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Hot weather affecting Methow River fishery and leads to daily closures

An Eastern Washington river is now being affected by the heat wave.

State Fish and Wildlife has implemented a ruling that closes fishing on the Methow River each day between 2 p.m. and midnight from Wednesday, Aug. 5 until further notice.

The section affected by the daily closure is from the County Road 1535 Bridge (Lower Burma Road) up to Weeman Bridge (located eight miles upstream of Winthrop).

According to state fisheries, afternoon water temperatures in the Methow are nearing the upper threshold for trout survival.

This area of the Methow does see a lot of angler pressure in the summer, and trout hooked and handled face stress, injury and possibly death from low water flow and the warmer water temperatures.