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With this years return and so called epic predictions of Spring Chinook to the Columbia River, Oregon and Washington biologists decided against a commercial fishery in the Columbia River on Tuesday for the time being. Out of their last test fishery, 58 spring chinook and 22 steelhead were netted. Yes, STEELHEAD! For years our late returning native steelhead have been slaughtered in gillnets and I am glad to see that the powers that be are making the right decision to hold back the nets for a while longer. If you ever wondered what happened to the large native steelhead that swam back to Southwest Washington, Willamette Valley and Sandy River, here is your answer. Most of that gene pool ended in gillnets. Thanks you for the right decision WDFW and ODFW. Read more from Oregon Live.
2 comments:
I've gotten steelhead with those same markings. I thought they were from sealions. Nevertheless, they were still smaller than the salmon that the gillnetters are targetting.
I added another picture of the same fish that was caught in a Columbia River Tributary below Bonneville Dam early last summer. The fish clearly had its head caught in a net. I see a lot in the Gorge with marks, but none of them were as bad as this fish. FYI, this fish took a swung fly for a buddy despite being a leper.
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