So, everyone has great points and I am learning allot.
Answer this for me--
If we are worried about hatchery plants and why some systems do not recover, why is the Great Lakes so full of fish that spawn very effectivly? The Habitat is not any better than ours in most rivers, They have a huge sport fishery, (no commercial fishing)and the fish are not hatchery brats, they are big strong and look better than most of the fish in Washington, and I am pretty sure that whole fishery started with Skamania eggs, right?

Now, most of us have fished the Cowlitz and Lewis, I have caught up to 23lb. summer runs out of the Lewis, clipped hatchery fish. In the 60's and 70's we caught dozens of big Summer Runs out of the Cowlitz, all hatchery fish. I will admit, most of the time we were the only ones on the river, but they were still big, strong spawning Steelhead with good genes.
Even the Skagit had huge Summer Runs in the late 70's and early 80's.
I am sure in most cases we will find that the State took eggs and did not cull the fish for the big ones and slowly the fish got smaller in most systems until all you have left are small hatchery fish returning. A bad cycle to get into I guess.
One last point, I understand Todd's position and it is a good one, my point has always been that over 30 years of taking Native Steelhead by all parties and especially the Indians has left us with an empty hole to try and get eggs to support a system. I hate the word escapment, it changes every year to suit the State.
Does not matter if we are talking "in the past", the past is what is establishing our future. Escapment was 50 times what it is today back in the late 70's, why is it not exactly the same as back then, nothing has changed other than the State can't get enough pairs to take eggs from other than some spots on the Skagit and those are just a shell of a run from what it used to be.