Deschutes River Steelhead Forecast 2017

I wanted to touch base because there have been developements regarding our steelhead fishing opportunites for 2017. Steelhead run forecast for the summer steelhead on the Columbia basin- including the Deschutes River have been presented by ODFW.  To be blunt the forecast is bad, really bad.  Last year the total run size passing Bonneville dam was 188,146 (and a tough season) this years run is projected to be at 153,000 fish counted at Bonneville dam.  Typical run size for ten year average is closer to 300,000 fish at Bonneville.

We are currently at 8,615 steelhead over Bonneville dam compared with last year which was at 30,121 todays date last year.  The ten year average run size by July 15 is typically around 40,309 to give you more perspective. Forecasts by ODFW are often wrong but it appears that so far the run is on track with their forecast or worse.