Maybe Im just spoiled....coming off the heels of one of the best coho seasons in years, at least in the places I fish. I will admit I havent even been steelhead fishing yet this winter, but with very few exceptions, all my contacts are saying slow slow and slower. I know rain has been behind schedule, but we've had enough bumps that the fish should be around, at least the normal early places. What say you?

Well, well, well.........living where I live and talking to the different people in drift boats coming in.....NOT a very good year, so far for steelhead......normal places, that historically put out fish....not so far this season.

I've been hearing/seeing people pull fish here and there, but nothing consistent to justify saying the season has really "kicked-off". Shouldn't it generally be in full swing by now?

I went out and fished last Friday on the Bogey/Calawah to check things out myself. Saw one fish caught. I've checked the creel reports/hatchery returns. Pretty slow this year. Co-worker caught his first steelhead a few weeks ago on the Cow. Hopefully late winter steelhead run is better as I've got another trip planned.

Speaking of creel reports/hatchery returns the numbers of fish at Puget Sound hatcheries are below average - can hatchery zone closures on a number of streams be too far off?

Curt

Next week a little rain, and the King tides of this week, should push those early fish in, if they are there to be pushed in. I am heading south in search of steel the next 4 days.

Low water year so far for sure. I think most of us like med to med high conditions, especially for hatchery terminal areas. Not the case this year. Have to change your tactics, the fish are around but spread out, or if your lucky, bunches can be had. Personally, I like it lower than average. Separates the men from the boys.

Been out just a few times and it definitely seems slow but the benefit is that there are far less people later in the day and fishing has been good for me after the morning rush. Hopefully rain will make the difference soon.

Was out to the coast 4 of 6 weekends first weekend of November to Dec. 15. Have caught steelhead on every trip. Typically 1 or 2 fish caught per weekend for 2 anglers - so slow. That was fish landed and the conversion rate of opportunity to landing was about 80% - so not just unlucky days where a lot of fish were lost.

Some truth to changing up tactics.

Also know of some folks who had ripping days of 5-6 fish each if you happened to be in the right spot after a bit of rain.

We have 0 fish back to the trap at my work. So far, only 20 checked by creelers on the entire river. Flow is too low to float in a DB. We turned in water samples to DEQ for Total Suspended Solids testing and the results came back None Detected for the first time ever. Gin clear is an understatement.

The "S" rivers are near empty of fish. A few here and there, but so far the worst year I've ever seen.

Yeah - its been brutal. I was able to get my buddy onto a nice little fish xmas morning on his first steelhead outing ever - so that was amazing. But past that...nothing'. GAH!

Had that exact conversion at a hatchery two days ago. There had been some grumblings about it coming to the S rivers but with the bump of water and fish right at Christmas it looks like we avoided it.

Patience. "When it rains, they will come."

Banked the OP yesterday. Did more scouting than fishing. I knew it would be tough fishing, but had to get a line wet. Only saw one dink being carried out. Came across a group of plunkers doing their annual New Years Day outing. No fish with about 10 rods out. Big fire, lots of beer and they were having fun. Thought I saw our own Mr. Vedder, but I didn't think he would be carrying his gear in a grocery sack.

I normally fish the cascade this time of the year and the past couple season it was running sub 300 cfs with lots of fish being caught but this year water is 400-500 cfs with absolutely nothing being caught. the Skagit just had a huge coho run that was a little late but the steelhead now are over a month late and still hardly any catching let alone fish in the hatchery and its not the lack of water. I have personally only seen 1 steelhead killed this year out of 4 trips and I haven't even touched one yet. lack luster is a under statement

Back to what Curt said, you can expect some closures soon.

So far the current winter run steelhead season has been extremely slow! However, I did manage to pick up this early returning wild winter run in mid-December:

Coastal rivers bumped pretty good yesterday. Lets see if that makes any difference?

My own angling efforts have been a bit lackluster.
I've been out three times so far on the local cricks. My only fish has been a wild summerrun.
Out of those three trips I've seen a total of five other fish caught.
Not stellar but there are a few around.
SF

Most of boats on the S rivers have very little to show, most I talked to in the last 2 weeks have been blanked.