U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Seattle District officials have awarded a $12,580,830 contract for the full design of a fish passage facility at Albeni Falls Dam at Idaho’s Lake Pend Oreille. The future fish passage facility will work to restore the locally extinct bull trout population downstream of Albeni Falls Dam, and provide upstream passage...

Oregon can no longer release hatchery summer steelhead into a major Willamette River tributary because of the potential the hatchery fish could harm the existence of a declining population of threatened wild upper Willamette River winter steelhead, at least until NOAA Fisheries completes a new biological opinion for the river. According to recent estimates, wild...

The 2026 Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Fishery season has been extended through Oct. 11 at select registration stations. The top angler so far has turned in over 13,000 fish. The reward program, funded by Bonneville Power Administration, pays anglers to catch predatory northern pikeminnow, a native fish that consumes millions of juvenile salmon and steelhead in...

Oregon fisheries managers will close the Deschutes River to summer steelhead angling beginning Aug. 15, and other Oregon rivers may follow if the run of steelhead continues to arrive in the Columbia River in low numbers. The state’s Deschutes River Steelhead Management Framework requires that summer steelhead angling shut down if passage of the fish...

Just when you thought the Idaho fish record books didn’t have any blank pages left, one adventurous angler from Moore, Idaho caught (and released) one of Idaho’s most coveted alpine fish back on June 20. Like many of us during the dog days of summer, angler Wade Jensen grabbed his collapsible fly rod and headed...

Welcome to the Idaho record fish books, Timothy Hicks! Timothy was fishing on Lake Pend Oreille on June 13 when he landed a 49.75-inch Northern pike. The Post Falls angler’s pike beat out the previous catch-and-release record caught by Scott Blahnik in 2020. Timothy’s pike was a mere 3/4 of an inch longer, earning himself...

Oregon's snowpack is at a record-breaking low this year and most of the state is in moderate to extreme drought as of June 2026.
That will present challenges for cold-water fish, like trout and salmon. Warm and low water makes them more vulnerable to disease and may prevent migratory fish, like salmon and steelhead from reaching spawning grounds.

Oregon and Washington fishery managers have finalized preseason planning for 2026 Columbia River summer and fall recreational salmon and steelhead fisheries.