I talked with Curt about this issue last year and he said that WDFW has no way of doing an "in season" stock assessment on steelhead. Therefore if the forcast is for poor returns then they should close the river. I think it is to WDFW's credit that this year they extended the wild steelhead release throughout the entire winter season instead of allowing harvest of wild fish through February like they did last year.

[ 12-13-2001: Message edited by: Beezer ]