Fished the Clearwater about 5 years ago and met a fisheries biologist,(forget name) that had done a study on CNR on the Clearwater Hatchery fish. This guy from what I was told was one hell of a biologist and I know he was one good Steelhead fly fishermen. What he told me was that he got permission to catch as many hatchery Steelhead as he could using bait,lures with trebble hooks and single hooks. This guy told me that in his study he treated 50% as one should treat a fish in CNR and the other 50% pretty ruff. Guess he dropped the ruff handled 50% in the boat and then just dropped them over the side when he released them. All fish he tagged and he said that he got back almost every one of them to the hatchery.
Just wondering if you might know this guy and might know of his study? Not condoning poor releases on fish, but I believe that they are a little tuffer than we sometimes think. With all the talk of CNR this study may add some imput. Maybe someone else knows of this study.
Thanks
LT