Originally Posted By: bankwalker
Originally Posted By: OPfisher
I dont know the regs in the UK but if I went over there and caught one of the biggest chalk stream trout they had ever seen, I still wouldnt club it... regardless of if I thought it was the norm or not.


i think that is more to do with culture then it has to do with the fish.
90% fo the english, russian, etc etc etc keep 90% of the fish they catch. they do it for food and NOT sport. like alot of americans do.

so for one of us to go over to another country and C&R imo is alot different. we, at least in the northwest know how important C&R is to our sport. and we also know how badly our beloved wdfw manage our resources and the impacts of keeping all the fish we catch weather they be hatchery or natives.

when someone comes from another country to fish in my mind they are fishing for food. alot of them read the regs and keep what they read is legal to keep. i hold no fault in the fisherman if that is the case.

even with hatchery fish. if we were to keep every single hatchery fish we catch then hatcheries wouldnt make thier quota's and we would be in the same boat with very low escapement of hatchery fish. which is the case alot of times anyway with very poor returns.


the main fix for any problem we have with natives or anything in this state when it comes to wildlife is that we need people in charge that can actually manage our resources.


I'd like to take this line of thought a bit further; let me step on this here soap box...

Those who live and breathe on internet fishing boards and post away on threads like this don't really live in the real world. They take for granted the concepts that are preached and pounded into the collective conciousness of the PP membership--one of those being the notion that native fish have intrinsic value above and beyond the dinner table. The general public has absolutely no concept of this, and the general fishing public is only a little better. Thanks goodness the Northwest salmon/steelhead fishing community knows better... Oops--our apparant "truth" about the unmistakable value of native steelhead is not even close to understood (or at least practiced) in our own backyard.

From the WDFW weekender report:

" Cooper said that during these conditions anglers tend to fish the Hoh River, where a Feb. 13-15 creel check showed that 200 anglers on the lower portion came up with 32 hatchery steelhead and 30 wild (eight released). During the same time period, 33 anglers fishing the Sol Duc caught three hatchery steelhead and 9 wild (two released)."

Roughly 75% of steelhead anglers are exercising their right to keep native steelhead. Apparantly, most of the WA state licensed anglers have not been educated at the University of Piscatorial Pursuits. If the native steelhead philosophy asserted by the moral majority on this thread is not placed within the context of sound science and filtered of its emotional attacks, it is little better than cult mentality.

Also, in the fairy-tail world of a steelhead lifer, wouldn't there be rivers capable of supporting harvestable numbers of wild steelhead? Not saying that we're anywhere near there, but if that's not what we all want, then what exactly is it that a steelhead lifer dreams about? Are we not angered by the kill of this unique fish most of all because we'd like the opportunity to catch one ourselves (or for our children)? If the answer to that is yes, then our motives are selfish as well--albeit much less so--but certianly not beyond reproach. Unless you're one of those that is most angered because fish are meant to swim entirely unmolested in rivers (translte to PETA), you're guilty of exploiting the resource--I know I am.

My point is that we speak of native steelhead retention like it's a despicable act--no matter what the context--yet under better circumstances, wouldn't we all like to have such an option? I'm a lifer for sure, and that's what I dream about, but until the numbers support the dream, I'll keep on pardoning the natives that find their way onto the end of my line. In fact, before I knew the scientific differences between hatchery and wild fish (a nuance that science is still trying to fully unravel) I used to let lots of brats go too, mostly because whether born over gravel or concrete, just beating the odds and making it back home is worthy of respect, and for that, it was fun to watch them swim away.

-GF
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GoneFission