Bend Bulletin: Deschutes River to close Aug. 15 to steelhead, salmon fishing amid weak returns
Wild summer steelhead returns on the Deschutes River are tracking among the lowest on record, prompting Oregon wildlife officials to close steelhead and salmon fishing on much of the river beginning Aug. 15.
Just 7,388 wild steelhead passed Bonneville Dam in July, well short of the 9,900 fish required under ODFW’s Deschutes River Steelhead Management Framework to keep the fishery open.
The closure follows a series of increasingly restrictive measures on the Deschutes in recent years. Last summer, ODFW limited anglers to one hatchery steelhead in portions of the lower river after forecasting weak Columbia Basin returns, warning that additional restrictions could follow if the run failed to improve.
Those concerns have now materialized, said Jason Seals, an ODFW fish biologist.
“We won’t know until later this fall or maybe even next spring exactly where this year ranks,” Seals said. “But it seems very similar to 2021. Based on what we’re seeing at Bonneville, it appears Deschutes steelhead are going to be in the top five lowest returns on record dating back to 1976.”
The decline stems from multiple factors, including a decade-long drought that has reduced streamflows in tributaries where steelhead spawn and rear, along with poor ocean conditions that have hurt fish survival.
“Fish need water,” Seals said. “Less water means less steelhead.”
Steelhead also are particularly vulnerable to warming ocean surface temperatures because they spend much of their time near the surface, he said. In addition, large numbers of pink salmon in the Pacific compete with steelhead for food during years when pink salmon populations are abundant.
Beginning Aug. 15, anglers will no longer be allowed to fish for or retain steelhead on affected portions of the river, ODFW said in a statement. Chinook and coho salmon fishing also will close in those reaches because of the potential for incidental steelhead encounters.
Trout fishing will remain open, and a section of the lower Deschutes from Sherars Falls downstream to the railroad trestle will continue to allow fall Chinook fishing. ODFW said those fisheries have historically resulted in very little incidental steelhead catch.
“We’ve monitored those fisheries for decades,” Seals said. “The risk is very low with those fisheries of having an impact on steelhead.”
The management framework was adopted in 2021 after historically poor returns forced the first closure of the Deschutes steelhead fishery in decades. It establishes benchmarks for closures and possible reopenings based on the number of wild steelhead passing Bonneville Dam.
The framework allows the fishery to reopen Sept. 15 if more than 23,100 wild steelhead pass Bonneville by the end of August. Seals said that outcome appears unlikely.
“We’d have to average almost 500 unmarked steelhead a day at Bonneville,” he said. “We’ve only had one day, so far, over 500, and typically as August progresses we’re past the peak and the numbers decline.”
Wild upriver summer steelhead are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act, and ODFW said protecting the remaining fish is the priority despite the impact on anglers and local communities.
“Nobody wants to see this,” Seals said. “We’re just trying to do what we can to conserve steelhead. Hopefully next year and the year after we’ll see more steelhead, and we’ll be back to fishing again.”
