By Nick Chambers
February and March can be a tough time of year for residents of Western Washington. The steady rains and darkness take their toll.
But that did not used to be true for anglers who pursue the Northwest’s most prized sport fish, wild steelhead. For them, the late winter months brought great anticipation, knowing they would have an opportunity to fish for wild steelhead on North Puget Sound rivers through April, particularly the Skagit and its largest tributary, the Sauk. The opportunity to hook, let alone land, one of these silvery, muscular fish was an experience anglers cherished.
Since 2010, that hopeful anticipation has been replaced with an acute sense of loss. That year the wild steelhead catch-and-release fishery on the Skagit and other Puget Sound rivers was closed because there were too few wild steelhead.
Steelhead, like salmon, spend much of their lives in the ocean before returning to spawn in freshwater streams. But in 2010 not enough wild steelhead returned to spawn in Puget Sound rivers to allow any fishing at all. Perhaps anglers should have anticipated this; three years earlier, Puget Sound steelhead were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Beginning in 2018, steelhead anglers may once again greet February with a sense of hope instead of despair. After bottoming-out at roughly 2,500 wild steelhead in 2009, the Skagit’s wild steelhead numbers have surged, averaging approximately 8,500 fish for several years — an abundance not seen since the 1980s.
These robust numbers are sufficient to warrant an update to angling regulations that will allow catch-and-release fishing for wild steelhead in the legendary Skagit. And anglers will not be the only beneficiaries if the angling season is reopened. Local economies in rural Skagit basin towns such as Darrington, Marblemount and Concrete will enjoy the business anglers bring.
But a big obstacle remains to be surmounted before anglers can return to the Skagit in 2018. NOAA-Fisheries, a federal agency, must determine whether the fisheries plan submitted jointly by the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Sauk-Suiattle, Swinomish and Upper Skagit tribes meets the requirements of the Endangered Species Act.
The clock is ticking. The process for evaluating the proposed plan requires significant effort and time, and there has been no apparent movement since the plan was submitted last November. Managers at NOAA-Fisheries have a lot on their plate, but evaluating this fishery should be a high priority.
If NOAA-Fisheries approves a wild steelhead fishery on the Skagit, it will be different than the fisheries of the past. Despite the recent rebound, wild steelhead numbers in the Skagit must continue to improve before they are fully recovered. That requires limiting fishing impacts. Habitat loss was a big factor in the depletion of wild steelhead in the Skagit and throughout Puget Sound, but excessive harvest was also a major factor.
For steelhead fishing on rivers like the Skagit, sport anglers should embrace regulations that maximize their time on the water and minimize their impact on the fish (such as mandatory catch-and-release and use of barbless hooks).
Recent opinion surveys indicate anglers are, in fact, willing to do so. A poll conducted for Trout Unlimited by Southwick Associates, a public opinion research firm specializing in fish and wildlife issues, reveals that — by a wide margin — steelhead anglers of all tackle types prefer restrictive fishing regulations that help sustain fishing opportunity, if such measures are necessary to achieve conservation goals.
The Skagit presents a rare opportunity to create a model wild steelhead fishery that provides angler opportunity consistent with wild steelhead recovery.
This opportunity should be seized.
It’s time to re-open the Skagit to catch-and-release fishing for wild steelhead.
Nick Chambers is the Wild Steelhead Initiative organizer for Trout Unlimited.
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