Ok, here goes...

Can anyone give me a reasonable explanation, other than the couple I'll list after the question, why you should ever have to release a hatchery steelhead during any open steelhead fishery?

Reasons for...

1. They are there specifically for harvest. Last year's dismal hatchery winter run return on the coast proves that if people can't catch enough hatchery steelhead to fulfill their freezer filling needs, they will keep wild fish if legal to do so. While this is a slightly different issue, it still speaks to the point that there is no reason to release a hatchery fish (see caveats below). If someone catches and kills a hatchery fish in March, that reduces the chance that they will catch and kill a native.

2. An easy way to do wild steelhead a favor is to make sure that no hatchery steelhead ever spawn in the wild. Dead steelhead don't spawn.

Reasons against...

1. Like now on the PS streams...it actually may not be a bad idea to let a hatchery steelhead go if you are downstream from the hatchery and the hatchery may be in danger of not making its egg take for the year. I think this, too, is a different issue, though, because this deals with hatchery fish being caught during a hatchery fish season, not in what would normally not be a hatchery season.

2. Enforcement issues could arise if a fish is retained, say, on the Skagit River in March. Since enforcement is already spread way too thin, it's easier to remember that "any fish retained is poached", than have to check every fish for an adipose. While I think this is the most valid reason against, it doesn't seem to be an issue from November through February, so why should it be any more of an issue in March or April?

Here are a few anecdotes of mine that helped me come up with this topic.

Fishing the Skagit several years ago in April we managed to pull five fish out of one long run. One was a wild buck, one was a chrome and very fresh wild hen, one was a very ripe, either totally or mostly spawned hen. The other two were both spewing hatchery bucks.

While I wouldn't have eaten, or even smoked, either one of them, if allowed to keep them I would have. Thankfully crab bait is a legal use of sport caught fish...as they would have been frozen in steaks and used for crab bait, if I could have. I think crab bait would be infinitely more useful than those little bucks attempting to spawn with those wild hens that were in the run with them.

Any thoughts?

I think this issue will become more important as hatchery programs move more and more towards broodstock programs which provide hatchery fish throughout the winter/spring season, rather than just in Nov. and Dec., with a few in January.

Fish on...
Todd.