Rich -
It must have been awesome to see how healthy, lightly fished rivrs must look like!

I don't think the State is claiming that the river is being managed to "produce as much as possible" but rather so the current harvests can be maintianed and that escapements will be at or above MSH levels. Of course to produce as many fish as possible there can't be ANY fishing induced mortalities including hooking mortality. Don't think we seriously want to go there. Guess the argument boils down to picking a comfortable point somewhere between MSH (bonk lots of fish) and carrying capacity (no fishing).

I wasn't seriously suggesting that fishing be stopped but the continued reliance on WSR as the magic bullet for steelhead recovery diverts us from the real issues. Your example of an unnamed Zipper-lip in AK illustrates some of the issues. The productive of a river system like the one you described is clearly driven by the huge abundance of salmon. Without the nutrients from the spawning salmon the populations would crash.

My point is that if one seriously thinks we should release wild steelhead then why not all wild salmonids. The young steelhead need the nutrients that the return salmon would bring to the river. Many on this board seem to push WSR but seem willing to kill wild chinook, coho, pink, chum, sockeye, Dollies, and/or cutts either here or in Alaska. That seems to me to be very inconsistent, what is good for one species should be good for all. The arguement I hear is that salmon are different than steelhead. Yes they are; the salmon represent a large portion of the nutrient base that drives the system.

I noticed that you didn't name the Alaskan river. I assume that is because folks are concern about fishing pressure. Would not be surprised that the Quillayute receives as much fishing pressure on a December Saturday as your "zipper-lip" did in a month. Out of curiosity were anglers allowed to kill any fish?

I have enjoyed and wish to encourage your zeal for steelhead and their rivers. It will take the interest and energy of our young anglers if we are going to reverse what is wrong with the rivers. My generation has not done a very good job. I just would like to see that effort directed more towards what I see as the real issues which to me means a more holistic approach to ecosystem management.

Tight lines
Smalma