Winter steelhead season is winding down, if not over in some rivers. Time to regroup and prepare for summer runs! This Friday we have a science two-pack for you. First, a bit of cautious optimism. More steelhead are predicted to return to the Columbia River basin this year than in the past two years. Last year the upriver …
2017 – a Bad Year or Part of a Trend?
Ocean conditions are vitally important for wild steelhead runs — probably every steelhead angler knows this. But what does that phrase really mean? The ocean is a massive and incredibly complex system, and there are many factors out in the big blue that can influence steelhead in any given year. That is why it is so difficult to parse out …
Science Friday: Steelhead in hot water, and what it means for catch-and-release
As predicted for summer steelhead in the Columbia River and many other watersheds in Washington and Oregon, something has happened to the fish. There are precious few of them this season. But it’s important to remember that ebb and flow in population size is part-and-parcel with these fish — and for all salmon in general. We likely pay more …
Stand Up For Clean Water
When anglers think of steelhead water, we tend to think of big, muscular rivers like the Skagit, Umpqua and Eel. We don’t usually think of tributary streams small enough to step across, or even that go dry at times. We should. Such streams are very important for steelhead, particularly for spawning and rearing. In California, for example, 64 percent of …