Steelhead are just a fish, just my favorite fish. They seem elusive and ghostly at the bottom of the river. Once you know what to do - they are highly exploitable - extremely vulnerable. People make their living selling the fish themselves, and everything associated with them. I fished almost every day as a private boater on the Olympic Peninsula through the 2015 season; I'm not sure I'll be back. I caught lots of steelhead, but I'm not sure what fishing means to me anymore...

I truly believe that in many instances a few expert anglers can effectively fish out a stream nearly as well as a crowd of people. Try boating behind 3-4 excellent guides on any stream, clear or glacial. You can still do very well, but the experience definitely changes. You often start "re-catching" darker fish by changing techniques or by targeting different water. Steelhead love to bite things - they travel great distances to inspect and bite objects with reckless abandon. They are so vulnerable...

I think that the reality of it is that near maximum exploitation is occurring whether or not I decide to fish. With the number of anglers out there I can't see how it matters whether I catch the fish, or client X in a guides boat catches the fish, or whether a bankie gets the fish...

As an experienced boat angler, I believe the best thing the sports angler can do is limit fishing from a floating platform. At the very least if you have to get out of the boat to cast, people can't race through the river catching the most aggressive fish... How can you "leave a bankie his hole" if he was low-holed at first light before he ever got there?

I'm not sure what I want - I don't want steelhead fishing to close! But with the number of people it simply doesn't always provide a quality experience for everyone... The pie is cut up so many ways... If there are no fishermen, I worry that there will be no advocates for the fish...

Yes it really eats me up.
Good work guys, we got em.

To end on a positive note and reflect what Todd said:

Do I plan on quitting fishing for wild steelhead - absolutely not. Do I plan on finding mellower ways to enjoy catching less of them - DEFINITELY. It's something I'd like to apply to many parts of my life - instead of constantly wanting more I'll try to get more out of less.