... the Lochsa has undoubtedly undergone many, many cycles like the one it is now in. Not sure of the history of this river, but will assume it has probably run its current course since the last Ice Age, about 12,000 years. Probably hundreds of times it has been affected by wildfires and seen a period of decline and then recovered to be outstanding fish habitat.

To qualify some of my earlier remarks, my experience is limited to the upper thirty miles of the river, which I have fished somewhere around 1,000 days since the summer of '09. I can't speak to the lower forty miles down to its confluence with the Selway, but suspect that section of the river is in the same, or a similar cycle.

Since the fishery still seems to be in decline, it will likely be a good number of years before it fully recovers, and only, as Ted suggests, with the absence of significant wildfires in its headwaters and along its course.

Having said that, I would not discourage anyone from fishing on the Lochsa - simply being in the environment of its canyon and on that Wild and Scenic River is a great experience, with or without a bunch of fishies playing with the flies one chooses to fish there.

John