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Fall Steelhead Season Could Be Stellar in Northeastern Oregon by Jayson Jacoby Baker City Herald, August 22, 2025

Kyle Bratcher had been warning Northeastern Oregon steelhead anglers this summer to brace for a fall of futility.

A season of fruitless casts and unnecessary nets.

But then, after three weeks or so attending to other matters, he checked the charts showing how many of these ocean-going rainbow trout had started their arduous upstream upstream journey on the Columbia River.

"I thought, 'oh my goodness,'" said Bratcher, the district fish biologist at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's Enterprise office.

Suddenly he had quite a different story for steelheaders who ply the Grande Ronde, Wallowa, Imnaha and other regional rivers where some of those steelhead return each fall.

"This could be one of the better runs we've had in the last 10 years," Bratcher said on Thursday, Aug. 21. "It was supposed to be one of the worst."

The steelhead season opens Sept. 1 and runs through April 30, 2026.

Anglers can keep up to three hatchery-raised steelhead per day, with no season limit. Wild steelhead must be released. Hatchery fish have a clipped adipose fin -- the small, fatty fin on their back near the tail.

The dramatic difference between what ODFW projected for this year's steelhead run and how many fish have been counted at Bonneville Dam illustrates the challenge of predicting how the fish will fare during the year or two they spend in the Pacific Ocean, Bratcher said.

"It's really hard to predict steelhead runs," he said.

A variety of factors, including predation and other conditions in the ocean, affect the return.

Bratcher cautioned that the situation is not yet certain.

Although the season opens Sept. 1, steelhead typically don't start to arrive in Northeastern Oregon rivers in large numbers until later in the month.

But based on the counts at Bonneville -- thousands of hatchery steelhead have tiny sensors that trigger a detector at the dam -- Bratcher expects that in the worst case scenario, this year's run will be about the same as last year, which he describes as "pretty good."

Bratcher said he thinks it's more likely, though, that the 2025-26 steelhead run will be the best in Northeastern Oregon since 2015-16.

He will refine his prediction by late September, by which time many fish will have passed through Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River, more than 250 miles upstream from Bonneville. The Lower Granite statistics matter more, since those fish are getting relatively close to rivers such as the Grande Ronde, Wenaha, Wallowa and Imnaha, as well as the Snake River in Hells Canyon.

Steelhead size

Based on records this year at Bonneville Dam, Bratcher expects that most steelhead will be 1-salt fish -- those that spent one year in the Pacific.

That's not unusual, he said, but it means anglers are more likely to hook fish in the 23- to 25-inch range rather than the larger 2-salt steelhead, which he expects will make up less than one-third of the return.

The ratio of 1-salt to 2-salt steelhead varies each year, and it's all but impossible to predict, Bratcher said.

Why some fish spend two years in the ocean instead of one -- and why some rainbow trout never swim in saltwater at all, staying in the Columbia River -- is a mystery, he said.

Multiple factors, including food availability, certain affect the ratio.

Ultimately, though, the differences help to create "resiliency" in the steelhead population, Bratcher said.

If few 1-salt fish survive one year, the 2-salt fish and the rainbow that never enter the ocean can help offset the losses.

2-salt females tend to produce more eggs, but they also are more vulnerable to predators and other risks because they spent twice as long in the Pacific, Bratcher said.

1-salt fish, by contrast, reduce their exposure to those threats, but they aren't as efficient at reproducing.

It's a complex relationship, he said, an adaptation that he appreciates as a biologist.

Wild steelhead

Bratcher said these steelhead, which are off limits to sport anglers, have also far outpaced pre-run projections.

The original forecast for the Columbia River was 17,000, but as of Aug. 21 the count at Bonneville Dam was 48,000 wild steelhead.

Predicting wild steelhead is even more challenging than for hatchery fish, he said, because far fewer wild steelhead have tracking tags.

Bratcher is estimating about 8,000 wild steelhead will return to the Grande Ronde River this year, and about 2,000 to the Imnaha.

"I expect a good return of wild fish compared to recent years," he wrote in a recent email update. "I do want folks to keep in mind this is still a long ways from what historic abundance would have been, and recovery efforts are still needed."

Related Pages:
The Getaway: 250K Steelhead Fish Escape from Washington State Hatchery by Associated Press, Capital Press, 2/4/22