Interesting you mention late coho, which I think are the real reason we don't get to fish early steelhead anymore. The QIN's "winter steelhead fishery" on the Chehalis encounters late coho (perhaps not entirely incidentally). We know our late coho runs have been in the tank of late, so there haven't been any fisheries on them in recent years. We all know the whole "we can't fish, you can't fish" paradigm, and if the nets can't fish, we can't fish either... for anything. Rivers closed. That's my jaded, conspiratorial take....

Now for the down to Earth, conservationist take, which is that, frustrated with WDFW though we may be, most wild steelhead runs on the coast are in bad shape and showing little promise for recovery. That's particularly true of the early-timed fish in the upper Chehalis basin, which are the ones we'd be most likely to encounter in a normal, early steelhead fishery. That's why I suggested the possibility of opening the lower tribs (where upper basin fish don't go) while leaving the mainstem closed; it's the only way I could think of to get anyone on the water in December and January. After saying it out loud last night, I realized there are two user groups who would not be likely to agree with that proposal: the recs who would like to fish the mainstem for late coho (if there's room for a fishery this year), and the QIN gillnetters. With those two opponents, my little pipe dream is probably dead on arrival, so don't worry, Lifter; you won't have to endure any slow fishing on the lower tribs this Dec.-Jan., for steelhead or anything else. Considering that the late-timed fish are all Wynoochee and Satsop fish (that missed escapement again last year, with nobody fishing), you likely need not worry about ever fishing those rivers again during prime time.