Todd,

Point or no point, the people who make the recommendations don't agree on incidental mortality, so it remains a variable that is important because whatever value is settled on would significantly affect fishing opportunity.

Wait, are you suggesting that fly fishermen actually catch steelhead? That's not what I usually read on this forum. If this place isn't an accurate source of information, I'll need to recalibrate some models. (t.i.c.)

Luckydogss,

Whether you believe it or not, most PS steelhead populations are presently at or near the carrying capacity of their respective river systems. PS wide, tribal and sport anglers are catching fewer than 4% of the wild steelhead. That is not having any significant effect on the populations. Go ahead and live with the delusion that tribal nets are the root cause of steelhead population status, but I don't have the time to waste talking about it.

Bent Metal,

It varies, but for this hypothetical example, sport fishing as previously regulated would result in an average of 80% of the wild steelhead population being hooked once or more during the season. There are places and seasons where this is really possible. Consequently angler opinion that it can't isn't going to have any effect on prospective regulations. The entire point is whether to have fishing or not, and if so, then how to regulate it so that total angler-fish encounters doesn't exceed 2,125 for the season. There are many ways to do it. I wanted to find out what methods for achieving that objective are most preferred by anglers.

Sg