{"id":573,"date":"2013-02-07T10:07:30","date_gmt":"2013-02-07T18:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flyfishersproshop.com\/blog\/?p=573"},"modified":"2013-02-07T10:07:30","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T18:07:30","slug":"fishing-for-steelhead-whitefish-to-open-on-wenatchee-river-icicle-river-to-open-for-steelhead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flyfishersproshop.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/07\/fishing-for-steelhead-whitefish-to-open-on-wenatchee-river-icicle-river-to-open-for-steelhead\/","title":{"rendered":"Fishing for steelhead, whitefish to open on Wenatchee River;  Icicle River to open for steelhead"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;\">WDFW FISHING RULE CHANGE<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife<br \/>\n600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/wdfw.wa.gov\/\">http:\/\/wdfw.wa.gov<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><strong>February 6, 2013<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><strong>Fishing for steelhead, whitefish to open on Wenatchee River;<br \/>\nIcicle River to open for steelhead<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><strong>Actions:<\/strong>\u00a0Open the Wenatchee and Icicle rivers on Feb. 8 to fishing for steelhead. In addition, the Wenatchee River will open Feb. 8 to fishing for whitefish.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><strong>Species affected:<\/strong>\u00a0Steelhead and whitefish.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><strong>Fishing area locations and effective dates:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Areas that will open to fishing for steelhead one hour before sunrise on Feb. 8 until further notice include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><strong>Wenatchee River:<\/strong>\u00a0From the mouth to 400 feet below Tumwater Dam, including the Icicle River from the mouth to 500 feet downstream of the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery Barrier Dam.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Areas that will open to fishing for whitefish one hour before sunrise on Feb. 8 until further notice include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><strong>Wenatchee River:<\/strong>\u00a0From the mouth to the Highway 2 bridge at Leavenworth.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Reason for changes: Recent analyses of the ongoing steelhead fisheries in portions of the upper Columbia River have revealed sufficient impacts to natural origin steelhead still remain under the NOAA-issued ESA section 10 permit. Re-opening steelhead fisheries in both the Wenatchee and Icicle Rivers will help to reduce the proportion of hatchery fish on the spawning grounds, where their offspring may compete with natural origin juvenile salmon. Opening these areas to steelhead angling also allows whitefish angling opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Areas that will continue to be closed for steelhead and whitefish angling until further notice include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><strong>Mainstem Columbia River:<\/strong>\u00a0From Wells Dam to the Highway 173 bridge at Brewster.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><strong>Entiat River:<\/strong>\u00a0Upstream from the Alternate Highway 97 Bridge near the mouth of the Entiat River to 800 feet downstream of the Entiat National Fish Hatchery.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><strong>Methow River:<\/strong>\u00a0From the mouth to the confluence with the Chewuch River in Winthrop.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><strong>General rules for all locations open to steelhead fishing:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Mandatory retention of adipose fin-clipped steelhead, daily limit two (2) hatchery steelhead, 20 inch minimum size. Hatchery steelhead are identified by a missing adipose fin with a healed scar in its location.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Adipose present steelhead must be released unharmed and cannot be removed from the water prior to release.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Night closure and selective gear rules remain in effect.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Whitefish anglers must follow selective gear rules in areas open to steelhead fishing, no bait is allowed<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><strong>Other angler information:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Anglers should be aware that fishing rules are subject to change and that rivers can close at any time due to impacts on natural origin steelhead. Adhering to the mandatory retention of adipose clipped steelhead is vital in allowing the fishery to continue and to provide the maximum benefit to natural origin fish.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Anglers are required to possess a\u00a0<strong>Columbia River Salmon\/Steelhead Endorsement<\/strong>\u00a0as part of their valid fishing license.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><strong>Information contacts:<\/strong>\u00a0Jeff Korth, Region 2 Fish Program Manager (Ephrata), (509) 754-4624; Bob Jateff, District 6 Fish Biologist (Methow, Okanogan), (509) 997-0316; Travis Maitland, District 7 Fish Biologist (Wenatchee, Entiat), (509) 665-3337.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WDFW FISHING RULE CHANGE\u00a0 Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife 600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091 http:\/\/wdfw.wa.gov February 6, 2013 Fishing for steelhead, whitefish to open on Wenatchee River; Icicle River to open for steelhead Actions:\u00a0Open the Wenatchee and Icicle rivers on Feb. 8 to fishing for steelhead. In addition, the Wenatchee River will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wdfw-fishing-rule-changes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27r3u-9f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfishersproshop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfishersproshop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfishersproshop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfishersproshop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfishersproshop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfishersproshop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":574,"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfishersproshop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions\/574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfishersproshop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfishersproshop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfishersproshop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}