It is past time to open the Skagit

In Live Action Alerts, Washington by Nick Chambers

Washington was once home to the greatest concentration of quality steelhead fisheries in the Lower 48 and the Skagit River was the crown jewel of them all. Over the past few decades many of those fisheries have been shuttered due to declining populations and poor management strategies. The Skagit was the last to close in 2010 and anglers in the …

Steelhead 101: Defining types of steelhead hatcheries

In Science Friday, Steelhead Files by Nick Chambers

Every steelhead angler is probably somewhat familiar with hatcheries. As we discussed last week, deciphering the jargon associated with hatcheries is important, but can also be difficult. This week’s terminology is more common-place, and many of you may be familiar with it already. But, just in case, let’s look at the terms used to broadly classify hatchery programs: segregated and …

Taking Action for steelhead

In Oregon by steelheaders

If the current state of our wild steelhead runs has got you “mad as hell, and not gonna take it any more,” it’s time to go beyond the Facebook like, the online forum whining, or the “it’s someone else’s problem” approach. It’s time to get involved. Participating in the sharing of information on social media is important. But it is …

Steelhead 101: Defining native, wild, hatchery and natural-origin

In Alaska, California, Idaho, Oregon, Science Friday, Washington by Nick Chambers

In recent posts we covered the basics of defining escapement and run size, and the ways these are measured by resource managers. Today, we turn our focus to the complex terminology used for describing and comparing hatchery and wild steelhead. Steelhead are typically referred to as either being “wild” or “hatchery,” but they may also be defined as being “native” …

Steelhead 101: Estimating steelhead run size

In Oregon, Science Friday by Nick Chambers

Recently we have described the various methods used by biologists and resource managers to estimate steelhead escapement, which is the number of fish that escape and survive fisheries (all forms of angling) to actually spawn in a watershed.   Run size is the total number of steelhead that return to a watershed each year. In order to estimate run size …