Why keep a fish for a trophy unless you specifically want a skin mount to prove that the trophy is valid? One can just as easily take measurements and supply those and a photo to the taxidermist for a realistic replica.

In fact... Why fish for a trophy in the first place? One can simply tell a taxidermist to whip you up a realistic fish of any desired size.

Keep Bleeding Fish - After my knife has slipped through the base of the fishes gills and the profuse bleeding has stopped, I usually consider the fish dead and remove the viscera, gills and kidney.

This is the best way to treat a steelhead unless you would rather release it then eat it.

--- --- --- --- ---

"In its truest form "conservation" of a wild species, wild place, or other renewable resource means to nurture it to the point where its abundance allows for virtually every "use" whether consumptive or non-consumptive."