Standard gear it is.

According to that first study using 6.5" mesh vs 3.5" tangle nets, the C&R mortality on the first capture is about 40%. That may not apply 100% to the CR fishery this year since they are using an average 9.5" mesh. It appears the release mortality is greater with a bigger mesh.

Let's not forget that is only the mortality from a single netting event. It assumes that the fish that swam away "survived." We know that many of those "swimmers" would eventually die from de-scaling as well as immediate post-release predation by seals.

That says nothing about repeated netting encounters. What is interesting is what the study had to say about net re-captures. All of those fish died. Granted, not very many tags were recovered from released fish (could it be that most of them died?), but the fact remains that ALL of the re-netted fish died.

The only plus to this whole thing is that far fewer steelhead will be caught with the bigger 9.5" mesh size.... the tangle nets were a disaster for steelhead in the past.