Methow Steelhead Opening 2024

Buzzy said:
Stacy -
What's your history with PIT tags and ptagis.org? Just a geek that loves to look at the data accumualated? Or? Pretty cool that you've graphed data from Metehow PIT tag readings.
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Just a geek. Haha! I've always been fascinated with small streams. And especially anadromous fish in tiny creeks. Started as a kid seeing hundreds of salmon in a foot wide creek on my uncle's farm way up the Little Washougal. And I've spent a career crunching data on boring stuff like cell phone routing & usage. 😁
 
Flymph said:
Fished the Methow, off and on, for over 50 years. Never have seen it this low!!!!! Why in the world would they open this jewel back up under such conditions??????????? :( :( :(
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I'll take a stab at a response. I agree it is very low...that was the first comment I made in my first post. Since the beginning of time immemorial (I keep seeing that phrase and although I think its a little funny that it is so common, I've been looking for an opportunity to use it as a joke) river flows have seasonally changed. I am purposefully stopping short of making any political or environmental statement about climate change and its potential effects on flow.

WDFW has a mission statement to protect fish, wildlife, and their ecosystem and provide fish/wildlife recreational opportunity. In the opinion of the WDFW fishery managers, the conservation numbers have been met and so by opening this season, they are accomplishing both goals in their mission statement by providing harvest opportunity and ridding the river of those pesky hatchery fish, that are okay to release in the system right up until there's one fish too many and then need to be culled. There are a lot of people with the exact opposite argument you are making. I see both sides and I'm not sure exactly what side I want to be on, which brings me back to my second point...I am at a conundrum on what I will do.
 
skyriver said:
Just a geek. Haha! I've always been fascinated with small streams. And especially anadromous fish in tiny creeks. Started as a kid seeing hundreds of salmon in a foot wide creek on my uncle's farm way up the Little Washougal. And I've spent a career crunching data on boring stuff like cell phone routing & usage. 😁
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One other trick you can do to filter your results down is to develop a tag list of adults that have been detected at ladders & adult fish facilities at Bonneville & The Dalles and then run that list against LMR and MRC. It would likely result in a similar output but that has always been my technique when looking at adult steelhead behavior in the Upper Columbia.

This also discounts the run at large sampling at Priest Rapids which is also another great source of adult biosampling and representative population data. The PRD sampling is a bit trickier to use via PTAGIS and is a lot more helpful in the spring time after data QA/QC has been fully completed and is useful for estimating the population of spawning fish in zones between various PIT arrays.
 
BDD said:
I'll take a stab at a response. I agree it is very low...that was the first comment I made in my first post. Since the beginning of time immemorial (I keep seeing that phrase and although I think its a little funny that it is so common, I've been looking for an opportunity to use it as a joke) river flows have seasonally changed. I am purposefully stopping short of making any political or environmental statement about climate change and its potential effects on flow.

WDFW has a mission statement to protect fish, wildlife, and their ecosystem and provide fish/wildlife recreational opportunity. In the opinion of the WDFW fishery managers, the conservation numbers have been met and so by opening this season, they are accomplishing both goals in their mission statement by providing harvest opportunity and ridding the river of those pesky hatchery fish, that are okay to release in the system right up until there's one fish too many and then need to be culled. There are a lot of people with the exact opposite argument you are making. I see both sides and I'm not sure exactly what side I want to be on, which brings me back to my second point...I am at a conundrum on what I will do.
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The Mehtow is extremely low as are other streams in our area. One trib to the Okanogan R is completely dried up! Least we forget, the 2024 summer was brutally hot and lacking in moisture. There is a pool not 10 minutes from my back yard that used to give up a few Steelhead in a river that shows bottom in more places than I have ever seen! These examples are not common or depict seasonal changes that we have seen in the past.

I see fish massed together, on the Methow, in shrinking pools that will be hit by more people than usual. I say more people because of three factors: (1) Less river to fish, (2) people who have been deprived from fishing this river for a decade, (3) judging by the responses on this thread, newbies to the river. I do not blame any of these folks for wanting to have a shot at a Steelhead or Coho salmon. And, for good reason, as this might be the last time this opportunity exists! I totally get this and want to be on the river right now!

WDFW has been taking a ton of pressure for their sometimes "Environmental" stances as is obvious on past forum threads. No proof, but I suspect they may have caved in this time to people who want to fish.

I miss the opportunity to fish for Steelhead just as much as the next person. Nevertheless, habitat protection, IMO, is far more important than "competing" (combat fishing) for a few extra fish. Again, just an old man's opinion.

For those of you who go, I wish you safety and a good time.
 
JohnB said:
One other trick you can do to filter your results down is to develop a tag list of adults that have been detected at ladders & adult fish facilities at Bonneville & The Dalles and then run that list against LMR and MRC. It would likely result in a similar output but that has always been my technique when looking at adult steelhead behavior in the Upper Columbia.

This also discounts the run at large sampling at Priest Rapids which is also another great source of adult biosampling and representative population data. The PRD sampling is a bit trickier to use via PTAGIS and is a lot more helpful in the spring time after data QA/QC has been fully completed and is useful for estimating the population of spawning fish in zones between various PIT arrays.
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Hey, another PIT tag geek! 😁

Yeah, I think that's great advice. I've done that before. The tough question with either method is always how early do I query. Are there Methow fish hitting Bonny in June? Most likely. Well, what about May? Maybe? Query too early and you end up with Methow fish out-migrating that could possibly hit a ladder site like Bonny.
Always tough to get it 100% clean. And that's part of the attraction. ;)
 
Flymph said:
Fished the Methow, off and on, for over 50 years. Never have seen it this low!!!!! Why in the world would they open this jewel back up under such conditions??????????? :( :( :(
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They open it to kill hatchery fish without exceeding a certain amount of dead wild fish. I am not sure how the conditions would change any decision making given those are the goals.
 
Flymph said:
WDFW has been taking a ton of pressure for their sometimes "Environmental" stances as is obvious on past forum threads. No proof, but I suspect they may have caved in this time to people who want to fish.
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Interesting.....I thought they were opening the river to protect wild steelhead - by removing as many hatchery origin fish as possible before they have a chance to spawn w/ the wild fish in the spring.
 
Playing devil's advocate here...it wouldn't open if there were any endangered chinook in the river no matter how many hatchery steelhead were present, a la the Skykomish.
Met scenario- River is open to TARGETING STEELHEAD, even during low water to protect wild STEELHEAD.
Sky scenario- River is closed to targeting TROUT, during normal summer flows to protect "wild" CHINOOK that are TRUCKED over a natural falls.
I think @Flymph has a very valid point. WDFW can't win these days. I don't envy their situation.
 
If I recall correctly, at one point they used to plant unclipped hatchery fish in the Methow. Are they still doing so?
SF
 
Double checked with WDF and Methow is the "ONLY" stream opening. I say this because my wife saw three inflatable Kiyaks fishing away on our local river. I don't think this was a blatant thing but just an assumption that "if one is open, there all open". So, if there is any doubt it is strictly the Methow!

And yes, I reported these folks, nevertheless.
 
Evan B said:
If that's through the whole open section, that'd be less than I would have predicted. If that was just the Miller Hole, then I'd say it sounds about right.
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I don’t know the river but it was one stretch of 2-3 pools.

Dave
 
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