Northwest Fishing Reports

State closing Snohomish, Pilchuck rivers to all fishing on Feb. 1
Submitted by Ray Marcham | Jan 6, 2012, 7:58 PM

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A bad wild steelhead run is prompting the state to shut down fishing on the Snohomish and Pilchuck rivers on February 1.

And that date may become the permanent closing date of fishing season on the rivers.

The numbers of wild steelhead are running at levels well below what was forecasted by biologists with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). The levels are so low that the wild steelhead runs in the entire Puget Sound region, not just the Snohomish River basin, is being considered for “threatened” status under the federal Endangered Species Act.

While the wild steelhead is a “catch and release” fish, some still die after being caught. Closing the rivers to all fishing is being done in hopes of helping the dwindling wild steelhead runs.

“By taking this action, we can protect wild steelhead that do make it back to these river systems,” Bob Leland, WDFW’s steelhead program manager, said in a statement on Friday.

The Snohomish basin isn’t the only one closing on February 1. So are the Nooksack, Skagit and Stillaguamish basins, along with the rivers that flow into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The Puyallup basin closes on the 16th, while a few rivers in the Cascade foothills (including the Skykomish and the North Fork of the Stillaguamish) will be open until February 16. The Samish River was closed in December.

The February 1 closure date may become permanent. A proposal before the WDFW Commission would make the dates of this year’s closures around western Washington’s rivers permanent. A decision will be made in February.

Good thing they're shutting down hatcheries to increase the runs. Seems to be working well right out of the chute. Next step is no fishing period.

Contact your legislators and let them know how you feel.

I plan on it bodo, it's complete BS what they do to us. Make us buy the lisences and gear and gas then they shut down the rivers...

I knew it was only a matter of time after WDFW purchased the off the shelf study recommending, shutting down the hatcheries to increase the runs. Total BS! I don't miss a chance to let my legislators know how how I feel.

All I can say at least rieter and north fork stilly won't be closed, but still

They might as well close the pilchuck, I think they stopped planting smolts in there anyway...

Pilchuck used to be one of the premier steelhead rivers in yhe country.

This is kind of old new... it has been closing at the end of January for years now, and last year was the first time people were really talking about the reality that it would soon become permanently closed on Feb 1. The fish just aren't there to support it, and fishing pressure is increasing all the time in Pugetropolis. These populations simply can't sustain themselves with the added fishing pressure.

I agree with this decision, and plan accordingly. There is no reason to fish the wild fish population in Puget Sound, and in February, that's all there is in the system anyway. I'd love to see more wild fish in the system, and we should leave them be. Although they'd like to shut down fishing completely, I just don't see that happening. winter steelheading is fantastic in other rivers that time of year, there's no reason to fish a tiny run when we've got hatchery fish and healthy runs of wild fish out there in other systems.

Matt wrote:This is kind of old new... it has been closing at the end of January for years now, and last year was the first time people were really talking about the reality that it would soon become permanently closed on Feb 1. The fish just aren't there to support it, and fishing pressure is increasing all the time in Pugetropolis. These populations simply can't sustain themselves with the added fishing pressure.

Couldn't agree more, hense my questioning shutting down hatcheries. I think they're the only hope we have of putting enough fish back into the system to support any sort of sport fishery, hatchery brats or native stock. From the statement that was released, it's looking an awful lot like a done deal and any rivers emptying into Puget Sound are going to have a hard close date from here on out. Not to mention with language like, "The levels are so low that the wild steelhead runs in the entire Puget Sound region, not just the Snohomish River basin, is being considered for “threatened” status under the federal Endangered Species Act.". And also slated for closures are the Nooksack, Skagit and Stillaguamish basins, along with all the rivers that flow into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. All I can see as an end result is the closing of the rivers to any kind of fishing period, wouldn't that make it easy for WDFW, no need for enforcement, no need for hatchery employees, no need to worry about licensing when there is no fishing. Huge strides have been made on other rivers by catching a number of wild fish each year to fill the hatcheries, substantially upping the survival rates. I push it with my legislators every chance I get. This, sit back and see what happens was done with little success by Idaho a number years back. It didn’t work for them then and it won’t work for us now. Fortunately Idaho had the foresight and desire to protect their sport fisheries and embarked on an aggressive hatchery program for salmon and steelhead. It’s a great place to fish now. In my eyes there is no reason to re-invent the wheel when we have a bunch of hatcheries about to go quiet. Fire them up with Native stock and start pumping fish into the systems, more fish in equals more fish back. It’s the only way to recovery without shutting down the entire show for a protracted amount of time.

