I leafed through some of my Roderick Haig-Brown material and came up with some interesting points from a more Northwest perspective:


"In addition to contributing at least something to the maintenance of his sport, the fisherman needs to direct his attention far more closely to the qualities that make it a sport. He should be aware of his fish and their needs and so be ready to protect them. He should examine his sport closely and seek ways of refining it to give him greater pleasure...

Both steelhead and salmon fishermen should give serious consideration to the pleasures- and they are very real pleasures- of catch and release fishing. It is reasonable enough to take half a dozen, or even a dozen sizeable fish a season for the freezer, but few people can want more than that.There is no pleasure in knocking a fish in the head.There is a very real pleasure in carefully unhooking him, preferably while he is still in the water, gently nursing his strength back if neccessary, then watching him swim away. If the job is well-done he will recover completely. A fish can be hooked and released several times in a season by different fishermen and still go up his river to spawn in due time.

Catch and release is of particular importance to the steelhead fisherman. Quite a number of steelheaders release all, or nearly all, their fish now and if the practice becomes more general one will be reasonably assured of fish holding over in the pools throughout the season."

Circa 1972.


"We have been far too slow to appreciate the outstanding qualities of the steelhead as a game fish, much too willing to meet the difficulties he presents with crude and unsatisfactory solutions. There are signs of change in this. We have been slow, also, in investigating the variety and complexity of life history patterns that make the steelhead runs, and unimaginative in our limited attempts at management. The steelhead stocks of the North Pacific make up the world's only major population of a true sea-ranging trout. This is a precious inheritance. It needs cool, clean waters and good gravel beds to come home to; it needs stable stream flows and productive stream beds to nurse it through the freshwater years until it is ready to go to sea; it may need protection in the ocean years as well- if not now, at some later date. All these things can be provided in good quantity by wise planning.

The angler, for his part, should respect the fish by accepting the challenges he offers instead of insisting on easy solutions. And he should be satisfied to limit his kill closely until natural stocks repopulate every square yard of suitable spawning area, whether man-made or natural. Those great bars of muscle, steel-grey and silver, square-tailed and heavy-shouldered, have more important duties than filling freezers or posing for post-humous pictures."

Circa 1970.