam have surpassed the minimum threshold to open the Lower Deschutes to steelhead fishing on August 15. That is good news, but while the run on the Columbia is “improved”, it is still extremely low and the outlook for Columbia Basin summer steelhead remains dire. So far, counts on the Deschutes at Sherars Falls are worse than last year which saw record low returns. As of July 27 a single steelhead has been counted at that trap, it was a wild fish*. Over the same period last year there were 7 fish, 6 wild and 1 hatchery. It’s also important to know that ODFW believes that every wild fish in the Deschutes is caught at least once. Even using the best catch and release practices there is an estimated 10% mortality rate and reduced fecundity among caught fish. So, be careful out there.

*Not all steelhead go into the fish trap at Sherars Falls. This number is best used as a comparison to other years, not to estimate the total number returning adults. Also note that if 60 or fewer wild steelhead are counted at the trap by October 31 the river will be closed again.

Last month I wrote about ODFW’s plans to close the Deschutes River to steelhead fishing, yesterday they made it official. The entire lower river is closed until at least August 15. If more steelhead return than is anticipated, steelhead fishing may be opened after August 15. I’m not holding my breath. ODFW is maintaining a pretty good website on this topic which I encourage you to visit.

Desperate times require desperate measures. ODFW did the right thing yesterday by closing the entire Deschutes River to all steelhead fishing for the rest of the year. They also closed the river below Moody Rapids to all fishing. I think that the entire river should be closed to all fishing, but the section below Moody is the most important, and I am thankful for the actions ODFW has taken. The problem is that there have been widespread reports of (selfish, short-sighted, unethical) anglers targeting steelhead while claiming to be fishing for salmon or trout. Hopefully, that will soon change. See ODFW’s press release below.

On September 4th, The Conservation Angler sent this letter to the chairpersons of the Oregon, Washington, and Idaho fish & wildlife/game commissions. The next day I sent the letter below to Shaun Clements, ODFW Deputy Administrator for Fish Division. Both letters advocate for more stringent regulations to protect steelhead this year. The end of the partial closure on steelhead fishing is only a few days away, the outlook for these fish remains dire, and no new protections have been announced. What is the role of these agencies? To protect or oversee the continued decline of these fish?

According to ODFW, as of September 20, a total of 59 steelhead have passed through the Sherars Falls fish ladder. Last year was a very poor return year and the count was 209. We are currently at only 28% of that. As I argued here, the current partial closure of the Lower Deschutes to steelhead fishing is inadequate, and it is now about to expire. I again encourage you to think carefully about targeting these fish anywhere on the Deschutes. Do you really want to be that angler?

It is important to note that only a portion of returning steelhead go through the ladder, many go up the falls. More than 59 have undoubtedly moved past Sherars. Nevertheless, if you thought steelhead were sparse last year, it is much worse this year. The total steelhead run in the entire Columbia Basin remains at the lowest level ever recorded.

I spent time this morning looking at my calendar and thinking about fishing over the next 2-3 months. The end of August is when I would like to switch over to steelhead fishing on the Deschutes River. So, I took a look at the Fish Passage Center website. These are all the steelhead destined for all the rivers above Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, not just the Deschutes. Bleak is about the best I can say, even more bleak than last year’s horrible returns. It’s early in the season, but the graphs say it all. I’m not ready to sell all my steelhead gear yet, but this sure is depressing. You need to ask yourself, is the pleasure you get from fishing worth contributing to the continued decline of these fish? Even with the best catch and release practices, some fish are killed.