By Pepper Fisher

OLYMPIA – The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Tuesday announced a full closure to all steelhead fishing throughout the rivers along the Washington Coast and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The full closure will take effect Tuesday, March 1, shutting down a season that was even more restricted than years’s, which also closed before its scheduled end in late March.

F&W officials said preliminary data suggests the forecasted returns of steelhead are coming back as low as 30 percent of what fishery managers expected, foreshadowing perhaps the lowest return ever recorded in some rivers.

On Friday, Olympic National Park officials issued the following statement; “Fishing in the Hoh, South Fork Hoh, Bogachiel, Dickey, and Quillayute river systems within Olympic National Park will close to fishing beginning March 1, 2022. This closure is in response to information provided by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, which indicates that wild steelhead runs are returning in numbers much lower than anticipated.  A complete closure of recreational fisheries is warranted due to their declining trends and to eliminate the hooking of wild steelhead.  These regulation changes to recreational fishing are being implemented in cooperation with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.  Fishing in many rivers, streams, and Lake Crescent within the park is expected to reopen on June 1, 2022.” 

Last week, fishery managers also kicked off a long-term planning process for coastal steelhead management with the first meeting of the Ad-Hoc Coastal Steelhead Advisory Group. The group will be helping with the development of a long-term management plan to protect native and hatchery-produced steelhead for each river system of Grays Harbor, Willapa Bay, and coastal Olympic Peninsula, as required by the Washington Legislature in the latest state budget.

F&W will submit the ensuing plan to the Legislature by the end of this year. For more information about the group, including meeting summaries and details of upcoming meetings, visit F&W’s web page.