Steelhead Run Up From Last Year

If steelhead keep moving at the current rate, anglers can look forward to a few more fish than last year.

So far, 122,382 fish have moved over Bonneville Dam, the first dam on their journey up the Columbia River. Last year at this time 101,144 steelhead had been counted. The majority are A-run steelhead. These fish enter the Columbia in June, July and August. Most of them have spent one year in the ocean and return to streams throughout the Columbia Basin. B-run steelhead usually spend two years in the ocean before entering the river system in August.

They are larger than A-run fish and spawn in the Clearwater River. The run to date is about 20 percent wild stock.

Idaho fisheries biologists remain cautious about predicting a much better season this year than last because the run appears to be tailing off more quickly.

The 1995-96 steelhead run counted at Lower Granite Dam was 70,417. At this time last year, 2,879 fish were counted at Lower Granite. This year, the count is already more than 3,500.

Biologists are projecting a B-run at Bonneville Dam of about 25,500 hatchery fish but only a few have been counted so far this summer. Hatchery B-run fish have made up about three percent of the steelhead to pass the dam to date. About thirty percent of the B-run should pass Bonneville by September 15.

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