It's a pretty awesome sight isn't it Brandon. I can remember sitting there below the Elwha dam in the 80's discussing how cool it would be to blow those sum bitches to high heaven and let the fish come back. That was the 80's...I wonder how the old timers felt about it long before that. Sure you might spend a few years in prison, but the food is decent and they serve salisbury steak at the Clallam Bay Pen on Tuesday nights...or so I hear.
Here's a pic of a dimer caught on a spoon just above the mouth of the river in 1987
- elwha.jpg (67.86 KiB) Viewed 1328 times
To answer your question. Yes...I think they'll come back. There's still a remnant run in there now that will seed the upper river where all the unbelievable habitat is. Will there be 100 pound salmon again...probably not, but they will come back