Across the Northwest, steelheaders are busy readying their drift boats and pulling out the wool fishing gloves.

The Siletz River hatchery run is one of Oregon's most successful. And in a good year, anglers see about 10,000 winter wilds, too. Photo by Garth Wyatt.

Winter-run steelhead are on their way! For the next four months, this incredible game fish will tantalize anglers while fishermen see the worst weather conditions of the year.

Also, steelhead are some of the hardest fish to predict. Ask any steelhead biologists what kind of winter run they expect for the coming season, and you'll find that they'd rather answer any other question.

Biologists know very little about where steelhead go once they leave the fresh water. Nor do they have any ocean catch to judge, nor jack counts to calculate. So when anglers ask them, "What can we expect?" their answers are necessarily vague. No matter how the runs fall out, certain Washington and Oregon streams out-produce others, year after year.

The following rivers have done just that, based on the five-year averages of steelhead catches in both states.

Some of these rivers and systems are legendary for their great runs, while some others may surprise you. Either way, if you target these waters this year, your chances of having a great season for winter steelies will increase exponentially -- the nasty weather notwithstanding.

OREGON
Alsea River The Alsea River is the absolute top producer of harvested winter steelhead along the Oregon Coast.

Consistently at the top of the five-year average, this stream out-produces both the Rogue and the Umpqua for winter hatchery steelhead. It pours into the Pacific Ocean near Waldport, and its headwaters roll down from the Coast Range.

The two separate hatchery programs on the river allow for an extended hatchery fishery. When the first run arrives, about the last week of December, the fishing starts in earnest. The runs peaks in January, and it still fishes well into February.

Bob Buckman, a biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, expects a good return of steelhead to the Alsea this year.

"Everything is in place," he said. "This return is from a good hatchery release, so it should be a good run."

Buckman explained that two different strains of hatchery steelhead are released into the Alsea. One is an early-returning traditional Alsea stock. The other is a native brood-stock strain that arrives a little later.

As for the wild run, he reports that it's not very strong: "There isn't a lot of good steelhead habitat in the stream," he said. "Our wild run isn't that substantial."

Fish biologist Garth Wyatt of Sandy, Ore., learned to fish for winter steelhead on the Alsea.

He still spends as much time as he can chasing the chrome steelhead that prowl its waters.

According to Wyatt, the river fishes the best when it's running high. "At about 2,800 cubic feet per second, it's great," he said. "If it drops to 1,500 cfs, the fishing is still good. Once it drops below 1,000, though, things get tough. About the only tactic that will work is a jig and bobber." Siletz River The Siletz is another mid-coast river that almost matches the Alsea for harvest. But this river also gets a great run of wild steelhead.

In good years, the river will see a return of about 10,000 wild winter steelhead. The hatchery run is a native broodstock strain, and arrives at the same time as the wild run.