Wild rivers of the pacific region host blank years or even double blank years of certain strains...

Ahhh the river is full of ho's and you know it. If some nice respectable fisherperson wants to come up and spend some coin roping a few so be it. 😝😇😈
 
All that aside I have seen them in February a few times, don't know why they run late, but it is always a nice surprise getting one late (early) in the year. It's ma nature at her best, things happen and then other things. It's for a reason. Maybe she is making room for the Atlantic,s😁.

ENLIGHTENMENT PLEASE---
Likely knew this once but alas have lost it--along with lotsa other important stuff--
  OK--so--3 years ago there were lots of dead Hos in late winter all over Kiddie. To my knowledge nothing like it since--now it looks like the offspring are at it again--GOOD.
 My problem is that I really don't know if they actually come in late like this and spawn in the cold of winter.
 
Seems to me that the Hos that come in with the Kings spawn early -see them doing the nasty all the time in fall- then they all seem to die off and go away like Kings.
 
BUT WAIT- every now and again Hos come in winter and do it all over again.
OK -GOOD--
Are they a whole different strain that got in here somehow or has this been going on for a while ??
One may wonder as the 3 year cycle seems to be repeating although it may have been happening 'under the radar' with smaller numbers.
 
Either way it speaks great things for the SR --especially now when questions about larger fishes in the lake were in vogue.

Thanks for sharing charlie. Really wish I kept journals through the years on all of this stuff. But sounds about right. Did not see or hear much of any winter coho the last 2 seasons. But 3 seasons ago was the most I ever saw with the latest being in first week of march with good numbers that February as well. The season before that had good numbers as well. I do recall my first sightings of them quite a few seasons before that followed by blank seasons. Could be a 2 seasons on 2 seasons off schedule these winter coho are on. Just wondering if DEC will ever shed any light on it. Will say they are mean looking exotic cohoes once they start getting their dominant spawning features

And lets hope they are successful in getting enough for the egg take.
http://www.dec.ny.gov/press/100233.html

 Was gettin all happy bout a few Hos showing up - after reading that it looks like we may have been simply lucky to have a few Hos show up- or much of anything for a while unless the fish start to eat something else.

http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt438n99wc;NAAN=13030&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=d0e442&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e442&brand=calisphere
 
"

Spawning Season

The spawning season of trout varies to some extent with the locality and the temperature of the water. By nature, eastern brook and brown trout are fall spawners, while rainbows spawn in the spring (a complete list of the common and scientific names of the salmons and trouts of California is contained in the section The Classification of Fishes). In some California streams with runs of anadromous fishes, such as the Trinity River, there is hardly a month in the year when some strain of fish is not spawning. As an example, spring-spawning king salmon arrive in the upper river section at Lewiston the latter part of June. They are then followed by the summer and fall runs, which extend the salmon spawning season to mid-November. The king salmon runs overlap the silver salmon runs, which extend from November through January. The silvers in turn overlap the steelhead, which spawn during the period January through June. Actually, the steelhead of the Trinity River may be divided into those of the spring run (fish in general entering and migrating upstream on dropping stream levels while quite green, and spawning in the following season), and those of the fall run (fish in general entering on rising stream levels with sexual products in various stages of development, but spawning within the same season).
There are several ways in which the spawning season can be advanced. These include selective breeding, use of artificially controlled light, and injection of pituitary hormones. Selective breeding has been highly effective, and through this process the fall-spawning rainbow commonly referred to as the Hot Creek strain has been developed. Even though selective breeding is a very slow process, the results not being evident until several generations of offspring have been dealt with, the results are permanent and once the strain of fish has been developed it can be perpetuated by proper selection. It has been clearly demonstrated that the spawning time of trout can be advanced by the injection of pituitary hormones; however, this method is still in its infancy and, before the average hatcheryman will be benefited by its use, much needs to be learned regarding it. It offers interesting possibilities for crossbreeding varieties which spawn at different times of the year.
 

Effect of Temperature on Brood Stock and Eggs

Probably no other single thing regulates the development of eggs and growth of fish as much as temperature. It has been shown that rainbow trout reared in water held fairly constant at 60 degrees F. grow in length at the rate of about one inch per month. At 45 degrees F. they grow at less than one-quarter inch per month.
It is quite generally agreed that yearling and adult rainbow can withstand temperatures up to 78 degrees F. for short periods of time without harmful effect. It has also been shown that in order to produce eggs of good quality, rainbow spawners must be held at water temperatures not exceeding 56 degrees F., and preferably not above 54 degrees F., for a period of at least six months before spawning.
In order to get rainbow brood stock to grow rapidly and spawn when two years old, it is common practice to rear them the first 16 months of their life at a location where water temperatures are fairly constant at 60 degrees F., and then to transfer them to a location with a water temperature below 54 degrees F. to mature.
Just as water temperatures which are too warm (higher than 56 degrees) adversely affect egg development in rainbow and king salmon spawners, so do water temperatures which are too cold (42 degrees or lower) affect the development and incubation of trout and salmon eggs. In one experiment in which mature adult king salmon females, nearly ready to spawn, were placed in water ranging from 34 to 38 degrees, none of the females ripened and all died before spawning.
In an attempt to incubate king salmon eggs at a constant 35-degree temperature, mortality was practically 100 percent. Eggs held at water temperatures of 42.5 degrees or higher developed with only normal loss. Salmon eggs which had been held in water slightly above 42 degrees for a period of six days or longer could then tolerate colder temperatures without excessive mortalities. It is safe to say that the eggs of rainbow trout and king salmon will not develop normally in the fish if constant water temperatures above 56 degrees F. are encountered. It also follows that both rainbow trout and king salmon eggs cannot be incubated in water below 42 degrees F. without excessive loss."
 
