Although I think the idea of getting hatchery fish out of our rivers before they spawn I also think angling ethic is of extreme importance to the future of our sport. That ethic is already seriously lacking! I think raising the limits on hatchery fish no matter how many fish there are is a bad idea. for 2 reasons..

1. it sends the wrong message to anglers. It basically tells them there are lots of fish and they can kill as many as they can catch. Also it semds them the message that it's ok to be greedy. keeping 3-4 steelhead a day IS greedy no matter how many fish there are.
I think the limit should be 2 a day 30 per year no wild fish period..

2. it sends the message that hatcheries are doing nothing wrong and makes anglers dependant on hatcheries. Quite frankly in the case of the Cowlitz and the North Lewis I'd catch more fish if there were fewer fish in the river simply because it would reduce the amount of pressuer on thoes rivers. In my opinion WDFW should not be promoting the blue creek fishery as the ideal steelhead fishery. Thats just a zoo where the greediest people take home limits and no one else gets a shot. This is also a great argument for boat limits.. Guides shouldn't be running multiple trips a day limiting out with 4 guys at a time. That again is clearly damaging to sport fishing as it breeds a generation of greedy anglers who are self centered and lack ethics.

Everywhere you go where there are large numbers of fish with liberal limits there is a fishery that is prodominantly made up of people who are greedy and who push the regulations as far as they can and extremely often break them.

I think angling ethics is extremely important and like it or not WDFW needs to be in the bussiness of promoting them. Not doing so is another gross failure of that orgainization.