At-risk Columbia Basin Wild Steelhead Provided Some Relief in 2021 Summer and Fall Fisheries

Photo of the Deschutes - Columbia River Confluence by David Moskowitz

Oregon and Washington just published their proposed Columbia River fishing regulations and seasons through an administrative process called North of Falcon - a subset of the Pacific Fishery Management Council process that also sets fishing seasons in Pacific waters from the Canadian border south along the entire west coast to Mexican.

Based on predicted good returns of summer and fall chinook as well as sockeye and predicted robust returns of coho salmon, there are some small increases of sport and commercial fishing opportunities. However, weak forecasts of lower Columbia Tule fall chinook and summer steelhead returns will require application of conservative regulations.

Of particular note are the detailed summer steelhead regulations adopted for the mainstem Columbia and tributaries. The proposed 2021 rules are displayed in table form here.

TCA is pleased that WDFW has closed its cold-water refugia fisheries upstream of Bonneville Dam to steelhead angling completely, including Wind, Little White Salmon, White Salmon and Klickitat Rivers.  Drano Lake will be closed to steelhead angling as well. TCA appreciates WDFW staff efforts to limit wild steelhead encounters in these fisheries.

However, early season wild summer steelhead are subject to multiple sport angling encounters in the mainstem Columbia as well as in the Cowlitz, Lewis and Kalama Rivers. Wild fish comprise the majority of early returning summer steelhead.  Thus, approved steelhead fisheries allowing hatchery steelhead harvest will encounter more wild fish than hatchery fish. This happens because of the greater number of wild fish in the early portion of the run and because wild fish account for more than half the fish anglers encounter – even when outnumbered by hatchery fish. Further, even though wild fish must be released, encounters will result in higher absolute numbers of dead wild steelhead (as the rate of mortality is estimated to be 10%).

The Conservation Angler filed detailed comments to the Bi-state panel and are available here.

TCA will continue to advocate for conservative angling regulations through the spring, summer and fall to protect low numbers of wild summer steelhead, including predictions of the second-lowest wild B-run return in history.

An outstanding Columbia River wild summer steelhead - Photo by Riley Gyerko