By Ann McCreary
Water temperatures in Methow Valley rivers and streams have returned to near normal seasonal temperatures, and as a result the “hoot owl” fishing restriction imposed last month by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has been lifted effective Wednesday (Sept. 16).
In the Methow Valley, the hoot owl restriction prohibited fishing from 2 p.m. to midnight on the Methow River from Gold Creek upstream to Foghorn Dam, about one mile north of Winthrop. The regulation was imposed to relieve stress on fish that are already struggling as a result of low water levels and warm temperatures.
Cooler water temperatures have prompted WDFW to ease fishing restrictions or closures imposed on rivers and streams statewide. While water temperatures are improving, low flows resulting from the ongoing drought are still a problem for fish, said Ryan Fortier, district fisheries biologist for WDFW in Okanogan County.
“We are still seeing pretty low conditions so fish are pooling up in limited areas” in rivers and streams, Fortier said. “We haven’t anticipated or seen conditions this dire before. It is just about as low as you can get.”
For spring and summer Chinook salmon returning to the Methow Valley to spawn, the low water means that the fish are forced into smaller pools to create redds, the depressions in gravel on the river bottoms made by salmon to deposit their eggs. With less space, spawning salmon may dig up eggs laid previously by other fish.
Salmon prefer to spawn in side channels or along the edges of the river where spring flow is less likely to wash away redds, said Charlie Snow, a WDFW fish biologist in Twisp.
During low-water years like this one, when substantial areas of the river have gone dry, the fish may be forced to spawn in the main channel, making survival of the juvenile fish in spring more problematic, said Snow.
Fortier said the return of steelhead over Priest Rapids Dam this year is predicted to be about 13,000 fish, slightly lower than the past couple of years.
Last year just under 20,000 steelhead were counted and the year before about 15,000 steelhead returned, he said.
“We’ll be down a little bit,” said Fortier. The steelhead fishing season in the Methow Valley usually opens during the second week of October, he said.
