Puyallup River Steelhead

[Alchase]

I have been down to the river fishing quite a few times this year, and I have talked to allot of other fishermen that have all had one thing in common, no fish!

I "hear" about one or two caught but nowhere near what I believe there should be. I have not seen one Steelhead caught on the Puyallup this year.

Is this year just a really bad steelhead year for the Puyallup? Or is this pretty normal? I have been trying to find info on Steelhead retention at the hatcheries but have had no luck diggin up that information.

The other question I have is, are there any stealhead hatcheries above the confluence with the Carbon? I never see anyone fishing above where the Puyallup and the Carbon meet.

I found this on the Steelhead Notebook site, interesting read:

"The returns of Winter Steelhead are down quite a bit from the glory years of the fifties, sixties and seventies, but every now and again the Puyallup has very large returns. Such was the case in the winter of 1984 -1985 when the Puyallup had a return in excess of 12,000 winter steelhead caught by sportsfisherman. That year it ranked second, only to be exceeded by the Cowlitz River, which is consistently the states top producer of Steelhead."

http://www.steelheadnotebook.net/puyallup.htm

I did find some steelheadplant info:

Green River (King Co.) winter 253,750 summer 82,100

Puyallup River System (Voight Cr. hatchery on the Carbon) winter 162,000 summer 0

Why would they plant twice as much on the Green as they would on the Puyallup?

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/harvest/08-09/smolts.htm

[rasbo]

the carbon puts out some big fish,but from what the guys I know its as you posted long gone.there used to be little hatchery or holding set up above the voight creek hatchery yrs back not sure what it was.Came across it hunting 15 yrs or so back..It would be a great place for a private set up,the pigs that fish down below the creek  made such a mess,its disgusting..high on the puyallup has gone to crap for trout also..Inside Hancock would be a killer place for steelhead hatchery.deer creek or rushing water would be cool.there is talk that the voight creek hatchery might be closed as a budget cut

[Alchase]

That would suck, that is the only hatchery releasing smolt. I was up there on Wednesday, I could not see any fish in the holding area at all?

[rasbo]

That would suck, that is the only hatchery releasing smolt. I was up there on Wednesday, I could not see any fish in the holding area at all?

if you punch in voight creek hatchery you will find some info.there is a couple holding ponds in hancock,one on rushing water creek,and one at deer creek,,I did see some sign of activity on the deer creek but no smolt..Did see a couple of otters..

[fishcrazy]

I'm not sure but didn't the Puyallup close early this year due to low returns.


Kris