Hanford steelhead season opens early

Published 12:01 am Friday, September 16, 2011

The lower portion of the Hanford Reach on the Columbia, from the Tri-Cities up to the old Hanford townsite wooden powerline towers, has opened early for steelhead fishing because a large run of hatchery fish has triggered Endangered Species Act regulations.

Returns of hatchery and wild steelhead to the upper Columbia have exceeded the run criteria of 8,300 at Priest Rapids Dam, which requires a conservation-based fishery under the ESA to remove a percentage of hatchery fish from the run.

The strength of the run bodes well for eventually opening a fishery on upriver tributaries such as the Methow, Entiat and Okanogan, but no decision has yet been made on those streams.