Smalma,

In the first reply on this thread I said:
"Smalma,
These ideas would be a lot more credible if you hadn't hired a wet behind the ears kid to post them."

Your ideas and information are always credible with me. In fact I was indirectly addressing Sparkey with that statement, chastising him for posting your thoughts without you permission. I was wrong in addressing that to you and in chastising Sparkey because you confirm that what I considered a breach of privacy was something you considered appropriate. Thank you for the correction.

Smalma quote:
"Plunker - My steelhead guidelines were posted on this board several years ago as a topic and I clearing stated that they were my own ideas and reflect my own personal bias. As is common on this site anyone is free to pull quotes from other posting. Which is what Sparky did."

I therefore apologize to both you and Sparkey and consider myself properly reprimanded.

It all started with Sparkeys newfound manner of bait and run diplomacy. He evaded the Green River introduced steelhead question so abruptly that I felt compelled to toss it back at him.

I have always valued any self-sustaining population of steelhead or salmon equally whether it is of a native or introduced origin. For example the S. Fork Stilly has a wholly introduced population of summer steelhead. Canyon Creek, a tributary, has a population thought to be a mix of native and introduced origin. The N. Fork Stilly has only hatchery-sustained summer steelhead as population and Deer Creek, a tributary, has the only large population of self-sustaining native origin summer steelhead in the N. Puget Sound area.

I regard three of the four populations as being equally valuable but the hatchery population as simply a source of put-and-take fish for harvest.

But now you complicate things with competition for limited resources. I believe that native winter steelhead utilize all four of the streams mentioned and that means that the pre-smolt juveniles must compete.

To me it really makes little difference, which of the competitors wins out except that I would like to see both winter and summer run wild steelhead in every system and in numbers great enough to afford some harvest. I enjoy catching fish but I'm in it for the meat.

But you said you favor the native stock over the introduced. Why?

How would you prioritize between introduced summer steelhead and native origin winter steelhead above Granite Falls where neither existed without mans intervention.

And how do you divide priorities with a mixed (Canyon Creek) summer stock that might compete with a truly native winter stock?

Finally, I would be interested in how priorities might be divided when it comes to competition between the much-revered Deer Creek summer steelhead and Native winter fish that might compete for critical winter habitat.

Please correct my assumptions about where and to what degree competition exists in these situations but also address the prioritization as though the competitions were real.

I look forward to any reply that you might find enough time to provide.

Thanks - Plunk