DannyL wrote:Pilchuck used to be one of the premier steelhead rivers in yhe country.

So was the skagit, use to be better statistically than the cowlitz and all other rivers but now it gets less than 200 steelhead caught, I think it hit 93 last year, pathetic...
Open up barnaby slough!

We still have good runs, aka cow, nf stilly, cascade. Those are the 3 I know and I plan on hitting them all very soon

Bodofish wrote:

Matt wrote:This is kind of old new... it has been closing at the end of January for years now, and last year was the first time people were really talking about the reality that it would soon become permanently closed on Feb 1. The fish just aren't there to support it, and fishing pressure is increasing all the time in Pugetropolis. These populations simply can't sustain themselves with the added fishing pressure.

Couldn't agree more, hense my questioning shutting down hatcheries. I think they're the only hope we have of putting enough fish back into the system to support any sort of sport fishery, hatchery brats or native stock. From the statement that was released, it's looking an awful lot like a done deal and any rivers emptying into Puget Sound are going to have a hard close date from here on out. Not to mention with language like, "The levels are so low that the wild steelhead runs in the entire Puget Sound region, not just the Snohomish River basin, is being considered for “threatened” status under the federal Endangered Species Act.". And also slated for closures are the Nooksack, Skagit and Stillaguamish basins, along with all the rivers that flow into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. All I can see as an end result is the closing of the rivers to any kind of fishing period, wouldn't that make it easy for WDFW, no need for enforcement, no need for hatchery employees, no need to worry about licensing when there is no fishing. Huge strides have been made on other rivers by catching a number of wild fish each year to fill the hatcheries, substantially upping the survival rates. I push it with my legislators every chance I get. This, sit back and see what happens was done with little success by Idaho a number years back. It didn’t work for them then and it won’t work for us now. Fortunately Idaho had the foresight and desire to protect their sport fisheries and embarked on an aggressive hatchery program for salmon and steelhead. It’s a great place to fish now. In my eyes there is no reason to re-invent the wheel when we have a bunch of hatcheries about to go quiet. Fire them up with Native stock and start pumping fish into the systems, more fish in equals more fish back. It’s the only way to recovery without shutting down the entire show for a protracted amount of time.

I've also wondered why they don't catch native fish to fill the hatcheries. One of the biggest reasons the wdfw has been cutting back their hatchery plants and locations is apparently because they are afraid of hatchery fish spawning with natives and diluting the native gene pool. I really think there is a lot more that could be done to boost native returns while simultaneously improving the sport fishery, and my best guess is that they just don't have the funds to take those measures.

so the skykomish is closing feb 1 to all fishing?

This article is from last year's winter steelhead season. Notice the date on it. Just like last year, most of the sky will be closed on feb. 1, except from big eddy to the confluence of the north and south forks, which is open through feb. 15. This has been more or less the drill for a few years now, since they closed the catch and release season for natives.

DannyL wrote:We still have good runs, aka cow, nf stilly, cascade. Those are the 3 I know and I plan on hitting them all very soon

cascade and stilly do not have good runs, cascade has a decent run but compared to how many smolts they put out and how many they have returning it is really sad, stilly just does not get that many smolts anyways like 70 something thousand and only 200 return and 300 caught, that is less than 1% in return. But the cow and skookumchuck gets good returns as well as forks rivers.
You guys have good points about getting native steelhead and I believe that is brood stock fish, I believe we should do more of those on rivers as the fish have genes of a native fish but are treated like a hatchery brat. Also I do not think they should worry about native fish on the cowlitz and skookumchuck because they are already screwed up and really they are either just miss clips or hatchery recycles that did not return back to the hatchery and spawned else where in the system, I see that all the time on the skook. I do like what they are doing on the sol duc by not putting anymore hatchery fish in but there will be strays from the bogy though. I also wondered why they waste money on putting smolts in rivers that are either closed to fishing or only get like 5000 smolts put into it, there would be like 5 fish returning what is the point, add that 5000 to a river that we can fish on.

