A portion of top fish bio. Jim Martin's studies will follow my comments.- In Oregon our fishermen generally accept C&R reg.'s on native Steelhead stocks. The heated debate that occured on our Ifish.net BB back in Feb. wasn't whether or not to kill nates, but rather whether or not to ban the use of bait from Feb. 15 thru April to help the survival rate of the released nates at the times they were most numerous in the rivers. Many, including myself, contended a significant mortality rate with the use of bait; particularly using diver & bait combos. It's not as high as I thought. I have noticed that many of the kill & eat proponents, such as Plunker & Riverdrifter in the "Introduction" thread, use the arguement that most of the C&R'd fish die anyway to justify their native harvest position/desire. They are WRONG! With widespread angler education, which has occured in Oregon & Washington, on the proper release tech for native C&R Steelhead fishing (i.e.- play the fish reasonably quickly, keep it in the water for gentle removal of barbed & hopefully barbless hooks, cut leader on deeply swallowed hooks, gently revive fish when needed) the mortality rate is less than 10%. It is not much higher on fish C&R'd more than once. Given scientific study results in combo with documented decline of valuable, & irreplaceable if fished to extinction, wild native Steehead stocks, there is simply no justifiable argument to kill nates to eat. Especially considering the availability of hatchery caught fish to eat & market available farmed salmon/steelhead to eat!!! It is not legal to keep any native Steelhead in Oregon. All hatchery fish are now adipose fin clipped for indentification.-- Retired former head of Ore. Dept. of Fish & Wildlife Jim Martin, is widely considered the foremost salmon/steelhead expert biologist in the NW. He continues to study means to revive fish runs as a consultant. - Here is an excerp from a letter he sent to me for our BB debate on the use of bait for wild winter Steelhead: "Now that we are releasing wild steelhead, I see little value in further restrictions on bait use. The exception would be on low populations of wild summer steelhead (not winter steelhead) in warmer water (where hard fishing pressure with bait would have a bit higher mortality).-para- To start with, very few winter steelhead fisheries can put even a 30% interception rate on a steelhead run. A 10% hooking mortality, which is high end for cold water winter steelheading, would cause at most (but probably much less than) a 3% impact on the run. This will make essentially no difference to the basic run productivity. But it does cause lots of discussion by anglers, each eager to be more extreme in their protectionism than the other. Finally, late season fishing in Mar./April is a low pressure situation in Oregon, and I'd figure in Washington too. Most people go home after Jan. and the hatchery fish dwindle.-para- Recent studies conducted in Oregon showed a very low mortality rate of less than 7% for spring chinook even when they took bait very deep because most fishermen just cut the leader and let them go (where regulated- such as the McKenzie R.). The only significant problem occured when fish took plugs and spinners deep and fishermen would pry out the trebbles to save their expensive gear (more damaging than a properly leader cut bait hooked fish release).-para- All in all, fishermen need to realize they have done their duty with catch and release reg.'s, and go enjoy fishing. If there are more protective reg.'s needed, it is with warmwater summer steelhead fisheries and with trout fisheries which kill lots of juvenile smolts. This is where the focus should be from a practical sense." You can e-mail questions to Jim Martin at jtmartin@purefishing.com . - I suggest from these studies that we use barbless single siwash hooks on plugs and spinners when significant numbers of nates are present. I also would suggest, based on my own and other guide's experiences, to avoid using diver and bait combos during that time. Driftfishing bait usually hooks the fish around the jaw and not deep. - Steve Hanson - Important P.S.- The ODWF has published reports of the hooking mortality studies Jim Martin refered to in his letter, on hatchery Spring Chinook stocks in the Willamette R. The last few years these have been the most extensive such studies that I am aware of. The studies are significant for steelhead nates in that the concesus of opinion is that wild native Steelhead are at least as hardy as hatchery Springers and take less time to land. Several of the top Ore. City full time guides have partaken in the studies where they fish boatloads of anglers to C&R with a variety of bait/lure and release techniques on thousands of stacked up Springers above the angling deadline below Willamette Falls. All fish are tagged according to method of hookup and release. These fish then arrive at hatcheries after having to climb difficult fish ladders and traveling many scores of miles to the Santiam, McKenzie, and Middle Fork hatchery ponds. The studies are VALID! So when Jim Martin mentioned that the studies indicate only a 7% mortality rate, even on deep bait hooked Springers, and thus highly likely similar survival for released Steelhead nates, this IS what's actually going on. All the rest of what I hear on this site is people's non-science backed opinions. Usually self-interest opinions.- Steve

[This message has been edited by Reel Truth (edited 04-04-2000).]