Hey Jerm,
Great post and it really brings me back.
I grew up in that area and hunted and fished the Allen Creek area. Cutthroat trout in the spring, Bass (yes, bass) in the summer, coho in the late summer and ducks in the fall.
Once they installed that tide gate the coho run was dead and it didn't do any favors for the sea-run cutty either.
Once we open up some of this long, lost estuarine habitat and get a handle on booming cormorant populations we will see steelhead populations rebound along with wild coho and chinook!
Very cool stuff and to have the opportunity to watch nature reclaim the hunting and fishing habitats of my youth is very special indeed!