My experience is that the type of bait ban make a huge difference also. In my experience steelhead smolts and sea run cutts are extremely difficullt to hook with sandshrimp and egg clusters. However with single eggs or worms a person can be deadly!!! For that reason i'd say hardware and fly fuys have more of an impact on smolts cause lets face it almost no one uses worms or single eggs for steelhead. I think the closure of trout fisheries during smolt migrations are the way to go and full trout closures on streams that really have no trout like the East Lewis.