RT,
I have had the "unfortunate" chance to watch the ODFW dump recycled steelhead were I was fishing a couple of different times. The reason I say it is unfortunate is because every dildo who owns a yellow Eagle Clw rod comes out of the wood work to try there "luck"at catching those fish. In my experience a few fish are usually a lttle pissed about being tossed in a truck, driven back down the river, dumped back in the river to have to swim back through the gauntlet. These fish wll bite justabout everything in sight. The majority of the fish either haul butt back up river or drop downstream aways and are locked jawed for about 12 to 24 hours.
I was just arriving at a take out on the S. Santiam one afternoon just as the fish truck was dumping its second load of recycled spring chinook. Those chinook, unlike the steelhead were on a rampage. They were biting anything and everything that we threw at them. It was fun landing and releasing about 10 nooks apiece.