Thumper I said nothing about the quality of fishing opportunities.
I said the number of WILD steelhead...

As a fly angler I can do ok on summer fish. but relying on hatchery fish for winter steelhead flyfishing absolutely sucks!!!
I put in about 15 days of fly fishing on th East Lewis and Washoudal this winter, I caught exactly one fish and guess what it was a wild fish.
Having lots of hatchery fish means absolutely nothing to me without wild steelhead to me a river is useless.
As for the Washougal It is absolutely nothing compared to what it used to be and I can't imagine the East Fork is any better that in was either but I just started fishing it 3 years ago..
I have been fishing the Washougal however for about 20 years having grown up on it's banks and I can say as an expert ong the river, compared to the 1980's it absolutely sucks!! When was the last time anyone you know had a 10 fish day there lately??? they were pretty common for me when I was a kid.

As for Salmon on the Washougal the hatchery needs to be closed ASAP or at least eliminate the Chinook program. The Washougal chinook fishery is 100% a snagging fishery!!!

The East Lewis in my opinion is a poor fishery and does not provide a quality experience. Sure you can go there and catch some fish. But it is almost entirely a combat fishing situation unless you have a boat.
Thoes stupid chambers creek fish only hold in certain holes leaving the rest of the river vacant to me although there are plenty of fish it's not an enjoyable fishery.