Problem with summer-runs is that they overlap with salmon and mess up all those salmon fisheries, especially net. A large summer run return could easily conflict with Chinook fisheries. The neat thing about winters, from a manager's perspective, is that there is not a whole lot of "bycatch" to worry about.

I don't eat steelhead, so the dietary arguments Doc makes don't mean much but I would much rather fish in the summer that in the dead of winter (in WA). Dead of winter in Costa Rica or Hawaii is fine, though.