It's strange. Anecdotal evidence (fishing reports) was all negative in December, but every day I got out in January (wasn't many, but it was almost every decent weather window), I or somebody else I talked to had decent to good success. I haven't fished much in the Chehalis tribs this year, because the crowds have been pretty horrendous during the few weather windows, but around the same time, I started hearing reports of good fishing there. I was starting to think the fish were just showing late, but the hatchery numbers haven't shown the sort of uptick that should be expected in that scenario. Pretty sure the fish aren't wasting much time holding throughout the rivers in these conditions, so the reality must actually be pretty grim.

Maybe the reason we were having decent fishing in the few, brief windows we got in January was that whatever numbers we were fishing over, they were fresh, moving fish more often than not, and those seem to be better than average biters in my experience. Also weren't getting much pressure, mostly due to the conditions, and that never hurts. Perhaps more fishable days at normal flows would have provided a different perspective. Who really knows?

I really hope we don't get shut down, but if we do, I'll chalk it up as an unfortunate example of reasonable co-management, which is something I must say I'd like to see more of in the Chehalis Basin.