ODFW to discuss the future of Lake Creek steelhead

I was handed a flier by a member of (FOLCS) "Friends of Lake Creek Steelhead" while fishing at Green Creek this afternoon. ODFW will be at the Mapleton Lions Club Sunday February 10th at 4PM to solicit input from the fishing community with regard to the future of Lake Creek Steelies, both Broodstock (stocking program) and Native fish.

As some of you may have already heard, there is an effort to turn the upper Siuslaw into a native only fishery, and abandon the hatchery program. If this is or is not what you envision for this potentially great stretch of water, here is your chance to tell ODFW what you think. Their plans have not been set in stone and they are holding this meeting to gain insight as to the future of this very important fishery.

The Mapleton Lions Club is located at 88148 Riverview Ave, Mapleton.

If you fish this river system, have a business that supports fishing this river system, are a political figure whose town benefits from the patronage of the fishing community who fishes this river system, then you have an interest in what ODFW decides to implement, what ever their adopted plan might be.

ODFW did this on the Salmon and Little Nestucca....I wonder how that has worked out up there?

Most people don't consider 450 returning adults much of an opportunity. The release point used to be Greenleaf Creek, there were also 80,000 smolts released. For some reason our license and tags go up and our opportunity continues to go down. There are natives available in the system, but the Siuslaw has never been known as a "steelhead" stream. Too bad they used to plant the north fork as well....next they are gonna stop the plants at Whittaker....and close the steelheaders pond at Letz Creek....just like the Smith....Force everyone south of Portland to fish the Alsea...they have had GREAT returns lately....NOT

Should be an educational evening in Mapleton.

That's interesting that ODFW wants to do this. Is that bad to have Hatchery fish in the same water with natives?

Apparently. Hatchery fish don't know how to properly spawn in the wild. In that I mean they do not do their nest building such that the eggs have a chance to survive. This genetic adaptation is then passed to the wild population. This explains why wild fish populations heavily augmented by the release of hatchery raised fish seem to decline despite being supplemented by the hatchery releases.

Like birds raised in a protected aviary that forget how to secure their nests to protect them from the elements after a generation, Steelhead forget how to properly build a Redd.

Not only has the Steelhead population been contaminated by this "Hatchery" phenomenon, but I suspect the wild salmon populations whose runs have been supplemented by hatchery fish have been contaminated also.

My question is.....What will ODFW do about it.

I only see two options. Stop planting, close the rivers to fishing, monitor the wild population to see if it continues to decline and pray it does not; or go to a hatchery only fishery and sacrifice the wild population after determining it to not be salvageable.

The coastal coho, lake creek included, have made a pretty good come back now that hatchery plants have stopped. At least that is what we are told, the factor that is not taken into account in the coho equation is that when the stocks were declining, the sport/commercial combined harvest was as high as 90% on some stocks. The plants stopped, the fisheries were shut down, and the stocks have rebounded. Now they are managed for a 10-15% take....but we are told it was the hatchery fish that caused the problem....Lake Creek is a small enough system that a weir could easily be installed and nates passed above and brats recycled...then we'd actually know....

I think lots of the runs that dwindled down were just over fished.

What time is this meeting.

That's a good thought!! 4PM Sunday, February 10th.

Thanks for the catch!!

Yeah let's quit stocking the river closest to the second most populated area of the state, perfectly logical. They're slowly phasing out salmon on the mckenzie so let's screw the coastal steelhead opportunity as well. Odfw has such a backwards agenda.

Might as well remove every brown trout from oregon waters while we're at it... how dare we even have hatcheries... and i forgot we must remove any man made obstructions in or on the water...