Congrats! Fun river, too bad we had to go and dam that fish factory up, eh? Can you imagine the native stock that it used to pack all the way up to Rainier headwaters? The hatchery fish there are great sport, I fished it very often. Most I ever hooked in one outing on the Cow was 7, landed 4.
Natives still in the river are from Toutle, Newaukum (?), and a few other creeks - plus they do dig redds all over the upper river from Barrier down to Blue. The rate of hatchery smolt release being in the millions, I am sure there is a strong hybridization occurring among natural mainstem river redd diggers and hatchery fish. Toutle fish have been primarily substisting in the Green, a trib of the Toutle. I have landed big nates at the area around the confluence of the Toutle that were most likely Toutle fish.
That river is one of the most impressive to me, not because it's a hatchery success (oxymoron) but because every time I go there my mind wanders to the Cowlitz that ran unabated to the sea before the Mayfield and all the other dams that were built on her.
Natives still in the river are from Toutle, Newaukum (?), and a few other creeks - plus they do dig redds all over the upper river from Barrier down to Blue. The rate of hatchery smolt release being in the millions, I am sure there is a strong hybridization occurring among natural mainstem river redd diggers and hatchery fish. Toutle fish have been primarily substisting in the Green, a trib of the Toutle. I have landed big nates at the area around the confluence of the Toutle that were most likely Toutle fish.
That river is one of the most impressive to me, not because it's a hatchery success (oxymoron) but because every time I go there my mind wanders to the Cowlitz that ran unabated to the sea before the Mayfield and all the other dams that were built on her.
