Old habits die hard. Every year at this time I eagerly check the steelhead numbers at Bonneville Dam and Priest Rapids. I hope to see the numbers improve over the past several years. In 2021 the lowest count of steelhead since the construction of Bonneville Dam was recorded. The numbers have improved, and I hold out hope to see the steelhead return reach the threshold required to open a season on the upper Columbia. That number is 9,550, and it also requires that 1,300 must be wild. As of the second of September, the total number of steelhead counted at Priest Rapids Dam was 7,881, with 2,444 of them unclipped as assumed to be wild. I remember the steelhead season opening around the second week of October in the past, one year it even opened in late September. Could this be the year that we can anticipate an opening? Only time will tell and maybe I am over optimistic, but you can bet that I will be checking the steelhead counts again every day. There is no fishery I miss more than bobber and jig fishing for steelhead below Chief Joseph Dam and Wells. Man wouldn’t that be great.