The Stillaguamish steelhead fishing as been deteriorating for several years now. True, they are not planting any more Skamania steelhead in the Stilly. WDF&W is also monitoring the recovery of the original Deer Creek population of natives very closely (and they are coming back).
The Stilly has a long way to go before it will ever be the river we all remember in the 50s and 60s. Siltation from Deer Creek and sometimes Boulder River, and the huge slide at Hazel really have silted up the spawning areas.
In time, provided the watersheds are protected, the Stilly could clear out the silt and regain some of its lost glory. The gully-washer rains we're getting this season will clear out some of the sediment.
In the short term though, you are correct. It has not been very good of late, at least not like I remember it. And...as a note of comparison, it took an eight year closure for the middle fork of the Eel River in northern California (a one-time fabulous producer of steelhead) to clear up and begin to rebuild a healthy run of wild steelhead again. The Eel now has a catch-and-release season open through the winter and I'm told fishing is pretty darned good.

Les Johnson