Yesterday the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife announced their preliminary forecast for Columbia River Basin salmon and steelhead seasons. They acknowledge that forecasts are difficult to make and often wrong, but they are planning for “poor” returns and the potential for a variety of restrictions. You can really dive in on ODFW’s Steelhead management in Columbia & Snake river basins web page if you’d like. Of particular interest to me is the Deschutes steelhead decision making framework. The bottom line is that ODFW is preparing for the possibility of partial closures and other limitations on steelhead fishing in the Deschutes River and another of my favorites, the John Day River. We’ll see what happens as actual steelhead returns begin soon.