With fair numbers of summer steelhead on the final leg of their migration to the Upper Columbia Basin, Washington fisheries managers this week gave the nod to a 2011-12 hatchery steelhead season.

Open for fishing for the sea-run trout as of Wednesday, Sept. 28, are the upper Columbia River mainstem above Rock Island Dam together with the Methow and Okanogan rivers as well as portions of lower reach tributaries including the Wenatchee, Icicle and Entiat rivers.

Later this fall, starting Monday, Nov. 1, anglers will be able to legally fish for fin-clipped summer steelhead in the lower Similkameen River.

Besides the newly ordained steelhead fishery, Upper Columbia anglers, for a brief period, also will be able to again keep chinook salmon from the upper main Columbia between Wells Dam to the Highway 173 bridge in the town of Brewster. The main river had been closed for salmon since the first of September to reduce interactions with steelhead.

A cautionary note is attached to this opening in that managers say the overall upper Columbia basin steelhead run-size is down from the past two years and that has prompted lowering of the acceptable mortality level on wild steelhead caused by interaction with anglers.

Though managed on a stream-by-stream basis, that could result in pre-emptive shutdowns of this season prior to its planned March 31 closure in all waters.

In December, four-month winter whitefish opportunities also commence in selected reaches of many of these named waters.

2011 RUN TOPS 18,000 FISH

Since the wild summer-run steelhead of the Upper Columbia were given federal Endangered Species Act protection as a threatened stock, wintertime fishing opportunities for the hatchery-origin component of these long-traveled steelhead, if they occurred, usually happened between the first of November and the end of March.

Two key factors have enabled this extended personal use opportunity to occur.

The first is the cumulative production of steelhead at several state-operated fish hatcheries in this portion of the Columbia Basin together with programs at the Leavenworth, Entiat and Winthrop federal fish-producing facilities.

The second is the $20 Columbia River Salmon and Steelhead Endorsement, a portion of the proceeds of which pay for required in-season creel census monitoring that enable state managers to track effort and project the impact on the protected wild fish.

The latest count of upper Columbia River-bound steelhead passing over Priest Rapids Dam above the Tri-Cities was 18,269 hatchery and wild fish as of Tuesday, Sept. 26.

Wild steelhead will spend the winter hunkered down in Columbia reservoirs or if they are in their natal rivers, in the deepest pools, awaiting the first hint of warmth from spring thaws to spawn in March and April.

HATCHERY-ORIGIN FISH ARE THE QUARRY

NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service has given its blessing to these recreational opportunities in the form of federal permits issued to the State of Washington which stipulate that these angling activities must not impede wild steelhead stock recovery.

By state regulation, keeper steelhead must be missing their adipose fin and have a healed vestigial bump at the fin's former location on the fish's back. These fins were snipped off the young steelhead just prior to their release from their natal facilities as smolts.

Legal-for-the-creel fish also must be 20 inches or longer and in these open reaches all trout, rainbow or not, that are shorter than 20 inches must be released. Anglers also must let go all steelhead regardless of adipose fin status that have one or two round holes in their tails.

More special restrictions will govern this opportunity.

The daily bag limit in all open waters is two hatchery-origin steelhead a day.

For the duration of the overlapping salmon fishery, anglers may keep six chinook a day, of which three may be adults and only one of those adults may be a non-clipped or wild-origin fish.

And while all wild (adipose fin bearing) fish must by rule be release alive and unharmed without being removed from the water, the opposite is the case with hatchery steelhead.

Successful fishers are required by regulation to retain and kill every hatchery-origin steelhead they bring to hand. This is part of the commitment to preclude the cultured fish from re-introducing their genes into the wild population.

In addition, to spread the steelhead wealth among the angler cadre, when the two hatchery steelhead daily limit is reached, anglers must stop fishing.

The night fishing regulation applies in all waters including the upper Columbia pools and anglers must also abide the selective gear fishing rule, which, in part, requires use of single, barbless hooks and bans bait.

The full text definitions of these and other legal regulatory terms are found on pages 18-19 of the Fishing in Washington pamphlet.

AND THE STEELHEADING REACHES ARE...

The legal bounds for this fishery are:

- The Upper Columbia River mainstem from Rock Island Dam upstream to 400 feet below Chief Joseph Dam. Night closure and selective gear rules apply, except anglers may use bait.

- The Okanogan River from its mouth upstream to the Highway 97 bridge at Oroville. Night closure and selective gear rules apply.

- The Methow River from its mouth near Pateros upstream to the Chewuck River at Winthrop. Night closure and selective gear rules apply plus fishing from any floating device is banned between the second power-line crossing to the first Highway 153 bridge.

- The Entiat River from the Alternate Highway 97 bridge, just above the mouth, upstream to 800 feet below the Entiat National Fish Hatchery outfall. Night closure and selective gear rules apply.

- The Wenatchee River from its mouth upstream to the bridge on Icicle River Road. Night closure and selective gear rules apply plus motorized watercraft are banned by county ordinance.

- The Icicle River from its mouth upstream to 500 feet below the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery's barrier dam. Night closure and selective gear rules apply plus motorized watercraft are banned by county ordinance.

When it opens the first of November, the Similkameen River will be available to anglers from its mouth to a point 400 feet below Enloe Dam west of Oroville also under night closure and selective gear rules.

In compliance with the terms of the federal permits for these fisheries, state managers will collect information throughout the season about angler effort and success, including encounters with wild fish, to monitor effects on the native population.

If adverse impact thresholds are reached in any of these waters, they will close.

Doug Huddle, the Bellingham Herald's outdoors correspondent since 1983, has written a weekly hunting and fishing column that appears Fridays. Read and comment on his blog at blogs.bellinghamherald.com/outdoors.