Most of my favorite attempts to rationalize bonking wild steelhead are in the comments somewhere. My favorite one today is, "better you than a seal or an Indian net." It's comforting to know that my fellow sportsmen are fully aware that we are in a race with the other user groups, not to mention natural preditors, to see who can kill the last wild fish. Without their keen grasp of what's really going on out there, we might be in danger of losing that race.

Sadly, the "If I don't kill them, someone else will" mentality is all over our rivers and the ocean. Of course, I think it is noteworthy that the management strategy the co-managers use validates that sentiment. Until that paradigm changes, wild fish will continue to be no more than a commodity to be traded.