Doc -
Once again I'm confused - could you please explain your statement-

"to watch fish managers drive these stocks into the ground year after year"

How do you define: driven into the ground - to my knowledge there is not one example of a steelhead stock in the Puget Sound or Olympia Penisula whose productivity has been limited by harvest - if that were the case they would rebound immediately once WSR was put into place and none have.

Using the fish managers for scapegoats for natural variation in survival conditions and society's general p*** poor protection of our river habitats in my opinion is a cheap cop-out.

A fallacy of this moratorium on the retention of wild steelhead is providing protection for those steelhead stocks in trouble. Roughly 95% of the state's steelhead stocks were all ready managed under WSR. At best it provides for some additional protection for those few stocks were harvest of wild steelhead was still allowed by sport anglers.

For the other 95% of the state steelhead stocks some action other than WSR is needed if we are to see those populations rebuild. What is limiting those populations must be addressed. We have spend our resources putting a band aids on minor cuts on a healthy patients while leaving the severely injuried untreated.

Tight lines
S malma