Amazing run of Sockeye

[Greg Armstrong]

If you’re not already rooting for these mountain climbers (they gain over 6,500’!), then a trip to their headwater spawning stream at Redfish Lake in Idaho may well change your mind. It’s an amazing salmon run, but they’ve been struggling mostly due to the gauntlet of dams and the increased water temperatures. Sure hate to lose them.

I don’t see any hype in the following article I just came across… the numbers don’t lie;

Snake River sockeye run sputters

Strong early numbers at Bonneville Dam haven’t led to a lot of fish making it to Lower Granite Dam

www.lmtribune.com

 

[O' Clarkii Lewisi]

If you’re not already rooting for these mountain climbers (they gain over 6,500’!), then a trip to their headwater spawning stream at Redfish Lake in Idaho may well change your mind. It’s an amazing salmon run, but they’ve been struggling mostly due to the gauntlet of dams and the increased water temperatures. Sure hate to lose them.

I don’t see any hype in the following article I just came across… the numbers don’t lie;

Snake River sockeye run sputters

Strong early numbers at Bonneville Dam haven’t led to a lot of fish making it to Lower Granite Dam

www.lmtribune.com

According to the sockeye counts over lower granite YTD, this years return is the fourth best since the construction of lower granite. They are also the progeny of about 600 fish over lower granite a couple of years ago.
The Petit, Alturas, and Redfish lake fish have been extirpated several times over the years starting with the construction of the Sunbeam dam, and the historical efforts of the Idaho fish and game blocking access to the fore mentioned lakes. Seems in the past nobody wanted rotting sockeyes on the shores of these scenic mountain trout fisheries.
It's not that uncommon for the Snake at Heller's bar to push up in the 70s this time of year, even into October. We were swimming in the lower salmon in water that was in the upper 60s over the 4th of July.
I also find it hard to believe that fish would be able to discern the temperature difference between the Snake and Columbia in the John Day pool 50+ miles from the inflow.
IMHO, if you want to seriously address water temp issues on the Snake, you would take a serious look at the hell's canyon complex of dams as well as the 100 mile long pool created by John Day dam.