Salmon/steelhead returning to Metolius/Crooked/Middle Deschu

When Pelton Dam was put in nearly 50 years ago, no provision was made for a fish ladder. This eliminated steelhead, sockeye, and chinook from the reaches above the dam.

In recent years, experiments have begun to return these fish. Chinook smoult were released in the Metolius River in an attempt to get them to use the Lake Billy Chinook Reservoir as their ocean. There is a small population of chinook that have continued to exist running up the Deschutes arm. However, it has been rather unsuccessful in the Metolius as the Metolius bull trout have feasted upon these smoult. Plans are in the works for returning steelhead to Crooked River and McKay Creek upper reaches.

The dam is being modified but not to provide a fish ladder. A device is being built at the dam to provide a current to attract downstream fish and capture them in a cage. They will then be trucked below the dam. Upstream fish will be trucked to the reservoir or rivers directly.

Should be interesting.

Pete,

How is it that the kokes fare so well in the Metolius but the chinook smolt are having a tough time? Just curious, I really know nothing about the subject. I did get into some psycho kokanees on large streamers when fishing for bulls on the Met this past fall, what a beautiful river. I know the kokes are more prevalent in Suttle than in Billy Chinook...smaller lake, smaller fish.

Marty

The kokanee only spend time in the river during their spawning run. Otherwise they stay in the lake feeding the lesser amounts of Bulls there. The bulls stay close to the Met preferring the crystal clear water.

What about koke smolts? Do they spend less time in the river?

Marty

Since I have never caught a kokanee smoult in the river, my guess is they don't spend much time there. Someone else may have more information.

Kokanee, which are the landlocked form of sockeye salmon, behave in a manner similar to their ocean-going relatives. The young fry move down, out of the river and into the lake, almost as soon as they emerge from the gravel. There the kokanee feed on plankton until they reach maturity at an age of 3 to 5 years. The life cycle of the ocean-going sockeye (where the two occur sympatrically) is similar except that, after a year or two in the lake environment they smoltify (at a length of three to seven inches) and move on to their oceanic migration.

Thanks, Preston. That makes sense as we never catch them there. The Lake Billy Chinook kokanee seem to be mostly under a foot whn they go upriver, so thay must be fairly young. There is kokanee and bull fishing in March in the Metolius arm of Lake Billy Chinook so we know why the bulls are there. gobble, gobble. You can keep one bull per day fishing there, but none when in the river itself.

Caught my first bull in the Met last fall. Looking forward to taking another crack at em sometime this year...

Marty