Skagit & Sauk River Closures

While I have known this was going to happen quite awhile back we have finally received the official notice from the WDFW last night. The closures are as follows:

Skagit River from the mouth upstream to Highway 536 (Memorial Hwy Bridge) at Mount Vernon will be closed February 16,2010 through April 30, 2010.

Skagit River from the Highway 536 (Memorial Hwy. Bridge) at Mount Vernon upstream to the Gorge Powerhouse will be closed February 16, 2010 through May 31, 2010.

Sauk River from the mouth upstream to the Whitechuck River will be closed February 16 through June 4, 2010.

The reason for this action is reduce the hooking mortality on wild steelhead. The 2009 / 2010 forecasted return of wild winter steelhead to the Skagit Basin is expected to be below the escapement floor of 6,000.

Though this closure has been expected for some time it is sad to see it occur as it takes away another angling opportunity in an already dwindling steelhead fishery. Hopefully, this closure will do some good in bringing back our native runs in this watershed. Though this closure is just this season , it would be my opinion that it is something that we will be seeing for some time in the future with the poor returns that have been experienced for quite a number of past years.