March was another great month for fish returning to the North Umpqua River. Not only did 4,000 winter steelhead pass upstream to add to the current total count of over 10,000, a few early spring chinook migrated through the fish ladder. The first one was a beautiful large fish and arrived on March 24th. This springer will find a quiet, deep pool in the river to hold during its no-food diet until September when it will spawn in a nearby gravel riffle.
What's so special about this winter steelhead counted on March 10th at 8:05 PM by our project? It is the 8,000th fish for the 2025-26 North Umpqua River return and reported just a day after it occurred. There will be several more steelhead migrating upstream to spawn over the next several weeks to count and update for everyone. The total count could reach 10,000 by the end of April and be one of the highest number for this population in recent years. Thank you for watching our LiveCam Video.
Umpqua Fish
Spring weather is here and that means Spring Chinook will arrive in the next few days. The water temperature just hit 50 degrees for the first time in 2026, which is a great predictor for the arrival of the first springer in the North Umpqua River.
Umpqua Fish
Are you watching... 12 steelhead passing through the fish ladder in just 15 minutes. This year’s returns continue to be very high numbers and it is still 60 days away from the end of the migration period. A great start to the month of March.
Umpqua Fish
Moses built some more features on the new live dashboard! There is now live season fish charts showing this year's run compared to last year as well as lots of other data. You can check it out at https://live.umpquafish.com/ Great job Moses Finlay!
Ryan Finlay
The North Umpqua River winter steelhead strong returns continued last week with over 1500 fish counted. The mid-season number of steelhead to date is now over 5,000. Early predictions estimate the total runsize will be well over 8,000 fish by the end of April.
Umpqua Fish
Another great day to watch several hundred winter steelhead move upstream through the fish ladder at Winchester Dam on the North Umpqua River. With almost 500 fish counted on February 10th and more observed yesterday, the 2026 steelhead return is now over 3,500 and not even halfway through the normal run timing for this population. There is no winter steelhead hatchery program for the North Umpqua and only a very small number of fish stray from the South Umpqua River hatchery smolt release.
Umpqua Fish
