The Redwines, Tera and Virgil, enjoy fishing the Methow River. They fished the river last weekend with good success, catching at least one fish. Virgil was fishing about six miles from the mouth of the Columbia River, using a six-weight fly fishing rod. He was using a strike indicator with a pink and purple jig and a pink egg underneath.

"It was 27 degrees when we landed that fish; super Cold," Tera said. "The eyes on my rod froze up each time I stopped to warm up my hands."

Great going, you two. How about a fishing report every week? And, how about your favorite steelhead recipes?

Retention of hatchery steelhead allowed on Lower Hanford Reach

The Columbia River is now open to the retention of hatchery steelhead from Highway 395 upstream to old Hanford townsite wooden powerline towers.

A daily limit of two hatchery steelhead is allowed. Hatchery steelhead are identified by a missing adipose fin with a healed scar in its location. The minimum size is 20 inches.

Wild steelhead, with an intact adipose fin, must be immediately released unharmed and cannot be removed from the water prior to release.

This action removes the requirement for both an adipose fin clip and ventral fin clip for hatchery steelhead retained prior to Nov. 1. The Lower Hanford Reach will remain open for hatchery steelhead fishing after Oct. 31 under the current permanent regulation listed in the fishing rules pamphlet and is scheduled to run through March 31, 2013.

Steelhead fisheries for hatchery steelhead, adipose clip only, have recently opened in the upper Columbia and tributaries, thus allowing early retention of adipose clip only steelhead in the lower Hanford Reach.

Although the regular deer season is over, the stats are interesting to see and consider.The Winthrop deer check station for opening weekend of the general modern firearm season checked 127 hunters with 17 deer. These numbers are nearly identical to check station data from last year and are in line with anecdotal observations of success and lower than average hunter numbers reported by enforcement agents in the district.