Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Sawtooth Nat. Recreation Area & Sawtooth Wilderness Area, Idaho

VG,

Your memory is failing or someone was jerking your chain by telling you that there was a "healthy" population of sockeye in Redfish lake in the 1980s. The last "healthy" population was in 1955 after that it began a deep tailspin, even the ones that are there now are the progeny of broodstock not really natives.
You are correct though in that they do make the longest journey of any sockeye.

Hears is a link to some facts on them if you are interested -
http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/trt/brt/sockeye041905.pdf

drover

The construction of 4 dams on the lower Snake River in eastern WA sealed the fate of the salmon runs into central Idaho. They were built in the 60's. Between them and dams on the Columbia, it was too much for the fish to overcome.

Yep. BTDT, and now years later have a painful left knee from doing just that.

Its amazing how many yards you can cover in midair when running down a steep slope dodging the lightening that bursts the timber here and there with the smell of electricity in the air.

Lots of folks don't realize there was another dam below Redfish lake (Sunbeam I think) that was considered a possible problem to the sockeye along with the Lower Snake dams. Another thing not frequently mentioned was a program years ago to "treat" the Stanley Basing lakes (poison) with rotenone. And Agricultural water withdrawals.

This was the quickest reference I could locate.

https://books.google.com/books?id=j...0in%20redfish%20lake%20idaho&f=false

There are more references out there.

I'm not trying to argue with you Rock Chuck. The dams on the snake probably did " seal the fate" of the sockeye as you put it. They seem to have been in seriuos trouble before the Snake River dams went in though. It does seem that recently their fate seems to have changed some, not to a recovery to historical levels, but at least above the functional "zero" spawners they had a few years back.

And RC, many many thanks for the photos of such beautiful country. ANd of the llamas too. Way cool, and it gives me ideas of what I will need to continue backcountry hunts in my "dotage".

Disclaimer: I work for one of the projects on the Snake currently attempting to restore these valuable sockeye (and other salmonid stocks) to the Snake/Clearwater basins. Tonight I'm "babysitting" an adult sockeye that will make a trip to the hatchery with ID F&G tomorrow.

Geno

If you have any questions about using llamas for packing, feel free to ask. I've been at it for about 6 years now and figure they'll add a good 5 years to my elk hunting 'career'. They're lifesavers for getting meat out of bad places plus make for great back country trips when you can't carry a pack any more. Goats are another good alternative.

I'll try to remember to take you up on the offer of info when I retire in a couple of years. Of course, the little lady will have to approve of us retiring in a place where I can have them. She tends to think logically, like we need to be closer to doctors/hospitals, etc as we get older. I tend to think with my logic; the older I get the more I want to be further away from folks and their issues and be happy with my garden and animals!

I've enjoyed your posts/pics of llama related stuff over the years. Thanks,

Oh, I've thought about pack goats or a burro too, Lammas look cooler though

Geno

Great looking country.

Incredible.