[Cannonball]

The best way to get salmon around the dams that I have heard of is to create a bypass creek, using tubes where required. Spawning salmon like to fight the current, and will head into the swiftest water, I understand.

Fry, coming down the stream would have to be diverted out of the main river into the bypass stream, before they reached the backwater pond, where they will stay if not diverted.

We once just had "Red fish" (bright red land locked salmon) in Red Fish Lake, but 50 years of the Hells Canyon Dams has left a great many Red Fish in a lot of streams.

For some reason, the damned dam builders stich to the scientifically accepted fish ladders, invented 50 years ago, but which have never really worked. I don't know why they won't cosider what looks like a good idea. Perhaps, like "The Admiral of the Queens Navy", "they never think for themselves at all".

Another problem is the noble Steelhead. Steelhead are ocean run trout, one cubit long and up, way up, that follow the salmon upstream to eat their eggs. Steelhead are most loved by fishermen, on account they put up outstanding battles when hooked, and taste good. 100 years ago, there were 10 times more salmon than Steelhead. Now there are 10 times more steelhead than salmon. My cousins husband, an American Indian very active in fish resoration, says that problem will block efforts to expand the salmon run, at least with the plans now pursued.

He drives a truck with a big water bed and bubbler, into which he carfully loads live salmon and hauls them around the backwater. He says no one will believe him, but each time he comes to load the salmon, there are a good many waiting patiently for him. They are easy to load, don't fight or struggle. Is the word out? Do Salmon comunicate? Strange happening indeed.