Are there any rivers left in Washington,Oregon, Idaho or Montana that have only wild, native trout/steelhead (no non-native introductions or hatchery fish), and where wild fish can be kept?
The Kootnei River? Not shure on that one. You can keep one wild steelhead on the Rogue.
Thanks, Benjo, but I’m looking for rivers that meet ALL the conditions. The Rogue, for example, has hatchery fish in it.
[This message has been edited by John Russell aka JR (edited 14 March 2005).]
You might be thinking of some of our more remote coastal rivers? There are a few, very fragile, especially with our drought.
[url=http://waterdata.usgs.gov/or/nwis/rt:71353]http://waterdata.usgs.gov/or/nwis/rt[/url:71353]
Pearl, actually, the only river here in Oregon I’m sure meets ALL the conditions in my post is the Crooked. Some folks have suggested the Upper Klamath, and I’m checking into it. All the OR coastal rivers I know either have at least some hatchery fish in them or are C&R only for wild fish.
(I’m not particularly looking for places to fish, but rather looking into the state of play concerning wild native fish in the NW.)
JR - Just what do you mean by “Wild Native”.
For example - the Upper Klamath. Klamath Lake was stocked with planted bows for years. A feeder creek, Spring Creek, is still stocked and dumps into the Williamson which empties into Klamath Lake whose outlet is the Klamath River. I really doubt any of the Spring Creek planters make it down to the Upper Klamath but there is a high possibility that some of the trout in the Klamath are descentants of those early lake plants.
There are a lot of small creeks in Southern Oregon that hold trout that were born in that creek but maybe descendants of planters.
Tim Anderson, Klamath Falls.
Middle Fork of the Salmon river in Idaho, all wild Westslope cutts. Can’t keep any fish, wouldn’t want to anyways. Think Kelly Creek is the same. South Fork of the Boise River, believe the bows are all steelhead decendents.
There are browns and brookies in the Williamson. Doubtful any of the Klamath Lake stockers years ago ever survived to spawn due to the extreme alkalinity of the lake. I don’t know if they ever stocked the Klamath River below JC Boyle, but those are all wild native redsides with no other inhabitants I know of.
There are many many small streams and creeks in Oregon that are not planted but have runs of steelhead and sea run cutts. Remember that not all planted steelies come back to the river in which they were planted. As a result, some of these creeks have occasional hatchery fish. These are important fishing for locals as these small creeks clear out from rain storms long before the major rivers. In Oregon, you can keep sea run cutts South of the Salmon River. You can have one native on the Rogue. You can keep native chinook on numerous rivers and not others. The regulations book is over a quarter inch thick, and it is very wise to read it closely. On record runs (which we have been having the last few years), the steelie daily bag can be raised to 3 from 2. These are hatchery fish.