Steve, I'm suprised to hear that there are more boats and pressure on the nate runs up in NW Washington than on the hatchery runs. Enough so that I wonder if you are refering only to this season when the brat runs were missing, and thus cut down the usual pressure on them? In Oregon the pressure drops way off after the brats taper off and the nates are more abundant. Always, including with this poor hatchery run season. Of course that could be because they can't keep nates in Oregon. ... I am also concerned about your claim of fishers "jerking" nates off of their redds; in fact making it sound as if that's what the majority of fishers do. I am suprised to hear that opinion; especially in light of the fact that fish on their redds aren't in prime condition. And I would think that the stronger prevalence of knowledable true sportsmen among the C&R fishers would not be likely to due this. In fact, I bet that most of them fish normal holding water rather than on up the river on shallow redds. What do most of you guys see out there concerning this issue? (Not trashing your rightful opinion Steve - just wanting to know more about what's happening out there. See my thread "THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT C&R SURVIVAL AND PAIN FACTOR?").

RT