Burma Road Bridge to Gold Creek
The lowest open water on the Methow starts at the County Road 1535 (Burma Road) bridge above Pateros; from the bridge down to the Columbia the river is closed under WDFW's permanent rules and only opens when the agency writes an emergency rule for hatchery steelhead. From Burma Road up through the town of Methow and Carlton to Gold Creek the river is open from the Saturday before Memorial Day through September 15, catch and release with selective gear rules, and this lower canyon water is where the largest fish and the best hopper banks are once flows drop in July.
Gold Creek to Foghorn Dam
This is the Twisp and Winthrop water. The USGS gauge is at Twisp, above the Twisp River confluence, and the Chewuch joins in Winthrop; Foghorn Dam, a low irrigation diversion a mile above Winthrop, is the upper boundary. The section stays open two weeks longer than the reach below, through September 30, again catch and release under selective gear rules, with a winter whitefish-only season from December 1 through the end of February. State Highway 20 and the county roads give plenty of bridge and bank access between the two towns.
Foghorn Dam to Weeman Bridge
Above Foghorn Dam the valley narrows toward Mazama. The mainstem and its tributaries from the dam up to Weeman Bridge, about eight miles above Winthrop, are open only from the Saturday before Memorial Day through August 15, catch and release with selective gear. Above Weeman Bridge the mainstem is closed to trout fishing entirely; the only open season there is the winter whitefish season. Most tributaries in the valley are release-all-fish water with a brook trout exception, so read the WDFW entry for each creek before you fish it.
Rainbow and westslope cutthroat
The Methow's resident fishery is wild rainbow trout and westslope cutthroat, with the guides who float it (The Evening Hatch and Brazda's) listing both alongside bull trout and whitefish. Trout fishing is a June to September game, and the shops fish it hardest July through September once runoff drops. August and September are hopper season, with little yellow stoneflies, PMDs and blue-winged olives making up most of the rest of the surface activity. Bull trout are protected and must be released.
Steelhead
Methow steelhead are not Idaho fish passing through. They are one of the four populations of the Upper Columbia steelhead Distinct Population Segment, ESA-listed since 1997 and threatened since 2009, and they spawn in the Methow itself. Under permanent rules steelhead fishing is closed in every section of the river. WDFW opens a hatchery-steelhead conservation fishery by emergency rule only when returns over Priest Rapids Dam are strong enough; in 2024 it opened October 16 from the mouth to the Burma Road bridge and closed January 20, 2025, the first opening in nine years. When it opens, hatchery fish must be kept, wild fish released, and selective gear and night closures apply.
Season and regulations
Trout season on the open mainstem sections runs from the Saturday before Memorial Day through September 15 (Burma Road to Gold Creek), September 30 (Gold Creek to Foghorn Dam) or August 15 (Foghorn Dam to Weeman Bridge), catch and release with selective gear rules throughout. Steelhead stay closed unless WDFW issues an emergency rule, so check the WDFW emergency rules page every fall and confirm the section boundaries in the current Washington sport fishing rules.
The Methow is undammed and runs on snowmelt, so June is usually blown out. Brazda's begins fishing it for trout at or around 2,500 cfs, which normally arrives in July. USGS daily records at Twisp average about 1,530 cfs in July, 470 in August and 320 in September, so 300 to 2,500 cfs at the Twisp gauge is the working range this page uses; the lower half is wading water and the upper half is float water.