If a wild steelhead is deeply bait hooked in the gills and bleeding heavily it has a higher chance to die before spawning. So if it's legal to keep it in a river with a reasonably healthy run you could consider keeping it without much basis for guilt. But don't keep fished hooked in this manner if it's illegal to keep native fish. That's because it would open it up for fishers to just say their bonked nate was bleeding and almost dead, even if the fish was just fine for release. ...

Two things can be done to minimize this occurance. One is not to use diver and bait combos when numbers of nates are in the river. The other thing is to play them in quickly, yet without horsing them in, and just cut the leader off. Some of those gill hooked fish may spawn before they die.

When in doubt, which is the majority of cases, release nates. When regulated to do so, always release them regardless of condition. My 0.02.

RT