We may have reduced harvests on wild steelhead, but I don't think there are any of the major river systems that have zero harvest. Also, every steelhead killed this year reduces next year's run by the loss of repeat spawners.

Steelhead are, i believe, a "marginal" species in that a lot has to go right for them to do well; a lot like rockfish. We have eliminated the early retruning fish, reduced access to tributaries, removed rpeat spawners, lowered stream productivity, and wonder why they don't recover.

An interesting outcome of a study of teh switch that make3s resodent/anadromous is that higher summer flows with lower temperatures produce residents. So what do we do on regulated rivers?
Increase summer/fall flows for salmon spawning and to maintain rearing area. This water will come from the depths of teh reservoirs, so it's colder. Folks studying streams with these mandated flows tell me the salmon are responding fine; but not the steelhead.

Part of our problem is that too many folks think a steelhead is nothing more than a spring spawning salmon and all the same rules apply.