This doesn't make me happy, as the Nooch is my best local winter steelhead fishing option. That said, if our inability to fish for steelhead means the QIN can't fish for "steelhead" in December, I'm good with it. Last I checked, they were planning to fish for "steelhead," so maybe it just means we're getting shafted again. We'll see.

Salmon and steelhead bite similar stuff, but the presentations are usually pretty different, and I've only personally encountered one late coho while targeting steelhead on the Nooch in Dec.-Feb. I'm pretty sure it survived the 10 seconds it was hooked before breaking my steelhead leader like it was a noodle. I think the "you fish when we fish" thing is playing a part in this, but as I said, as long as the QIN isn't fishing to protect salmon, I'll accept not fishing to protect salmon.