Good post. Earlier this year I hit the Cow for Springers, and ran into the same dilemma. I've caught hundreds of steelies on the Cow over the years, and had yet to catch a "wild" fish prior to this spring.

To make a long story short, I was in shock when I landed a native. So afterwards, we went up to the hatchery at Barrier and were told that there was a huge return of natives, and that the return should only get larger. We watched the ladder and holding pens for about half an hour and I would say that no less than 80% of the steelies we saw were wild. But again, this only goes for winter-runs.