[Poopy McButtfart]

Looks like there's a chance this year's not going to be as epically huge (when compared to last year's great run) as previously thought. As of the last few days, this year's counts have now fallen behind last year's for all steelhead over Bonneville.

Hopefully the huge mid-August pushes of fish are just delayed and not absent.

Total on 8/15/09 - 305,602

Total on 8/15/10 - 280,134

But to put things in perspective, here's 8/15/08: 192,456

 

[Mumbles]

Evan, hopefully not grim but due to the higher temperatures the past week or two. Let's hope that the upcoming cooling will benefit return numbers. I'm hoping for a silver lining, and a lot of silver bullets in the river.

 

[Poopy McButtfart]

Evan, hopefully not grim but due to the higher temperatures the past week or two. Let's hope that the upcoming cooling will benefit return numbers. I'm hoping for a silver lining, and a lot of silver bullets in the river.

Eh, either way it's going to be a fantastic year. The hype so far has just been that the numbers this year were on track to double (or more) last year's. Not looking like that's quite as likely now.

 

[Andrew Lawrence]

I am just hoping that there is an army steel holding in the lower river, waiting for the upriver water temperatures to drop. Nonetheless, I am still looking forward to fishing a few Columbia River tributaries this year.

 

[docstash]

The speed that they are moving up river is also amazing and out of the ordinary. 138,676 over The Dalles so far nhis year and last year only 84,107 over The Dalles which leaves 139,140 this year in the Bonneville pool and its Tribs. While last year there were 221,174 on the 15th in the Bonneville pool and its Tribs. Forecasting anything is just a guess. Craig

 

[Jerry White]

here is a graph of steel coming over Lower Granite on the LSR... only time will tell.

Some fish going up the Clearwater (where Panhandle, J Mllls, et al are having at em http://millsfly.blogspot.com/2010/08/clearwater-dreams.html)...

Snake R/salmon R/Ronde fish sticking to the cold Dworshak water in the LG reservoir. Sound about right?

 

[grnsparrow32]

there isnt enough steelhead, it probably wont open. i would focus on a different species if i were you guys! forget about steelhead in eastern WA. you can only keep hatchies and it seems one only catches natives and they are small.....really small. also, we get bad winter. i have heard possible mountain pass closures for the months of OCT, NOV,DEC and JAN. i would stick to western WA. i hear good things.

 

[orangeradish]

there isnt enough steelhead, it probably wont open. i would focus on a different species if i were you guys! forget about steelhead in eastern WA. you can only keep hatchies and it seems one only catches natives and they are small.....really small. also, we get bad winter. i have heard possible mountain pass closures for the months of OCT, NOV,DEC and JAN. i would stick to western WA. i hear good things.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

 

[Mumbles]

there isnt enough steelhead, it probably wont open. i would focus on a different species if i were you guys! forget about steelhead in eastern WA. you can only keep hatchies and it seems one only catches natives and they are small.....really small. also, we get bad winter. i have heard possible mountain pass closures for the months of OCT, NOV,DEC and JAN. i would stick to western WA. i hear good things.

And Nostradamus will next predict that the Olympic Peninsula and Columbia tribs in Southern WA are also down markedly and suggest we head down to Oregon or up to British Columbia.

 

[grnsparrow32]

i thought the sarcasm was evident?

 

[Salmo_g]

It was.

Sg

 

[Mumbles]

It was awesome. I hope you got the humor intended in mine too.

 

[Jmills81]

Evan...the item your missing is what happens in the year the run is on. Drastic weather differences (100 degrees a gazillion days in row) from last year caused all those fish to pool up below bonnie..and then the damn burst. The theme I see so far this year is consistency. Last two weeks have been over 5 k almost every day. I think a lot of our fish havent hit fresh water yet, but that's just my opinion

 

[1morecast]

I only need one or two to cpme up and play.

 

[Salmo_g]

And the peak counts are yet to come. I think it's gonna' be steelheadzilla this year.

Sg

 

[Circle Spey]

As far as the fishing goes it really doesn't matter, if the numbers stay consistent then the fishing will still be epic. The catching on the lower col. tribs has been gooood. I don't think that anyone can really be shocked that the numbers have fallen behind last year, there were record numbers of fish over Bonneville for over a weak. That being said I do believe that there is a thermal block on the river because hardly any fish are moving up any of the dams on the lower dams.

 

[Poopy McButtfart]

Must be a thermal block or something. At least that's what I hope. About 1200 fish have been going over each day for the past few days.