FISHING – The steelheader’s loss will be the trout angler’s bonanza.

About 340,000 young steelhead raised at hatcheries to be released in Puget Sound streams will instead be stocked in Western Washington trout lakes this month.

A lawsuit filed by wild steelhead advocates prevented Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife managers from releasing the young steelhead this spring in most streams where they've been released for years.

Rather than waste the fish, they were kept at the hatcheries and raised to catchable sizes of 11-13 inches, said Chris Donley, state inland fish program manager.

The fish are being stocked into 47 West Side lakes, including 19 lakes where the catch limit will be increased from five to 10 trout beginning Oct. 18. 

The number of fish being stocked in the lakes is four times greater than last fall, Donley said, noting that fishing through the holidays should be excellent.

Sprague Lake is the only Eastern Washington lake to get a boost from the surplus steelhead.

To relieve pressure on hatcheries this spring, about 370,000 small steelhead were stocked in Sprague, where those that weren’t consumed by bass and channel catfish have grown to 13 or more inches long, Donley said.

Details on where the fall fish are being stocked are online.