Steelhead Bonanza In Oregon Officials Raise Fishing Limits On Northeast Oregon Rivers

While some runs around the state have been down, hatchery steelhead prospects on the Grande Ronde River this spring are so bountiful that officials along northeast Oregon rivers are boosting the daily limit from two to four fish.

“Fishing may be twice as good as it was last year,” said Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife research biologist Rich Carmichael.

Furthermore, biologists are optimistic after outstanding catches by Troy area anglers last fall. Fishermen from Wildcat Creek to the Oregon-Washington state line caught one fish every seven hours, while a year earlier they landed a fish every 20 hours.

Autumn fishing success near Troy is considered to be an indicator of what’s to come in the spring as the fish move into the Upper Grande Ronde and Wallowa rivers and Catherine Creek in the spring.

The bright prospects for steelhead fishing have prompted the fish and wildlife department to raise its daily limit for the Grande Ronde, Wallowa and Imnaha rivers from two to four fish. The agency anticipates that this year’s run will provide hatcheries with more than enough brood stock.

Department managers worked with Nez Perce and Umatilla tribe co-managers to reach an agreement on the increased bag limit.

The emergency regulation took effect on Feb. 26 and remains through the end of the season, which concludes April 15. All other regulations including angling deadlines and hook regulations remain unchanged.

This season’s steelhead run includes a strong complement of fish that have spent one and two years at sea. The “one-ocean” fish weigh 4 to 7 pounds and are generally smaller than “two-ocean” fish, which range from 8 to 12 pounds.

Counts at the Lower Granite Dam indicated that 82,000 steelhead passed through during early December. That’s the same number that passed through in 1996. Most of those were hatchery-raised. Wild steelhead numbers are low throughout the Snake River Basin.

Good river conditions helped this year’s returning steelhead as they first left for the ocean, Carmichael said.

In addition to strong runs, anglers were helped by the mild winter, which is allowing steelhead to start their migration earlier.

Although winter conditions are mild, anglers need to continue using winter fishing techniques such as bottom fishing, because steelhead stay at lower depths in the winter.

Fishermen using bait and drift gear typically do best in the winter and spring.

Flies and spinners, which work well in the fall, don’t attract steelhead as well when the fish are less aggressive.

A high percentage of the returning fish were raised in state fish and wildlife department hatcheries. Each year about 1.9 million hatchery-raised steelhead smolts are released in Snake River tributaries in Oregon.

These fish have had their adipose fins clipped to distinguish them from wild fish.

Steelhead anglers are allowed to keep only adipose-clipped fish. Other steelhead must be released without being removed from the water.