Recent rainfall has brought the river levels up. Steelhead are present and moving through. With murky and high water, plunkers may want to try fishing Spin-n-Glos and/or plugs. Boat anglers have had some success side drifting, fly-fishing, and running plugs. February can be a very crowded month on the river. Spawning ground surveyors have seen fish and redds in all surveyed tributaries, but please remember that fishing in tributaries this time of year is entirely not legal.

The ODFW runs an angler-caught broodstock program for winter steelhead on the Chetco is still going. Anglers interested in participating can call the ODFW Gold Beach office at 541-247-7605 for more information.

Also, ODFW is interested to hear if your hatchery catch has secondary marks/clips. If your catch is missing an adipose fin, please also check the pelvic/ventral fins (on the bottom/belly) for right or left fin clips and let us know!