Sammamish River

[Scheindogg]

Do you then eat them or use them as bait?

[Bodofish]

Absolutely eat them! They're like little lobsters.

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

When I was a kid, back in the '50's, they use to have hydro races in the slough.

I forgot about those. I made the mistake of putting a small boat in at the Kenmore launch twice while the boat races were going on. I headed back to shore and picked a different day. I think they quit those in the late 70's.

[Bodofish]

The latter races in the 70's provided some great drinking entertainment.

[Scheindogg]

When I was a kid, back in the '50's, they use to have hydro races in the slough.

I forgot about those. I made the mistake of putting a small boat in at the Kenmore launch twice while the boat races were going on. I headed back to shore and picked a different day. I think they quit those in the late 70's.

Yes it seems after reading some articles they stopped in mid 70's and then they did it again in '13 and '14 and haven't done it since I believe

[Joey Smith]

oh wow that looks crazy. def something i wouldnt want to miss haha

[riverhunter]

So I live in a condo right next to the sammamish River, I can see it from my living room. Never tried fishing it. I'm aware that all fishing is selective gear rules and trout is catch and release.
Anyone know why there's no salmon fishery here?
I'm asking this because all of a sudden fish are jumping like CRAZY today like atleast once per minute for the last hour (atleast, I got home one hour ago). Why are these fish not allowed to be fished for?
They are definitely big fish and from my living room I saw several ones that were quite large jumping and a few must have been at least 6 lbs (quite likely more but hard to tell from so far away)
I read that there are several salmon runs on this river of chinook, coho, sockeye and steelhead. I can't tell which ones are jumping but either way, just looking to learn more about the river and the fishery and why it's not open to much fishing

If we were allowed to fish anywhere fish are present we probably wouldn't have many fish left. That being said us as anglers need to protect the species that we like to catch for future generations. So just because you might see a lot of fish jumping at the moment doesn't mean that the system has a strong run in it just means fish are actively moving in the system. If I were you I would research which river systems produce more fish and those would be the systems I would be targeting those species in thus giving the species a better chance of survival

[W4y]

So I live in a condo right next to the sammamish River, I can see it from my living room. Never tried fishing it. I'm aware that all fishing is selective gear rules and trout is catch and release.
Anyone know why there's no salmon fishery here?
I'm asking this because all of a sudden fish are jumping like CRAZY today like atleast once per minute for the last hour (atleast, I got home one hour ago). Why are these fish not allowed to be fished for?
They are definitely big fish and from my living room I saw several ones that were quite large jumping and a few must have been at least 6 lbs (quite likely more but hard to tell from so far away)
I read that there are several salmon runs on this river of chinook, coho, sockeye and steelhead. I can't tell which ones are jumping but either way, just looking to learn more about the river and the fishery and why it's not open to much fishing

They're chinook most likely, this time of year. In about a month, they'll mostly be coho. The vast majority, of them are headed to the Issaquah hatchery. There are only a few hundred to a couple thousand (I think) that pass through and they pretty much need all the salmon they can get. It's too easy to catch them in the rivers.

[Scheindogg]

So I live in a condo right next to the sammamish River, I can see it from my living room. Never tried fishing it. I'm aware that all fishing is selective gear rules and trout is catch and release.
Anyone know why there's no salmon fishery here?
I'm asking this because all of a sudden fish are jumping like CRAZY today like atleast once per minute for the last hour (atleast, I got home one hour ago). Why are these fish not allowed to be fished for?
They are definitely big fish and from my living room I saw several ones that were quite large jumping and a few must have been at least 6 lbs (quite likely more but hard to tell from so far away)
I read that there are several salmon runs on this river of chinook, coho, sockeye and steelhead. I can't tell which ones are jumping but either way, just looking to learn more about the river and the fishery and why it's not open to much fishing

They're chinook most likely, this time of year. In about a month, they'll mostly be coho. The vast majority, of them are headed to the Issaquah hatchery. There are only a few hundred to a couple thousand (I think) that pass through and they pretty much need all the salmon they can get. It's too easy to catch them in the rivers.

Yeah, a day or two after I posted this I realized it was mainly just that day.
Since then I've heard 4-5 jumps when I'm home per day, so not much.
Just that ONE day I posted it there must have been 80+jumps I heard and saw so it must have been just one big school.

So yeah those are all good points you just made.

Is the hatchery new or old though? You would think with a hatchery there would be a bigger return, no?

[Jakefish]

So I live in a condo right next to the sammamish River, I can see it from my living room. Never tried fishing it. I'm aware that all fishing is selective gear rules and trout is catch and release.
Anyone know why there's no salmon fishery here?
I'm asking this because all of a sudden fish are jumping like CRAZY today like atleast once per minute for the last hour (atleast, I got home one hour ago). Why are these fish not allowed to be fished for?
They are definitely big fish and from my living room I saw several ones that were quite large jumping and a few must have been at least 6 lbs (quite likely more but hard to tell from so far away)
I read that there are several salmon runs on this river of chinook, coho, sockeye and steelhead. I can't tell which ones are jumping but either way, just looking to learn more about the river and the fishery and why it's not open to much fishing

They're chinook most likely, this time of year. In about a month, they'll mostly be coho. The vast majority, of them are headed to the Issaquah hatchery. There are only a few hundred to a couple thousand (I think) that pass through and they pretty much need all the salmon they can get. It's too easy to catch them in the rivers.

Yeah, a day or two after I posted this I realized it was mainly just that day.
Since then I've heard 4-5 jumps when I'm home per day, so not much.
Just that ONE day I posted it there must have been 80+jumps I heard and saw so it must have been just one big school.

So yeah those are all good points you just made.

Is the hatchery new or old though? You would think with a hatchery there would be a bigger return, no?

The Issaquah Creek hatchery is a small facility that was nearly shut down by WDFW because it doesn't really do much other than serve as a public education facility. Production has always been small because Issaquah Creek is a small system. I believe it is more or less completely run by volunteers.

[Scheindogg]

Oh wow, got it!

Normally I hear hatchery and I think huge salmon returns but I guess not in this case lol

[Bodofish]

It wasn't always so small. The fish used to stack up in the creek shoulder to shoulder, Kings and Sockeyes. You could literally walk across the creek on their backs from the hatchery to almost the State Park and then later the Coho came in. We used to cast for Socks in the area out in front of Issy creek and troll from little boats out in front too. In the mid 70's there was a big flap about habitat destruction due to many houses being built in the Creek drainage and it seemed for some reason it was excuse enough to severely cut back on the program but as I think about it, I don't remember any Sockeye production. I guess it's why the sockeye run dropped so fast. Had it not been for Salmon Days , they would have shut it down years ago. As a kid we used to watch them release what seemed to be gazillions of smolts. The numbers were astronomical but seemed absolutely realistic when they drove home that only 2% would make it back.

[Scheindogg]

Oh damn!! That sucks it's not like that anymore..
After growing up in Bellevue that would have been a really close fun place to go (I imagine)

I wonder if it will ever get back to what it was?

[Scheindogg]

Was going on a walk, and found where all these jumping fish hang out! Just down stream of the Leary way bridge.

It is actually sockeye!
There is at the very LEAST 40 fish, the school goes downstream in a line as far as I can see from the bridge so as far as I know could be hundreds of fish.. Like I said though atleast 40+.

They are fully red body's which is how I now they are spawning sockeye, I can tell from how deep the red is and how almost the entire body is red it's not a different spawning fish.
These are the best pics I could take, hope you all think it's as interesting as I do lol