Plans for upcoming angling opportunities

LEABURG: Fisheries biologists Jeff Ziller from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and Greg Taylor from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) offered updates at last Saturday’s McKenzie River Guides Association annual meeting.

Ziller said that although the total pounds of hatchery fish planned for stocking are about the same for 2025, some things will be slightly different than the previous year. Schedules were being rearranged, and this year, fish will first be released on April 21st, the day before the opening of the fishing season. After that, plantings will be scheduled for Wednesdays, beginning with the early releases originating at the Leaburg Hatchery. “As you know,” he added, “we may or may not have water in Leaburg during the summer again this year. If we don’t, we will be stocking on Thursdays because that’s the best day for the fish to come from the Willamette Hatchery in Oakridge, where they’ll have to be reared if we don’t have Leaburg.”

Taylor discussed challenges around turbid water management, impacts on drinking water, and specific plans for Cougar Dam, including a proposed drawdown to a pool elevation of 1,340 feet by 2033. He went on to outline complications with hydropower generation, Corps fish passage facilities, issues related to hatchery funding, particularly regarding steelhead production, and the complexities of maintaining the water supply for the Leaburg Hatchery.

Last year, counters at the region’s dams had tallied a record steelhead run with 20,000 fish at Willamette Falls and from 6,000 to 7,000 in the McKenzie River, Ziller reported. Over 1,200 wild Chinook also showed up, with hatchery numbers down significantly. Notably, he said the lamprey count at Leaburg Dam had unexpectedly peaked at a record 841 by the end of last year.

The meeting also covered impacts on hatchery operations related to Department of Environmental Quality permitting issues, particularly regarding temperature regulations. The discussion also covered bull trout movements, coho salmon distribution, and the overall impacts of canal closures on river health.

Ziller said broodstock fish numbers were about half of normal levels, adding that “the McKenzie facility is currently holding half of the usual 605,000 smolts for spring 2026 release.”

Taylor also spoke about fish passage issues at Cougar Dam, where the saddle dam, diversion tunnel, and maintenance of both fish passage and hydropower generation pose challenges for the Corps. He noted that the dam’s temperature control tower, which cost $53 million to construct, “might become obsolete under the new plans.”

Part of new proposals for Corps-managed hydro dams include a structural modification that would involve building a downstream passage facility “that would sit in the reservoir and move up and down with the reservoir.,” Taylor said.

Also under consideration would be a new intake somewhere in a reservoir that would tie into the dam’s diversion tunnel for fish to travel downstream with a much-reduced reservoir footprint. Part of Army Corps discussions last year covered different elevations of drawdowns and what each of those levels might mean in terms of the sediment moving out of the reservoir and traveling downstream.

Asked about the status of the McKenzie fish hatcheries and their return to normal operations, Ziller said there had been a permitting process that hadn’t included ODFW. When the error was discovered, he said an administrative permit had been issued “for us to get us over the hump. As it turns out, from a legal standpoint, they can’t do that because it’s a public process. If we get a permit at the end of that public process we get the water,” he added.