A Brief History of Oregon Steelhead Fishing

Steelhead fishing in Oregon became popular in the late nineteenth century and early 20th century. East coast transplants brought with them the east coast fly fishing techniques of the day and eventually adapted them to the bigger and stronger "great western rivers" of California, Oregon and elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest.

Early fishing writers, most notably Zane Grey, popularized steelhead fishing in Oregon in the 1920's and 1930's with his vivid accounts of the Rogue and North Umpqua Rivers. Zane Grey's articles, which appeared in national magazines such as Field & Stream, were the first introduction most of America had to Oregon salmon and steelhead fishing. His book Tales of Freshwater Fishing as well as his novel Rogue River Feud, about the battles for fish at the mouth of the river, put the Rogue River and Oregon steelhead fishing on the map. See story here

In the 1940's the war effort became paramount to concerns about steelhead fishing and fish stocks and this effort justified major dam construction on many of Oregon's best steelhead fishing rivers. Unfortunately, the dams were not fish friendly. By the late 1950's and early 1960's steelhead stocks up and down the west coast took a precipitous decline. Nowhere was this decline more pronounced than in California where logging, overharvest and habitat degradation contributed to a relatively quick loss or near elimination of many steelhead populations that had historically existed as far south as Baja California. The critical situation in California quickly became known as the classic example of "what not to do." For more info watch the movie Rivers of a Lost Coast.

Although steelhead were finally classified as a gamefish by the late 1970's the damage to Oregon steelhead fishing and steelhead stocks had also already been done. By the 1990's many steelhead stocks had become "listed" as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). At the same time funding for many of Oregon's steelhead hatchery programs was cut back. In 2007 some good news and a major step in the right direction came with the removal of Marmot Dam on the Sandy River near Portland, Oregon. See video here

In the following years additional dams were removed on the Rogue River in Oregon as well as the White Salmon and Elwha Rivers in Washington state. Throughout the 2000's the issue of hatchery supplementation continued to be at the forefront of the debate on the best course of future recovery efforts. One of the watershed moments in this debate occurred in 2013 when special interest groups sued the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife and the Cedar Creek Fish Hatchery on the Sandy River in an attempt to eliminate hatchery releases on the river. Fortunately for the future of salmon and steelhead fishing on the Sandy River this attempt was largely rebuffed, but similar lawsuits have been filed on other west coast steelhead fishing rivers elsewhere. See story here

Despite major advancements in hatchery practices related to genetics the debate between wild and hatchery fish rages on. If you would like more info on this debate and the future of steelhead fishing here in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest please check out the video Hatchery and Wild. See video here