"Data" can always be mis-leading. As I recall the steelhead punch card in the 1960s was issued free with the fishing licences so folks would pick up a card on the off chance they might go sttelhead fishing. Those that actually fished was much lower than the number of cards issued. Since the cards are again issued with the license I would expect the number cards for this year will be 100,000s (especially of 2001's exceptional salmon fishing). Another thing to remember is that at that time must folks worked straight shifts (days only) making much hard to get a way to fish. Anyone that could get away to fish 5 or 6 times a month was consisted to be very hard core. Now there are lots of folks that fish that often in a week when conditions are good.

Also the anglers then weren't nearly as well equiped today. I would venture to say that many today would have a tough time getting a hook into the water with the stiff glass rods and knucle-buster reels of that period. Boats were also much rarer then. During the late 1960s I was certainly a "hardcore steelheader" and spend a lot of time on the Snoqualmie. When the "Ricker" access was first developed I spend a many enjoyable days on the Fall City to Ricker section of river in an old john boat with 10hp outboard. Other boats were so rare that for a couple seasons in that period I could count the number of other boats steelheading seen for the year on one hand.

The number of hatchery fish planted were actually less than today and the smolts were not as high of quality as today's fish. Remember the first of the big rearing ponds (Barnaby on the Skagit) came on line in 1963, Whitehorse a few years later, and Reiter not until about 1974. The first returns of hatchery summer runs on the Snohomish was in the late 1960s and the early 1960s for the Stillaguamish.

Yes the old days were something but I not sure today's fsihing isn't comparable though certainly more crowded - more hatchery fish (at least on the good years), better gear, easier transportation, better information and longer seasons (can now fish virtually year-round).

Tight Lines
Smalma