At one point on the brink of extinction, winter steelhead in the Upper Willamette River system continued to show improved numbers this season.
Wildlife managers said this year’s run has been bolstered, for the second year in a row, by a program that killed sea lions preying on chrome fish near Willamette Falls.
A total of 4,760 winter steelhead have returned above Willamette Falls and spread into rivers including the North Santiam so far this year. That would be the highest number since 2012 and could indicate an encouraging rebound, ODFW biologist Sean Clements said. It’s still well below historic numbers that often eclipsed 20,000 in the 1980s.
LINK (via: statesman journal)
So as bad as or fishing has been obvious if we get rid of gillnetting and stray sealions fishing mite be worth buying a fishing license