Anglers should expect an announcement about steelhead seasons on our area rivers this week. At a recent meeting in Pateros, Jeff Korth, fisheries manager for Region 2, outlined what the current numbers of steelhead indicated for this year’s fisheries. The Methow and Okanogan rivers will be the first to open, with both wild and hatchery steelhead abundant in both streams. The ratio of hatchery to wild fish again is what prompted the opening of these rivers to steelhead fishing. The high ratio of hatchery steelhead to wild fish is the basis for steelhead sport angling, and Korth reminded anglers that if steelhead seasons are to continue, hatchery fish must be retained. By removing the hatchery fish from the river systems, to allow for the best possible spawning conditions for wild fish is the only reason we are allowed to fish for steelhead, which are listed under the Endangered Species Act. If anglers continue to release hatchery fish, the ability to justify seasons for steelhead could be lost and seasons closed. The upper Columbia will follow the opening of the Methow and Okanogan rivers, as more brook stock fish are needed at Wells. The Wenatchee River seasons remains questionable, due to large number of Wenatchee-bound fish that are straying over Rocky Reach Dam.