LZZ,

The reason you might chose to "get a hatchery steelhead out of the system" is because they do not reproduce effectively in the natural river environment. We've had some threads about this recently. Hatchery winter runs that spawn in the wild produce almost zero returning adults in the subsequent generation. Skamania fish do a little better. But in both cases, any fry they do produce take up space and food resources that could otherwise be utilized by juvenile native steelhead. So leaving the hatchery fish in the river results in very little benefit. But I admit that I don't always keep a hatchery fish, especially summer runs. Sometimes it's a dark fish, sometimes I'm bushwhacking and don't want to bother packing the fish, and sometimes I just don't feel like keeping it. I guess there's no perfect answer.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.