BY ANDY WALGAMOTT, NORTHWEST SPORTSMAN MAGAZINE
There’s enough fish after all, just not enough money to hold a wild steelhead catch-and-release season in the North Cascades later this winter and in early spring.
WDFW reports today that the agreed-to 2026 preseason forecast on the Skagit and Sauk Rivers is for 4,557 fish, which would otherwise allow for a limited fishery had state lawmakers funded the agency’s $1.6 million request to monitor these and other Pugetropolis salmon and steelhead waters. But without it, there will be no opener this year.
This is not an unexpected outcome – I wrote that it was a very distinct possibility as far back as late last March, and it was confirmed as collateral damage from the 2025-27 budget in late June.
But it will still be very disappointing to steelhead anglers, guides and mountain towns like Darrington, Marblemount, Rockport and Concrete.
“This is not news anyone was hoping for, WDFW staff included,” stated spokesman Chase Gunnell early this afternoon.
An immense amount of work among myriad parties across more than a decade and a half has gone into being able to work these vaunted waters for native winters, but as a condition of the federal permit to hold a season over the Endangered Species Act-listed stock, WDFW is required to extensively monitor the fishery, perform catch surveys and run “thorough” game warden patrols, Gunnell said, and that takes money.
The funding to do so was available in years earlier this decade as part of implementation of the so-called “Quicksilver Portfolio,” but the budget lawmakers passed last spring and Governor Ferguson signed into law “eliminated” the fishery this winter.
Even worse, in anticipation of another “challenging” legislative session this year, WDFW didn’t even propose a funding package that would have supported a 2027 season either, and it is also looking at additional reductions in the number of fish and wildlife officers across the state. Lawmakers could still temporarily fund it and other necessary monitoring, Gunnell conceded.
“We hope to see the Skagit/Sauk fishery and related Puget Sound steelhead monitoring and conservation efforts funded in the state’s 2027-2029 budget,” he added.
WDFW estimates it needs a minimum of $350,000 to run this steelhead fishery under the conditions of the 10-year permit issued by National Marine Fisheries Service overseers in 2023.
Given the lower though still fishable forecast, any season in 2026 would likely have been on the conservative side, either restricted to a set number of days per week or just a portion of the overall available February-April window, or both, Gunnell said.
In the end it means the aisles at the Darrington IGA will be a little less crowded in the coming months without fishermen needing to stock up on supplies for the day, a hit to the local economy.
Even though the 2025 fishery closed early after it became clear through monitoring that it was coming in lower than forecast, it still managed to generate 11,222 angler trips to the Skagit and Sauk, yielding an estimated $2.33 million in local spending, according to WDFW.
And the previous year’s five-day-a-week season saw 9,389 trips and $1.97 million in spending.
Both figures, as WDFW will tell you, single-handedly topped the $1.6 million needed to manage and police not only this fishery but all the rest covered in this Puget Sound salmon and steelhead-focused budgetary line item.
I don’t know. Maybe laying off these winter-runs this season and next will benefit them and ultimately anglers down the road, but grand scheme, this disappointment will rank up there with 2020. That’s when the Skagit-Sauk wild steelhead forecast rang up just 38 fish shy of the required 4,001-fish threshold to open and created a lot of teeth gnashing – guilty as charged.
Yet somehow these developments feel more mind-twisting because they will impact multiple potential seasons. To have the fish – at least this year – but not the dough to hold a fishery is somehow like we’ve wandered into the Upside Down or something, but ultimately seems so on-brand for 2026.
STEELHEAD ADVOCATES WORK TO SECURE SKAGIT FUNDING
Two Puget Sound chapters of Trout Unlimited have been working to make it easy for steelheaders to ask their state lawmakers to provide the needed funding for the Skagit-Sauk fishery in the coming years.
North Sound TU held two events last month and the Three Rivers Chapter is planning one next week, on January 13.
Dubbed “Letters & Lagers,” anglers will gather “to draft letters to lawmakers calling for restored funding. Come enjoy a cold beer, connect with fellow anglers, and make a difference. Let’s show up for the Skagit winter fishery and Puget Sound steelhead monitoring!”
The North Sound chapter also has put together a page with a legislative letter template and links to lawmakers.
TU was one of the forces behind creation of the Quicksilver Portfolio, which aims in part to provide a diversity of steelhead angling options across Pugetropolis – from consumptive to catch and release – while protecting and rebuilding struggling runs. It was first funded in 2021. They’ve been working since last November to drum up support for the Skagit and Sauk season.
