a guy told me today that the meeting on tuesday night with WDFW that there will be no winter steelhead fishing in the chehalis basin rivers..

is that true?

They haven’t officially announced a decision, but yeah…it’s probably in that for sure 99% chance we won’t have a season. Not even the skookumchuck…where there aren’t any wild fish left. Even the rivers on the coast they keep open will only be open a max of 3 days a week and probably no bait/scent, barbless hooks and probably no fishing from a boat. The whole commission or whatever minus Bob Kratzer are pretty much all fly chucking elitists who want hatchery fish gone.

They say they are having a hard time getting hatchery fish back…yeah that’s what happens when a river used to have 400,000+ fish out in it and only has 70,000 now. It’s not the time to be making more hatchery cuts…

They are concerned about something that on most rivers, simply doesn’t exist anymore. Some rivers still have an actually wild run (even though most of those probably have stray “evil” hatchery fish genetics mixed in), but most are hatchery fish, especially through January. Most of the wild stocks don’t show up until February/March on a lot of these rivers.

jgreen hit it on the money. All these accommodations they're making aren't helping the fish or the fishermen.

If they close the Chehalis then all that pressure is gonna shift to the OP...

If you're following BC at all, the steelhead there a seeking even lower numbers for returns. Down to where Noah would have a hard time getting some for the Ark. Steelhead will soon be just a dim memory.

That may be true of this particular commission, but not all fly anglers want hatchery fish gone.
SF

No I get it. I chuck and duck on occasion for steelhead. I wouldn’t make fun of something I don’t do.

This commission is set up to fail. I have to tell ya, a lot of theses folks have the “I just want to be in nature, around the trees and if I get lucky maybe have a tug on my fly rod” kind of people. I love the trees, the river and the scenery for sure…but I think most fisherman consider it a bad day when they don’t hook a fish or two.

If it doesn’t matter if you catch anything…go on a hike or something and bring a camera.

It’s the cheesiest saying but “the tug is the drug” after all.

As far as BC goes (what many consider ideal habitat). I know that ocean conditions have SUCKED. I don’t think anyone is saying that’s not the biggest factor; but we have to stop letting hatchery fish be vilified. If anything…plant 3x times more and I’ll pay more. Most of us would. Cutting back makes no sense…

You put 1000 white balls in a tub, and 10 black ones…the odds of someone grabbing a black one goes down considerably. It’s not that hard to understand, but apparently everyone from the field to the head offices at WDFW can’t understand common sense. Right now we have 100 white balls and 10 black ones…pretty easy to figure out encounter rates might go up huh?

A lot of the problems in BC go back to fisheries. The ocean may be sucky, but escaping less than 100 fish to the whole Thomspon is kinda under-escaping.

If you want wild steelhead you can't have a sympatric hatchery program. One or the other. And that will require changing ESA.

I listened to the whole meeting. I got the feeling that 2021-2022 steelhead season would be the same as last year.....

Maybe the BEST solution for the WILD steelhead would be to have a ESA Listing, might take it out of the WDFW hands, and the politics' of this whole thing.

I mean secret meeting, hand picked persons in attendance, This thing is bigger than what WDFW is capable of handling OR more would have been done 25+ years ago.

Just how well has that ESA listing worked for salmon and SRKWs? Been since the 90s and how much recovery have we seen? Add in PS steelhead to mix of highly successful recovery programs...

What I don’t understand is, if these decisions to close or severely curtail sport seasons on the Chehalis are based on data that is already known when the rules are published, why does WDFW even give us a glimmer of hope that we’ll get to fish, then shut everything down? It reeks of a bait and switch to me.

See: 2019, rivers are shot to hell until late January with high water, they drop into shape and sports guys start doing well, then the rivers are shut down “due to low preseason forecasts.” What the hell?

dog....chase....tail....license....$$$$

I know I am slow on the uptake but when one has the final escapement and run size for a run you can make a reasonable estimate of the forecast for when that brood returns. Obviously, more data can fine tune it but WDFW had a clue in 2018 how many steelhead would be coming back in 2021-22, and so on for other species. But gotta sell those licenses.

Most all the PS rivers with the steady, purposeful , and planned decline of any early return hatchery plants, combined w early closure dates for anglers have seen a steadying number, and in some rivers, a significant rise in Steelhead returns from late January through March and into April.

No planting, no returning equals low numbers.

In some rivers, the late returning fish are nearly as plentiful as they were in the 70s for the same months of Feb, Mar, April, and even into May

Float a few of them in the spring when you can’t fish, and you might be surprised....

With all the closures and lack of catchable numbers, a whole generation of Steelheader's is disappearing and will never be recovered. Maybe that's what the WDFW wants? Once those of us that know and experienced those "good years" are gone, this current situation will become the new normal and all the bitching will cease. Reminds me of a quote.

"A curious thing happens when fish stocks decline: People who aren't aware of the old levels, accept the new levels as normal. Over generations, societies adjust their expectations downward to match prevailing conditions". Kennedy Warne, Nat Geo, April 2007.

Relic populations are fast becoming the new normal. I can't believe how rapidly this has occurred.

“ Maybe that's what the WDFW wants? “

Of course that’s what they wanted , as there should be No need to fish as recreation !

Followed closely with hunting. This is what we all have asked for with our humble politicians leading the way by our noses...

It will be interesting to see what they do for the Upper Quinault and the Queets/ Salmon river. The Quinault tribe not only has a heathy net fishery on it, but they also quide non-tribal sports fisherman on these river systems, with a higher limits in some places, no restrictions on boats or lures or wild retention. Seems odd that the non-tribal land recreational fishermen get restrictions or complete closures, when they are taking a fraction (both incidental and actual) of what the tribal side does. And before someone talks about tribal hatcheries, they need to understand who funds these hatcheries (Hint, you can see the web site for the Quinault National Fish Hatchery on the US Fish and Wildlife page).

On the other hand, just for argument's sake, what is the status of Quinault steelhead vs. the rest of the state? Because the Upper Quinault is in the Park, the NPS sets regs there. What, actually, does WDFW contribute to Quinault watershed management? Just wondering as I don't know but of Krijack is right is any place WDFW is involved in (or where they manage on their own such as GH) doing as well for steelhead?

Quinault wild steelhead are under-escaped, just like the rest of WA state wild steelhead runs, though not for completely the same reasons. Most runs are presently under-escaped because smolt to adult ocean survival rates have dropped lower than ever seen. Quinault and Queets escapements are down for that reason as well, but also because the Quinault Tribe manages hatchery and wild steelhead as though they are the same, when they are not. So the wild run is exposed to the same harvest rate as the hatchery fish, which fairly consistently over-harvests wild steelhead.