Methow steelhead season appears certain

Published 11:03 am Monday, September 12, 2011

I fished Moccasin Lake in Winthrow over the weekend, driving along the Methow River on the way.

The nearly 100-degree temperatures weren’t great for lake fishing, but more on that later.

I enjoyed checking out the Methow, one of my favorite rivers in the West. I really enjoy fishing it for summer-run steelhead every fall because the river is loaded with great runs and is fairly easy to wade and not so wide that I can’t cast from bank to bank in most spots.

The river is very good for trout, also, with big rainbows, cutthroat and cutt-bow hybrids. A guide I talked with on Sunday said the river is very underfished considering its quality. He said it’s not unusual to catch a trout over 24 inches, which is fabulous.

But I digress.

Last year’s steelhead season was a little frustrating because there was a good slug of fish right away so the river was opened in September. But a lot of fish seemed to sit in the Columbia River waiting for a rain to draw them into the Methow, so there wasn’t much action after the first week or so of the opening.

I missed the early fish on my two trips in October and didn’t land one hatchery fish. I did release a wild fish in one visit and two in the next while fishing big black or brown stoneflies.

Whether this year’s run is equally problematic remains to be seen, but there’s plenty of water in the Methow right now thanks to a generous amount of snow melt this year.

My guess is the fish will just show up in the river and not hang in the Columbia.

It also appears that there are enough steelhead for officials at the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to declare a season in 2011. I don’t think they’ll open it early this year after last year’s frustrating season, so look for it to open in early October.

A check today of Wells Dam, the dam on the Columbia just before the Methow, showed that 5,718 steelhead have gone over so far, including about 2,474 wild fish. Since it takes around 6,000 returning steelhead to open a season, that’s good news because steelhead will continue to come over the dam and should easily surpass the magic number.

Last year, 12,763 fish, including 5,415 wild ones, were counted. In 2009, a stellar year, there were 25,443 steelhead, with 8,927 wild fish. There were 9,808 in 2008 and 7,500 in 2007.

You can do your own checking on fish counts by Clicking here