WDFW Set To Begin Updating Washington Coast Steelhead Rules

Washington Coast steelhead managers plan on updating permanent fishing rules for rivers from the Elwha around to the Naselle ahead of the arrival of the bulk of the wild run this coming winter and spring.

Their proposals for season dates and structures and gear regulations on the Hoh, Quillayute, Sol Duc, Chehalis and dozens of others, are expected to be out for initial public comment at two meetings next month, and they say anglers will be able to offer up ideas at them as well. Hearings before the Fish and Wildlife Commission will also occur.

WDFW says that the current base rules for steelhead, as well as trout and other game fish, have not been updated in over a decade but it’s “readily apparent” they are out of alignment with the current state of the runs.

Coastal wild winter-runs are recovering from a record-low return of 25,723 in 2020-21, and recent years have seen sharp fishery restrictions. A federal review last November also found Olympic Peninsula steelhead to be at moderate risk of extinction.

WDFW says the idea with this upcoming rulemaking is to get the regs on the same page as stock statuses, conservation necessities and comanager agreements. It will affect more than 75 rivers and tributaries, according to Mark Baltzell, statewide steelhead policy advisor.

“We’re first proposing to limit consideration of changes to those water bodies that actually have existing (steelhead, gamefish and trout) regulations on them right now,” Baltzell stated. “We are not looking to implement additional regulations on water bodies that we may not have listed in WAC or in the current pamphlet.”

Today’s presentation and briefing before the commission’s Fish Committee essentially kick off a process that is expected to yield final regulations by late this year and enactment in early 2026.

While Baltzell said that no-fishing-from-a-boat rules would not be part of their proposals – WDFW wants to keep that reg in their back pocket for when they really need to minimize fishery impacts – his fellow staffers appear to feel that they can get the “best bang for the buck” by focusing on late spring, when the fish are more readily encountered, which of course is some of the best angling of the season.

In particular, they’re concerned about two segments of the run.

“Some of that loss of productivity relative to Olympic Peninsula steelhead can be attributed to the loss of these repeat spawning females …. Those big, gravid, fecund, multiple-returning females are really the backbone of that, and we’ve noticed a reduction in that expression of iteroparity out there with coastal steelhead,” stated Chad Herring, Region 6 Fish Program manager. “We’re really considering late spring as a key timeframe we may need to be looking at and thinking about our fishery regulations.”

Kelly Cunningham, WDFW Fish Program director, added, “We need to protect those kelts,” postspawn fish heading back to the ocean in spring to recuperate and – hopefully, anyway – return to spawn again in a year or so.

That’s a drum Cunningham has been banging since right before that moderate-risk determination from the National Marine Fisheries Service came out, and there ended up being no April opener on the North Coast this year despite an initial “TBD” placeholder.

As for why coastal steelhead are struggling, a joint state-tribal working group found that North Pacific pink salmon abundance, sea surface temps and ocean currents are affecting the long-term viability of the OlyPen population because of those factors’ correlation to lower smolt and kelt survival.

At today’s briefing, WDFW managers continued to point their finger at ocean conditions, and they say that low steelhead returns aren’t just a Washington Coast problem, but one that’s regionwide, from the Oregon Coast to British Columbia.

Herring noted that since even before 2020-21’s nadir, WDFW and tribal comanagers have been “very proactive about initiating reductions in fisheries in response to this status, up to and including total closures of watersheds.”

“Tribes have removed significant numbers of days from their fisheries based on traditionally what they would fish during this timeframe. We also implemented a range of other measures up to and including no fishing from a boat in some of those systems as conservation measures,” Herring said.

He said that that a preliminary review of the just completed 2024-25 run indicates it came in below expectations. The forecast was for 36,756.

Asked by Commissioner Lorna Smith if there’s any updates from NMFS on an Olympic Peninsula steelhead listing determination – also the subject of a lawsuit in federal court from Wild Fish Conservancy et al – Cunningham said there’s a “desire” on the part of the feds to have it by the end of the calendar year but it wasn’t “crystal clear” either.

In response to a follow-up question, he said a determination wouldn’t affect rulemaking this year or likely produce new regulatory requirements for another year due to public comment.

“That said, I feel really good about the steps both the state and comanagers have made over the course of the past five or six years in minimizing our encounters with natural-origin steelhead. On the state side, we banned bait, we’ve closed systems, we’ve kept people out of their boats, we’ve taken an extremely conservative approach with these fisheries, and we hope (NMFS) recognizes that,” Cunningham stated.

And now WDFW appears to be primed to continue that approach.

On July 2, agency staffers will file what’s known in state governmentese as a CR 101, essentially a statement of intent to begin rulemaking around Washington Coast steelhead, trout and game fish regulations.

Then on July 17 and 31, they will hold public meetings to brief anglers and others about initial proposals and then take input on those and solicit other ideas.

On August 8, they will file a CR 102 with their proposals and announce public hearing and comment period details.

WDFW will again brief the Fish Committee on September 25 and then hold a public hearing and briefing before the full Fish and Wildlife Commission on September 26 or 27. There will be another committee briefing in November followed by a commission decision on the rules package November 14 or 15.

If all goes according to plan, the agency will file a CR 103 – basically a signed rule filed with the state code advisor – in early December and the new rules go into effect 30 days later, in early January.

WDFW is expected to put out a press release next week on the coastal steelhead rulemaking as well.