The opportunity to catch and keep a wild steelhead — including one of those increasingly rare 20-pound wall hangers — has for years pretty much been limited to eight rivers on the Olympic Peninsula, mostly around the town of Forks.
While that will remain the same for now, the state Fish and Wildlife Department announced Tuesday that the length of the catch-and-keep season for unclipped fish will be significantly shortened.
The wild-stock retention season normally opens Dec. 1 on the eight streams, but that opening date changes this winter to Feb. 16 on the Bogachiel, Calawah, Clearwater, Dickey, Hoh, Quillayute, Quinault and Sol Duc.
The reason for the change, according to state steelhead manager Bob Leland in Olympia, is to protect the early portion of the native steelhead run on Peninsula rivers while still allowing retention of the more numerous fish available during the peak of the return in late spring.
“This will help maintain the diversity of the run — including a range of late and early returning fish — that is important in preserving the wild steelhead population,” Leland said.
The change does not affect fisheries currently under way for hatchery steelhead, identifiable by their missing adopose or ventral fin. As before, anglers will be allowed to retain one wild steelhead per license year on one of the eight rivers.
Because the current regulations allow only one native steelhead per season, Bob Gooding at Olympic Sporting Goods in Forks said the change probably makes little difference to most of his tackle shop customers.
“Most of the guys let all the natives go now,” he said, “so it will most likely be a non-issue here. Those few who want the opportunity to keep a really big fish would have their best chance later in the season — from mid-February through March — anyway, so I don’t see it having much impact.”
The new regulation comes as no real surprise in a time of rapid change in steelhead management, generated by the Endangered Species Act listing of some wild runs and the much more restrictive Statewide Steelhead Management Plan, adopted in 2008 in response, at least partially, to the federal listings. Leland said regulations are made even more complicated by state budget cuts, by hatchery reprogramming and by an attempt to match hatchery stocks to their individual river systems.
Final fishing regulations for this winter season are still being written, but when they are announced in the next couple of weeks, they could follow the recent trend of less fishing water and shorter seasons. Management could be moving on some rivers, for instance, toward fishing seasons only in “terminal” hatchery areas, or portions of streams instead of their entirety. Anything to offer recreation on hatchery stocks and minimize the effects on wild fish.
But hope springs eternal for avid steelhead fishermen. There will be opportunity, and there will be magnificent fish nosing up their natal streams.
The bulk of the harvest this winter, as usual, will be on adults from hatchery smolt plants in the spring of 2009, and the size of those plants is a major factor in how strong the fishery will be.
Here is a quick rundown on 2009 plants in a selection of popular steelhead rivers, compared to plants the previous year:
n Snohomish System, 370,300 smolts, which is down 69,000 from the 2008 plant. Includes a drop of 3,000 smolts on the Skykomish (to 148,200), 12,000 on the Snoqualmie (to 155,200), 9,000 on the Sultan (to 15,700), and 2,000 on the Wallace (to 20,000), but an increase of 5,000 fish on the Pilchuck (to 31,200).
n Stillaguamish System, 125,200 smolts, which is down 30,000 from the 2008 plant. The entire cut was on the North Fork, which received a total of 115,100 smolts. Pilchuck Creek got 10,000 fish, but the South Fork and Canyon Creek got no winter smolts.
n Skagit System, 174,000 smolts, which is down a whopping 165,000 from the 2008 plant. Includes a cut of 39,000 on the Cascade, to a total of 146,000. The Baker got 28,000 smolts.
n Quillayute System, 150,000 smolts, which is down 56,000 from the 2008 plant. The entire cut was on the Sol Duc, which got no winter smolts in 2009. The Bogachiel received the usual 100,000 fish, and the Calawah, 50,000.
n The Hoh System got pretty much its usual complement of smolts, about 100,000 fish, in 2009.
n Southwest Washington rivers fared the best in the smolt-plant derby. The Cowlitz got 808,400 smolts in 2009, an increase of 89,000 fish from the 2008 plant. The little Elochoman got a big plant of 130,000 smolts, an increase of 89,000 fish; the Humptulips got 130,000 fish, an increase of 80,000; the Wynoochee got 140,400 fish, an increase of 37,000; and the Kalama got 115,400 fish, an increase of 39,000.
n Three summer-run rivers of note: The Grande Ronde got 170,200 smolts in 2009, an increase of 6,000 over the 2008 plant; the Wenatchee got 327,100, an increase of 20,000; and the Methow got 411,000, a small increase of 1,500 fish from the 2008 smolt plant.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
