In fact, the Yakima once had substantial runs of salmon and steelhead and, even before the construction of the Yakama tribal hatchery at Cle Elum, still had a small relic of a summer chinook run as well as the occasional summer-run steelhead (and in all likelihood some winter runs). This is the first year that spring chinook are expected to return to the hatchery. At one time, sockeye ran all the way up into the lakes at the head of the Yak, and Salmon la Sac was so named necause the Indians netted salmon there. What this hatchery program will mean to the trout fishery remains to be shown. It's possible that the chinook will not have too serious an impact, since most of them don't spend much time in-stream, but recently-announced plans to begin rearing coho (extinct in the Yakima for eighty or more years) in several of the ponds along I-5 may well be another matter. Even if the coho are not released until they have smolted, they will be competing directly with resident trout for available food.
