Where in the world are thse fish going? I thought that run died out years ago. Seems to have much higher counts at the snake dams this year.

Scott

Great question!

I would imagine they are heading to the Tucannon salmon fishery and Lyons Ferry Fishery.

The Nez Perce are releasing them. Here's an excerpt from their web page:

Clearwater Coho Restoration: This project is funded by the NOAA Fisheries Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund. Yearly releases since 1999 have been 1.1 million juveniles consisting of 830,000 smolts and 270,000 parr (100% of goal for all but one year). In 2004, adult returns reached a high of 3,898 at Lower Granite Dam and 2,104 were trapped at Clearwater weirs with 419 females spawned to produce almost 900,000 eggs. At least 35 redds were counted in tributary streams; 498 adults were passed at weirs to spawn naturally. A master plan for expanding the program was submitted to BPA in September 2004 that would release acclimated smolts to achieve higher adult numbers.

I've also been seeingthem on the Snake tribs while fishing for steelhead for the past few years.