The latest studies show that Steelhead, rainbows, Nate’s and Brat’s are all genetically identical and will all breed indiscriminately with one another and the various pairings have nothing to do with which go back out to sea or not. It appears to be a personal choice they have. On top of that many Steelheads will enter a system and go months without spawning, making it very easy to blur the lines between Winter and Summer run fish, It’s all a very, very interesting set of circumstances that make any river that has had brats and little bows with the Steel, ripe and ready to just start at a dead run by just stepping up the program and let a bunch go native and use the native stock in the hatcheries too. Nature seems to have its way any chance it gets, which is evidenced by Nate’s coming back to spawn from a hatchery they've never been to. In addition we also see the reciprocal with Brats in the native spawning grounds. I can just see a Rainbow Trout riding a trike with his cowboy outfit and cap guns.......
Letting the runs dwindle to nothing because of the fear of genetic crossing is just stupid. Letting them die out when we have the means to pump up a run and resurrect it, using stock from one of the many sources is just insanity. It’s something that could only have been cooked up by a politician. All the bows, big and small are genetically the same, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest environmental factors have the biggest influence on the size of the fish. As I've said for years, a rainbow is a rainbow is a rainbow, don't care if it's a supposed to be a Curlew, Red Band, Kamloops, north or south fork where ever, they're just rainbows. This bit of wisdom was imparted to me from the wonderful folks at the UW School of fisheries and Mgt. I used to ride by on the BGT on my way home for almost five years and stopped to look in the tank and chat. They get samples from all over the US and all over the world for that matter, from people claiming to have found a new variant of RBT… An RBT is an RBT is an RBT. Anything else would make it a different species not an RBT.

It is not so much a choice as it is opportunism. Small trout or "sneakers" as they are called will zip in opportunistically and spawn with adult steelhead. The important correlation to draw is simple: rainbow trout and steelhead are genetically identical. It is unclear if there is a biological or genetic predisposition to go out to sea or not.

It is important to note that WDFW does allow us to fish in rivers throughout PS while other endangered stocks are present, and for that we are lucky. PS Chinook is listed, and all of the rivers in question have returning runs. The important thing is that they also have sizable self-sustaining populations of Coho and Pink salmon that offer us sport fisherman excellent opportunities. The difference here is that when fishing for native winter steelhead there are no other species for retention readily available in the system. The state cannot condone fishing, even catch and release, for endangered native stocks. The incidental mortality rates are not widely accepted, but if even 1 native steelhead dies from incidental mortality at the hands of a sport fisher, that is a loss for the population.

It is what it is, and lets just be happy we still have our Pinks and Silvers.

The only cure for the peril of our native stocks is time. We need to be moving in a progressive manner towards good stewardship and restoration of spawning and rearing habitats; from there, it is all about time.

Time is the enemy, no doubt. My point is we can lessen the amount of time required if we use the hatcheries available to promote the wild stocks, it's been done on a number of the OP rivers with quite a success. Why shut down Big Eddy when we could be filling it with native stock, same thing at Wallace although we did strike the agreement to keep it open (yeeeah!!!!!). Since we are no longer going to have the CA stock brats coming from our hatcheries, put them to use with native stock, it would be much faster than sitting back and waiting.

didn't they do that on the stilly long time ago for the summer runs on deer creek like they preformed the first broodstock experiment at fortson for deer creek summer steelhead and i guess it worked pretty well.
Also I do not see why hatcheries complain about not getting fish back cause aren't they there to be caught. I think they should open stretches above hatcheries for 3 hatchery steelhead just to get them out of the system and to keep the PS rivers open longer but have it single point barbless and no bait to also help get the hatchery brats out with out to much affect on the natives.
Or there is fish traps, one river that I was really mad about not getting stocked was the Lyre, I was really mad, but I do not see why they can not put a fish trap in that river, it is not that big and gets pretty good returns.