riverhunter
12/27/2016 7:49:00 AMNo hatchery steelhead will be returning to the cascade for at least another 10 years and who knows after that. A 12 year study is being conducted on wild skagit river steelhead so they stop releasing steelys to the skagit and any of its tributaries. This was not part of the lawsuit but a decision wdfw made on its own.
Lobsterbait83
12/27/2016 9:47:00 PMWhen did they stop realeasing fish. There will be hatchery fish up to five years after they stopped so say they stopped for example in 2014 their will be hatchery fin clipped fish till at least 2019 if im not mistaken
riverhunter
12/27/2016 10:11:00 PMSince 2014. The skagit river became a wild steelhead gene bank for at least 12 years. While fish might trickle in all the way until 2019 the majority of those fish already returned last year as the last time they released was from the 2013 escapements. Hatchery fish mostly return within 2-3 years of release so fishing after that time frame is like fishing for a few stragglers here and there
hookset'n
12/28/2016 8:35:00 AMriverhunter if fish were released in 2013 and 2014, and they come back in 2-3 years, wouldn't 2016 and 2017 still be good returns and not considered stragglers?
riverhunter
12/28/2016 9:34:00 AMNo fish were released in 2014. The nooksack, stillaguamish and other rivers are closing because of the low returns expected after what happened with the lawsuit. This year would be the last year for a decent chance at fish considering they don't close the Skagit. I should have rephrased my first comment by saying very few fish will be returning instead of saying no fish. The only puget sound river that was allowed to release fish in 2014 and 2015 was the skykomish