It is panning out great on the Queets if you like to fill your freezer with big natives. The park has decided to leave it up to anglers to decide wheather or not they want to kill two natives a day with no yearly limit. Of course this is not how they worded it, but its the effect the new laws will have. Some one on another site pointed out that these are probably the most liberal steelhead regs in the world. I didn't realize that Washington was such a liberal state. Here it is if you havent seen it. Advise anglers to release all wild steelhead from nov. 1 to through the end of Jan. Two hatchery fish could be kept and would be identified by a missing adipose or ventral fin or deformed dorsal. But wait, it goes on- Since interpretation of dorsal deformities is somewhat subjective, a regulation prohibiting the the retention of wild steelhead may not be enforcable...Park personnel would monitor compliance, (but not enforce it.) So in effect it goes like this-
--HEY JETHRO, GOT ME ANOTHER 20 POUNDER! Do you think his dorsal looks weird? LOOKS WEIRD TO ME, BETTER KILL IT AND ASK THE RANGER TO BE SURE.