Washington winter steelheaders are a dedicated bunch -- some would venture to use the word fanatic. Many routinely go to great lengths to connect with a bright winter fish. They don't blink an eye at getting up in the middle of the night, and it isn't uncommon for them willingly spend an entire day standing in heavy rain or freezing cold. It is also considered standard practice for Seattle and Tacoma-area steelheaders to travel to distant winter rivers. They drive to the Skagit in the north and to the Cowlitz, Lewis and Kalama in southwest Washington. They also increasingly visit the large rain forest rivers that drain the Olympic Peninsula's West End. In addition to three or more hours in a car, this trip involves a ride on a Washington state ferry and crossing two major bridges. As a result, many anglers who want to be fresh and rested in the morning drive out the day before and spend the night in a motel. However, that raises the ante for a fishing trip considerably, not to mention taking up even more time.

There is a solution for Seattle/Tacoma-area steelheaders, of course: They can fish close to home. Indeed, the rivers that drain the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains and that flow into eastern Puget Sound were historically some of the most productive winter steelhead rivers in the Pacific Northwest. In Trey Combs' Steelhead Fly Fishing and Flies (1976), he put it this way: "Within Puget Sound, from Tacoma to Mount Vernon, a distance of slightly more than 100 miles, can be found the finest concentration of winter steelhead rivers in North America." Many of the traditions and lore of winter steelheading also have their roots on Puget Sound rivers.

It hasn't exactly been a secret that the wild winter steelhead populations on the rivers closest to Seattle and Tacoma -- the Snohomish System's Skykomish and Snoqualmie, the Green River and the Puyallup -- have declined alarmingly in recent years. Indeed, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) was forced to impose permanent wild release regulations on all of these rivers after wild returns declined to record low levels in the late 1990s. But anglers can still take hatchery fish on all of these systems, and hatchery runs have increased significantly since ocean conditions became more productive several years ago. As many as 5,000 winter fish have been taken from the Snohomish System in recent years, numbers that occasionally supplant even the Cowlitz as the No. one winter steelhead system in the state. The Snoqualmie and Skykomish, of course, are the crown jewels of Puget Sound rivers, but metropolitan anglers who take the time to learn them can also reasonably expect to connect with a winter steelhead on the Green and Puyallup rivers, as well.

While rivers that meander behind shopping malls, subdivisions and freeways might not have the grandeur of the Skagit or the wilderness feel of Olympic Peninsula rivers, Seattle-Tacoma-area rivers nonetheless provide productive and nearby winter steelhead fishing. Your odds of connecting with a bright 2-salt hatchery fish are, in fact, probably as good on these rivers as they are on more distant systems. Even better, their proximity lets you fish for a few hours in the morning and still have part of the day left for other activities. That gives you time to watch a Seahawks game, to eat a late lunch with your wife or maybe even put up the storm windows that you have been ignoring since Thanksgiving.

SNOHOMISH MAIN-STEM STEELHEAD
The northernmost of the easily accessible Seattle/Tacoma-area rivers, the Snohomish System is far and away Puget Sound's most productive. The Snohomish main stem is created by the confluence of the Skykomish and Snoqualmie west of Monroe, and it sidles through bottomlands downstream to Everett, then drains into Possession Sound. The system has earned top honors as the most productive winter steelhead system in Washington several times in recent years. During 2001-02 it yielded more than 5,000 winter steelhead, with the Skykomish producing 3,383 fish and the Snoqualmie kicking in an additional 2,067. A half-dozen smaller tributaries -- Sultan, Wallace, Raging, Tolt, Tokul -- also produce a few hundred fish each winter.

Although main-stem anglers have the first shot at fish, the Snohomish proper usually turns out far fewer steelhead than its tributaries. This is largely because of the relative lack of access and difficulty of fishing its slow, deep waters. However, the Snohomish usually gives up between 500 and 1,000 steelhead, and during 2001-02, the last year for which the WDFW has released harvest figures, it accounted for 848 fish. The Pilchuck River, the main stem's major north bank tributary, yielded an additional 325 fish. Three-fourths of the Snohomish's steelhead are taken in December, although fresh fish continue drifting up from saltwater until the season closes in February. The early season steelhead are almost entirely hatchery fish. Before wild release was implemented, there was a spike in February when larger wild fish appeared, but they are no longer pursued by as many anglers.