Winter steelhead kelts apparently have taken a liking to Swift Reservoir on the North Fork of the Lewis River.
Kelts are steelhead which have spawned once. Unlike salmon, which die after spawning, a small percentage of steelhead survive, migrate back to saltwater and return a second time to spawn.
Winter steelhead have been reintroduced to the upper North Fork of the Lewis River upstream of Swift Dam as part of PacifiCorp’s license to operate the Merwin, Yale and Swift hydroelectric plants.
This year, 1,033 winter steelhead were transported by truck from the lower North Fork of the Lewis River to the upstream end of the 10-mile-long Swift Reservoir.
Some of those fish have survived spawning and dropped down as far as Swift, where sport fishermen occasionally catch them.
Pat Frazier, a biologist with the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board and former fisheries manager for both the Washington and Oregon departments of Fish and Wildlife, said he is not surprised there are kelts surviving in Swift.
It’s not the ocean, but the reservoir has adequate conditions for the kelts to recover, Frazier told the Lewis River Aquatic Coordination Committee recently.
Frank Shrier, principle scientist for PacifiCorp, said the kelts in Swift Reservoir might need two years before they are ready to repeat spawn.
And although the progeny from that spawning comes from a parent that recovered in the reservoir, the young fish are just as likely as any other to find their way to the floating surface collector at the downstream end of Swift and get transported to the lower North Fork Lewis.
Fishing is allowed in Swift Reservoir from the first Saturday in June through Nov. 30. The limit is 10 fish per day in September, October and November.
Currently, there is a 15-inch maximum limit to prevent sport fishermen from keeping the adult coho salmon transported and released in Swift. The state Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider in January extending that 15-inch maximum to trout.
