Steelhead Counts at Bonneville: 80 Years of Data

JayB

JayB

Life of the Party
These numbers probably require some pretty generous error bars, particularly in the early years, but I thought they were still pretty interesting nonetheless.

flyfishusa.com

Columbia River Steelhead Runs, 80-years of ladder counts

A Computation of Bonneville Dam Steelhead Run Numbers in the Columbia RiverBy: Mark Bachmann The numbers used here were/are compiled by the Bonneville Power Administration and are considered to be accurate within acceptable tolerances. What do the...
flyfishusa.com flyfishusa.com

YearTotal SteelheadUnclipped
1938107003
1939121932
1940185161
1941118087
1942151395
194392151
1944100473
1945120086
1946142806
1947135434
1948139062
1949119285
1950114087
1951149539
1952260990
1953223914
1954176260
1955198411
1956131116
1957139184
1958131347
1959129026
1960113676
1961139726
1962164025
1963129418
1964117252
1965166445
1966143661
1967121872
1968106974
1969141782
1970113510
1971193966
1972185886
1973157823
1974137054
197585540
1976124177
1977193437
1978104431
1979114007
1980129254
1981159270
1982157640
1983213779
1984315587
1985343961
1986379891
1987303081
1988279072
1989287798
1990183027
1991274545
1992314975
1993188377
199416197829451
199520244828036
199620521630338
199725838533580
199818509435701
199920648855064
200027517876192
2001633073149317
2002483956143196
2003365821112823
200431337797875
200531565088999
200633930185082
200732527582197
2008357845105670
2009604970172383
2010416603156139
2011369365129166
201223530385472
201323404799148
2014325965130571
201526873097782
201618814652260
201711787834405
201810289133311


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I was fishing the Sky regularly in 01, very good year, and probably the best year I ever had over there considering I didn't start until the mid 90's. 2009 I was in Idaho and got to experience those runs, I had more steelheading experience under my belt then, and wow, 4-8 fish days were very common. Haven't seen that in awhile
 
@JayB - thanks for sharing the data. Some of our local rivers back in the '01 era were thick with hatchery steelhead. My friend DK and I had several 20 fish days (between the two of us). One year there were so many Chinook in one of our favorite rivers that after they had spawned and rotted the eddies were greyish with rotting fish flesh.
 
the Columbia river dart data is amazing. I look at this stuff way, way too much

DART Adult Passage Counts Daily for All Species | Columbia Basin Research

www.cbr.washington.edu www.cbr.washington.edu
Every other year starting in 17, 19, 21 was horrific. 21 I didnt even fish and it felt like someone tore my arm off. I felt lost

Last year was a slight, albeit slight reprieve. This year was supposed to be a reflection of 21, but it's shaping up more like 22. Still lots of time for it to go either way....

Anecdotally, there's an uptick in the As this year and this year is likely to suck for Bs.

With every finger and toe crossed for good luck....here I am
 
I was lucky enough to fish the GR several times per season in 01/02 then moved to Bend OR in 03 for 20 years. Just some lights out spectacular summer run fishing on some of those seasons across a bunch of different CR trib's.

Back up in Puget Sound now and digging the beach fishing as well as reconnecting with the OP even though it's diminished.
 
Millsfly said:
the Columbia river dart data is amazing. I look at this stuff way, way too much

DART Adult Passage Counts Daily for All Species | Columbia Basin Research

www.cbr.washington.edu www.cbr.washington.edu
Every other year starting in 17, 19, 21 was horrific. 21 I didnt even fish and it felt like someone tore my arm off. I felt lost

Last year was a slight, albeit slight reprieve. This year was supposed to be a reflection of 21, but it's shaping up more like 22. Still lots of time for it to go either way....

Anecdotally, there's an uptick in the As this year and this year is likely to suck for Bs.

With every finger and toe crossed for good luck....here I am
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Sure would be nice to reverse that trend. Feels like this year is marginally better than last year. I think we hit the D numbers earlier and we are close to a JD season I think.

Toes crossed for sure!
 
God damn we had some fun. Football made me miss most of 2001, but I’d sacrifice a really cute sea lion pup for another 2009.
 
I'd love to see the planted numbers. Which I'm sure someone has decent estimates. The hard one to know is how many of those unclipped fish are actually progeny of hatchery natural spawners. It's pretty well documented that Skamania strain hatchery fish naturally spawn more than we might think. I'm sure other strains can too.

I think about all the times I fished the Deschutes in the 80s and didn't even think about steelheading since the trout fishing was so damn good. And the 2000s I mostly missed because I was raising kids. Steelhead opportunities missed! Maybe our opportunity will be decent this year.
 
skyriver said:
I'd love to see the planted numbers. Which I'm sure someone has decent estimates. The hard one to know is how many of those unclipped fish are actually progeny of hatchery natural spawners. It's pretty well documented that Skamania strain hatchery fish naturally spawn more than we might think. I'm sure other strains can too.

I think about all the times I fished the Deschutes in the 80s and didn't even think about steelheading since the trout fishing was so damn good. And the 2000s I mostly missed because I was raising kids. Steelhead opportunities missed! Maybe our opportunity will be decent this year.
Click to expand...
I can't find nearly as many studies on this as there should be. Hopefully there are many ongoing
 
Evan B said:
2009 for me. Just because I saw that one first-hand and it was mind blowing.
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I met my buddy near Pateros in 2009 to camp and fish for a few days. He and another friend got there very early and I arrived at lunchtime. All of us had a plan to fish dry flies a lot that trip. I arrived and they were sitting on the bank and said they had hooked into the 20s on dries. They pointed to where to stand and where to cast and I anxiously waded out crazy excited. I made a cast that piled up like shit on the chop and as I was stripping line to recast a steelhead slurped it. The ugliest and accidentally dead drifted presentation you ever saw hooked an 8 pound steelhead.
 
HauntedByWaters said:
I met my buddy near Pateros in 2009 to camp and fish for a few days. He and another friend got there very early and I arrived at lunchtime. All of us had a plan to fish dry flies a lot that trip. I arrived and they were sitting on the bank and said they had hooked into the 20s on dries. They pointed to where to stand and where to cast and I anxiously waded out crazy excited. I made a cast that piled up like shit on the chop and as I was stripping line to recast a steelhead slurped it. The ugliest and accidentally dead drifted presentation you ever saw hooked an 8 pound steelhead.
Click to expand...
2009 on that ditch was ungodly
 
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