Yakima steelhead fishery history?

DerekWhipple

DerekWhipple

Steelhead
The "old reports" thread, got me thinking, what was the steelhead fishery on the Yakima like? Is there any literature about it? High desert canyon river, looks similar to other well known ones. Was the fishery over and done with even by the 60's? Back in 2015 I saw a pretty large steelhead sitting in a pool of a tributary of a tributary of a tributary of the Yakima. Was definitely a steelhead, not a chinook.
 
This one is near and dear to me for a bunch of reasons, primarily because I live so close to the lower river. It’s complicated, but they are there and I know because I’ve caught them incidentally.

The total count is not monitored (to my knowledge) except for redd surveys on several tribs (not the main stem).

I have wished for a long time that WDFW would open a C&R season, primarily because they are getting poached every season, but I doubt that will ever happen.
 
How good was it? Was it a destination fishery at any point? Were there monster B-run/Thompson class fish, or tens of thousands of one salt fish that crushed dries? There does not seem to be much discussion around it when it comes to "the good ole days", but the Yak and it's tribs sure look like they could have the lore of a legendary steelhead river.
 
DerekWhipple said:
How good was it? Was it a destination fishery at any point? Were there monster B-run/Thompson class fish, or tens of thousands of one salt fish that crushed dries? There does not seem to be much discussion around it when it comes to "the good ole days", but the Yak and it's tribs sure look like they could have the lore of a legendary steelhead river.
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I think Rosa Dam kinda put the kibosh on it. There is passage but it seems most the anadramous fish stay below the dam. I'm hardly an expert on the topic though.

I believe the Naches gets quite a lot of steelhead. Obviously not open for them, though. River shuts down during the bulk of their time there.
 
DerekWhipple said:
How good was it? Was it a destination fishery at any point? Were there monster B-run/Thompson class fish, or tens of thousands of one salt fish that crushed dries? There does not seem to be much discussion around it when it comes to "the good ole days", but the Yak and it's tribs sure look like they could have the lore of a legendary steelhead river.
Click to expand...
I would imagine the yakima was hard hit by habitat destruction before steelheading really became a thing. They've been damming and diverting that river since the mid 1800s and the lower river has been lethally hot for many months of the year for more than a century. Too hot for efficient, successful salmonid travel in either direction from may to October, and that hits steelhead much harder than resident trout.
 
Like Evan said, Rosa puts a big dent in what it could be/once was. There are several small creeks downstream that contribute to spawning/recruitment besides the Naches. Particularly Toppenish creek.

It’s never been a destination to my knowledge, but it’s been a popular fishery in the past. There are also lots of people fishing it intentionally.
 
Until the recent down turn, Satus Creek was getting around 2,000 spawners, basically supporting steelhead production in the basin. Of course, prior to irrigation development in the late 1800s, the entire basin was producing steelhead. I never heard of any B-run, Clearwater or Thompson sized fish. My best guess is that the Yakima steelhead mirrored other mid-C tributaries, with mainly 1-salt summer runs in the 5 pound range. The lower Yakima heats up so much that steelhead can't safely enter the river until fall. Improved (for fish) water management has brought steelhead back to the Naches sub-basin, but not in especially large numbers. There are so many irrigation and power dam impacts to ever allow major restoration IMO.
 
I grew up in Goldendale in the 80s and remember some native guys that lived north of town (off the res) talking about catching steelhead in Satus Creek.
Lucky bastards like Evan catch random ones every year trout fishing. :cool:

Red's has mentioned they've caught more than normal this year on dry-dropper and Euro rigs. Also a couple on trout spey. They don't target them on the Yakima.
As others have mentioned, the lower river is not great habitat and full of fish eaters, including some pretty darn good smallmouth. Satus Creek is the most downstream real trib and it's at river mile 70. That's a lot of slow moving and very warm water to traverse going either way.
 
Some talk of the Spring Chinook run along with steelhead as far as no open season on them. But as usual WDFW is just happy managing the trout and bass fishing as taking care of all of them would require effort.
 
skyrise said:
Some talk of the Spring Chinook run along with steelhead as far as no open season on them. But as usual WDFW is just happy managing the trout and bass fishing as taking care of all of them would require effort.
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In some ways it feels like WDFW just wants people to think they aren’t there.

People target them specifically in certain runs above Rosa, people target (mostly fly fishermen) them in the Naches under the guise of fishing for whitefish (just like a certain guide on the Klick), people target them with gear downstream of Rosa and some harvest them. All reported to WDFW and local LEOs.

If they’d just open the river all year, and change the policy on harvest of unclipped trout between prosser and Rosa, it would help considerably.
 
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