A couple of weeks ago, I posted something similar to this, but I was just told that if WDFW does not fight the Washington Trout Lawsuit and it is settled out of court, all hatcheries that have ESA listed species, steelhead will be stopped and current fish will be dumped in the lakes. The coho will be just dumped. The claim by Wash. Trout is that hatchery steelhead and coho smolts eat chinook fry. To read more about it www.washingtontrout.org
If you are pissed, call your legislators and WDFW. Winter steelhead fishing is a significant part of the $854 million spent annually in the state of washington on fishing. How ironic is it that three weeks ago I read a WDFW newspaper that talked about how Director Koenings is supporting recreational fishing opportunities and specifically mentioned steelheading. Does he think we are all fu&$ing stupid??? Typical politician telling us what we want to hear. Time to get on the horn.