Steelhead Plan Raises Eyebrows

Fish and Game Department experts are looking at a new scheme for luring hatchery steelhead back up into the Clearwater River below Dworshak Dam.

But veteran Fish and Game Commission member Keith Stonebraker wonders where that kind of idea came from in the first place.

After getting a cool reception from local people to its earlier proposal six weeks ago, the department is now floating a scheme to use pulsating flows from Dworshak rather than steady flat flows in the fall to increase the number of hatchery steelhead returning to the Clearwater and passing Lower Granite Dam.

Regional Fishery Biologist Ed Schriever said more research is needed, but “we thought we could get a better response from fish with a pulsating flow.”

Local anglers like Dave Clark believe the plan, tentatively scheduled for 1999, would benefit the fishery for hatchery steelhead.

Stonebraker, who has been on the commission for a dozen years, says he has yet to see any biological proof that pulsating or high flows will bring more fish up the river. “What we’re trying to do is find a lazy man’s solution,” he said. “I think what’s happened is they’re chasing down the wrong alley, looking for a cure.”