Bob,
I don't think I can give any kind of cogent answer to your question, the
logic of NOAA Fisheries (NMFS) decisions are sometimes pretty opaque. Since
the trout and the steelhead fisheries on the Methow have apparently had no
detrimental effect, I would hope that the Wenatchee and/or some of its
tributaries can be re-opened at some time in the near future and I
understand that WDFW has been talking with NOAA about it for some time now.
I used to enjoy fishing the Wenatchee, the late summer and fall was a
great time to be there and the fishing was, at times, outstanding. In the
last few years we fished it, we caught fair numbers of fifteen- to
seventeen-inch, fin-clipped rainbows which, since there were no fin-clipped
hatchery trout being stocked, were apparently residualized hatchery
steelhead. Bob Arnold (can't remember which of his books it was in) writes
about catching residualized chinook salmon there as well.
