Anyone here still do it,or y'all just talk politics? How is the fishing in the PNW this year? Dismal? Northern Cali was off to a slow start but seems pretty good right now from what my friends are telling me. I am working for some free time starting this weekend. Weather down here is beautiful though,sunny,and 75 degrees.

I dont contribute to the political threads so I'm not sure I count. It was the same story up here too. fishing was slow for the month of December. January was good when it was fishable. The first few weeks of feb was good too. Each day out in january and feb we had multiple fish days except yesterday which was dead. we fished both the wynoochee around white bridge and the satsop from w fork down to the chehalis. hooked and lost 1 on the satsop. Fished the the cesspool that is the skookumchuck on friday and quickly landed 2 keepers within an hour. saw approx. 20 steelhead roll during that time. other rivers have been fishing well also.

Arguing about the WDFW is all we have left. My favorite local fisheries were winter steelhead on the "S" rivers which is closed, Area 7 chinook in August and September which is closed, and summer steelhead in the fall on a river I won't mention because WDFW will probably close it. I forgot to mention the Stillaguamish summer steelhead and cutthroat fishery that is now closed.

There really aren’t many opportunities left. If it wasn’t for the sea run cutts, rezzie silvers, and the limited Puget sound chinook opportunities, I would be fishing maybe a dozen times a year at best. Arguing with WDFW and bitchhhing in the internet really does seem to be one of the last things we have left.

That's terrible. There's always golf. I guess I should thank my lucky stars that I have fishing options.

We have fishing options just morons managing them.

If we no fish the pension tut suckers should no work.

thank you for taking me the last year it was open... is an was one of the most memorable experiences ive ever had...

I’ve replaced steelhead fishing with pursuing other species to keep me occupied during the winter and spring.
I still manage to get out on the water over 100+ days per year.
SF

DFW promoted bass fishing on Facebook all last year.

$10 says the cover of next year's fishing regs is a track-suited Borat looking dude holding up a trophy smelt.

so... no one else here fishes for steelhead?

I used to. The north PS rivers are pretty much a thing of the past..

The NF Stilly, for example, returned a whopping 26 winter fish from a plant of 136,270

Its the water pollution in the Salish Sea, more and more every stinking day. It all runs downhill and is full of toxins that kill steelhead every day. Nothing is getting better, and with decreased water quality laws we can kiss them goodbye. Sorry, I used to fish for steelhead, they are an amazing fish.

I think most of us troll WDFW now.

I fish for steelhead .

I fish. I think I'm fishing for steelhead. At least that is my intention. I've fished 5 days this winter. In that time I've had what felt like one not quite solid grab. Hence, I think I'm fishing for steelhead. I used to catch steelhead when I fished for them, although not every single day. Just last week I chanced upon a picture of a younger me holding a really nice steelhead. So I'm sure they exist. Well, I'm sure they used to exist. Hanker suggests that they still do. Apparently I chose to fish the wrong river, even though it felt, and fished, so right. Except for the hookup part. They just aren't there.

I fish and always will as I am a fisherman. However, I haven't river fished for Steelhead lately and my total days on the water, both fresh and salt have gone down substantially over the past couple of years . That is not a decision I willingly made for myself. It's a decision that state has made for me.

It's 4 - 5 hours drive each way to the open rivers. I have work, obligations and limited funds on occasion. Things need to be planned, but how do you plan around blown out rivers and no fish? It's not so easy as to drop everything you are doing, drive 10 total hours to fish 8 hours when the rivers happen to be in shape and these "supposed" fish are "in". I specifically moved to where I live now a decade ago, so I could be 30 mins from my "home" rivers (Sky, Snoho, Snoqual, Pilchuck, Stilly et al.). There isn't much use for my professional skill set in Forks - otherwise I'd live out there.

I didn't close on the river. The river closed on me.

When I moved to Olympia I could go the the Nisqually, Deschutes, or Kennedy Creek to fish steelhead. All close, not much of a drive. Now, the drive is much longer for significantly fewer fish.

There is no reason why the Deschutes is not stocked to the hilt with steelhead as there is no native run to impact there and who gives a rip about the resident natives? There is the deep SS survival problem, but maybe if there was a at least the intent for a fishery that issue would be looked at.

It's easy to bring the fish back.

Remove all politics from fishing
Stop all non-selective fishing of all types
Restore habitat & watersheds to original condition
Stop pumping raw sewage into PS and along the coast
Eliminate WW plastic pollution and specifically micro plastics
Eliminate all 2 stroke engines
Specifically treat all water to remove all traced of pharmaceuticals
Manage pinniped populations
Tear down all damns and redesign the Hood canal floating bridge
Tax Alaska & Canada for stealing our fish
Stop selling wild caught fish in all US markets as was done with market hunting 100 years ago
Plant fish
Let fish return to spawning grounds

Did I miss anything?

See? Should be easy! We can probably have that done by end of day today and be fishing again over huge returns by this time next week.