Just to offer a sense of how variable all of this is, and how little of it is " written in stone," and how many factors there are that can influence when one or the majority of any population develop to any point.
 
Maybe the cohos are noticeable in years when there are low numbers of steelhead, and not so noticeable in years of high numbers of steelhead.  There are a LOT of variables to try to juggle.

I'm still looking, have not found anything about relative size of the skeins.  But these fish are also carrying a body burden of known contaminants related to endocrine system disruption, mutagenicity (mutations), teratogenicity (deformities), and carcinogenicity (cancer, or tumor formation), so maybe a lot of kings got a higher dose that year.  I think if it were systemic (all the hens ) we might have heard something from DEC about needing to take more fish to get sufficient eggs.  Or maybe the skeins develop at different rates, and by the time the hens ripened , they were carrying the full load.  As I recall, you are generally harvesting very early and very low in the river, so if there were differential development, you might only see one skein where the eggs have filled out.  I know I have close friends who ran a bait store and bought all the skein or loose eggs they could get, and they never mentioned anything about this from the Genesee and other Tribs in Western NY. 
 
But I'll keep looking, I don't have a salmon anatomy and physiology text in my library so I have to do the webcrawl.
 
Another thing that you notice about science when you have worked with it long enough is there is nearly always an exception to every rule. 

Have yinz seen this story.............................
 
Somewhere on the North Fork of Idaho’s Clearwater River is a rainbow trout weighing at least 28 pounds–or about 8 pounds heavier than the state record for the species.
Larry Warren, who knew that he had a possible record-breaker on the line during a recent fishing trip with a buddy, was compelled to release the fish because it was protected under state law.
“I knew that it could potentially be a state record when it came 2 feet out of the water,” Warren told the Coeur d’Alene Press. “It took a 70-yard run up the river.”
The 55-year-old angler noticed after landing the trout that it had an intact adipose fin. The state mandates that rainbow trout with an unclipped adipose fin must be released.
 
Any mandates like this in your home state?
 
 
 

 
 
 

I have heard of people resembling their pets, but fish?

Based on the latest NY Outdoor News, DEC has confirmed the Vitamin B1 Deficiency as the root cause of the problem last fall (or is it still happening, no one is chiming out about it here.) While they have not said it, it would seem logical that a weak fish exposed to multiple exertions becomes a dead fish, same as a fish hung on a rope.  Maybe the weather is enforcing a moratorium on fishing for now, but if you are not into creeling fish, this might be a good year to put in the effort on some other species and leave the ironheads to recover.
 
Jes' saying'. 

Lucky what do you think... Lack of bait forcing steelhead to eat alewives which in turn competes against the Chinook population...add to that a 5 year bumper crop of steelhead and Chinook... Add lakers in to the mix... Think of a fish tank... You can putas many fish as you want it...but they need to eat... Thoughts???

As for steelhead reports, none from me knlh observations. No need to promote other peoples success... I am quite happy to see the vault in internet hype. I just hope some of these cluelesd newbies don't take a plunge fishing through slush on the lower river :/

Maybe tuna... I'm questioning it myself. Why are the steelhead eating more alewives???

I understood it as Tuna described-likely caused by unusual conditions last winter.
This season- seeming more normal hopefully will change things back to normal -think without a lot of return fishes-  think it will be mostly cookies for a while-cept for those that make it through the times.
Like to see release only for anything bigger- like a slot size limit-at least  for a while.
 
NOT saying no steel  will survive as they seem to be getting over it in the river after a while but many seem to have died.
That's all IFFFF the bait was the only factor and IFFF its cleared up this season with weather.
 
The jury is still out on Kings and Hos.
Lake reports all season were of  few big Kings- at least on our end. I understood it that  shorts likely made the numbers in the States Lake Report.
Could Kings have been dying off sooner than the Steel for some reason causing the extremely poor run- if ya call that a run ???
 Saw far less spawn activity this year with them.
(yea yea it was OK in the zones--below that wasn't normal though from where I walked)
 
Still more questions than answers.
Next couple of years will tell about the Kings --without a definitive disease answer--  returns from the banner runs should be excellent barring other factors.
Frankly I would bet we have issues for a while with them.
Hate to be so negative.