as someone who has just recently had the chance to fish some of the lake erie tribs (not pennsylvania), the numbers are truly sick. i've been told the smolt to adult survival is 50% or higher... and some small streams are stocked with 100,000 smolts. think of goodman creek with 30-50,000 steelhead in it.

but, it's near large population centers, so pressure can be high. private property laws are different, and fishers seem to have a higher threshhold for fishing in close quarters (lake ontario tribs during salmon runs are plain bizzare).

but to be honest, numbers aren't everything. i see people fishing techniques that seem almost boring in their effectiveness (2 guys hooking 15-20 steelhead out of a tailout in an hour). i'm having a blast, but really looking forward to fishing the coastal rivers next spring.

i think wdfw looks longingly at these fisheries as their dream.... lots of hatchery fish and no worries about wild steelhead management.

chris