Region in brief: Steelhead fishing opens on select rivers

With just half a day’s notice, a steelhead fishing season will open today for the Upper Columbia River and portions of the Wenatchee, Icicle, Entiat, Methow and Okanogan rivers.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife made the announcement at 5:30 p.m. Monday about the season, which is intended to let anglers take advantage of a stronger than normal run of steelhead surging up the Columbia River.

The daily catch limit on these rivers is four hatchery steelhead. The hatchery fish have clipped adipose fins to distinguish them from the protected wild steelhead.

In a new twist, anglers are required to keep any hatchery steelhead they catch up to their daily limit. Fisheries biologists are encouraging anglers to help reduce the number of hatchery steelhead heading to tributaries to ease the competition with wild steelhead at spawning areas.

More than 33,000 summer steelhead had been counted at Priest Rapids Dam through Sept. 22, well above the overall return’s 10-year average of nearly 14,500.

The Upper Columbia will open from Rock Island Dam to the Chief Joseph Dam area.

Other rules and details on where fishing is allowed on the tributaries are posted on the department’s Web site at www.wdfw.wa.gov.

Police seek woman in purse snatching

Police are asking for helping finding a woman who robbed a shopper in a Spokane Valley grocery store restroom.

The 76-year-old woman had just withdrawn $1,000 in cash from a bank when she went to the restroom at Fred Meyer, 15609 E. Sprague Ave., after shopping Sept. 17.

Her purse was in a Fred Meyer reusable shopping bag when a blond woman came up behind her and ran off with the bag.

Watch security camera footage below. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.

Store employee chases OxyContin robber

A teenage girl robbed a north Spokane Rite Aid of OxyContin Sunday night, police said.

An employee used her personal vehicle to chase the girl and a getaway driver but lost them northbound on Division Street at Francis Avenue.

The suspect vehicle is described as a black four-door 1990 GMC with Idaho plates.

Police said the girl handed the pharmacist a note about 11:30 p.m. stating she had a handgun and demanding the powerful prescription painkiller.

She ran from the store with the drug and hopped in the passenger seat of the GMC.

Watch security camera footage below. Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.