Ash Creek Images
Photographs of the West by Doug Gorsline
American Shad Move Past a Bonneville Dam Fish Ladder Viewing Window
In the bottom level of the Bradford Island Visitor Center at Bonneville Dam there is a large gallery where the public can watch anadromous fish returning from the Pacific Ocean move upstream toward their home spawning streams. This photo was taken during the peak of the shad run in the first week of June, 2006. Sometimes over 150,000 shad per day pass over Bonneville Dam's network of fish ladders.
American Shad are a non-native specie in the Columbia River. An Atlantic Coast native, they were introduced to the Sacramento River in 1871 by a gentleman named Seth Green. From there, they spread northward up the West Coast. The State of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has an excellent web page explaining the history of the American Shad on the Pacific Coast, how and where to fish for it, and how to prepare it for the table.
When hooked, shad are remarkably fast and unpredictable. As a game fish, they are a ton of fun. On the West Coast, they have never been very popular as a food fish.
The other migratory fish that pass through this fish ladder are native to the Columbia River. They include spring chinook salmon, summer chinook, fall chinook, coho salmon, steelhead trout, sockeye salmon, and pacific lamprey.
The other prime time to visit is the first week of September, when the fall chinook run peaks. A visit to the official fish count page will help you decide which days are best for a visit to see the maximum amount of activity. A graphing function on that site lets you select a fish specie, then shows you graphically how that particular run is moving toward or away from the peak of the run.
