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The boat ramp at Central Ferry, the county’s own gateway to the Snake River about 15 miles northwest of Pomeroy, is about to see a lot fewer anglers filling coolers. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has cut the daily steelhead limit on the lower Snake River from three fish to one, an emergency rule that took effect this week after this fall’s steelhead return came in as the smallest ever counted.
The new limit applies to the stretch of river from the Snake’s mouth upstream to Lower Granite Dam — the exact reach that runs along Garfield County’s northern line and past Central Ferry State Park, the county’s main public launch and the closest thing Garfield County has to a working waterfront. Anglers fishing farther upstream, between Lower Granite Dam and the Idaho-Oregon border, saw their limit cut from three fish to two. On the Tucannon River, the limit dropped to one fish per day as well, according to reporting first published by the Spokesman-Review on September 15.
WDFW’s move follows counts that alarmed fish managers on both sides of the state line. As of September 14, only 52,232 summer steelhead had crossed Bonneville Dam on the Columbia — the lowest count on record for that point in the season, the Spokesman-Review reported. The season’s forecast, revised downward, now sits at roughly 61,500 total steelhead expected back this year, which fishery managers say would be the smallest run since counting began at Bonneville Dam in 1938. Idaho Fish and Game’s own dam-count data show the falloff reaching well up into the drainage: by August 30, only 3,286 steelhead had passed Lower Granite Dam, compared with 7,467 on the same date a year earlier and a five-year average of 6,155 — a decline of more than 55 percent at the dam nearest Garfield County’s stretch of river.
The cuts did not come out of nowhere. A September 8 Spokesman-Review report had fisheries managers describing themselves as concerned but not yet ready to order a closure, hoping later arrivals would improve the numbers. By September 15, with the run still lagging, Washington moved to the bag-limit reduction rather than a full shutdown — a middle option meant to spread out what returns there are rather than end the fishery outright. Idaho followed with its own cut on the upper river, dropping its Snake River limit from three fish to two effective at the end of fishing hours on September 17, and Oregon announced parallel bag-limit changes for the Snake River zone effective September 23, citing the same record-low return.
For Garfield County, the rule change lands on a stretch of river that is more than a fishing spot. Central Ferry’s ramp and campground are the county’s principal public access to the Snake, used by residents and by visitors from Whitman and Columbia counties who cross the SR 127 bridge to fish the reach below Little Goose Dam. Fall steelhead season has historically drawn anglers to that stretch through October and into the winter months, and a one-fish daily limit — down from three — changes the calculus for a day trip built around filling a cooler.
Local fishing reports bear out how thin the returns have been even before the rule change. Outdoors columnist Alan Liere, writing for the Spokesman-Review on September 17, reported anglers doing better at the Clearwater confluence upstream than on the lower river earlier in the season, with weeds fouling trolling gear and at least one angler switching to bobber-fishing with pink shrimp to find fish at all. Oregon’s fishing report for the Snake zone likewise noted that most steelhead bound for the Snake were still sitting in the Columbia and lower river as of late September, with better fishing not expected until more fish arrive in October.
The bag-limit cut sits alongside a separate, longer-running conversation about the river’s future that also touches Garfield County directly. The Washington State Department of Transportation is holding a round of public open houses this fall on its Lower Snake River Dams Transportation Study, examining how removing the four lower Snake dams — including Little Goose, on the county’s boundary — would affect grain and freight transportation. The nearest sessions to Garfield County are set for October 6 in Colfax and October 7 in Clarkston, both from 5 to 7 p.m., with the study’s final report due to the Legislature by the end of 2026. Wheat still moves down this same stretch of river by barge, and any future change to the dams that regulate it, and the fish that swim past them, will be felt first by the county that sits on its bank.
WDFW has not announced an end date for the reduced limit, saying only that it will remain in place while the run continues to run below expectations. The agency’s emergency-rules page is the authoritative source for any further changes to the reach that includes Central Ferry.
Sources: The Spokesman-Review, Idaho State Journal, Daily Fly
