SalmonTackler did this event take place on the Green River last year you and a friend were each rowing a cataraft? If that was GET OVER IT!!!! If it wasn't I appoligize and please ignore the rest of this.

I believe when it happened you posted this story on the reports page or your friend posted it on their. First off your story has changed a little since the first time you told it. 1. You never saw a fish because it happened the week prior. 2. I didn't kill the fish my buddy did but you talked to me. Let me give you some history on my buddy lets call him "Dave" When Dave saw this story posted in the reports last year he was extremely pissed. You see he has been fishing these water here for the last 25 years. During steelhead season he fishes the Green Just about every day from the bank. During the Summer and fall he spends all his free time in South Sound fishing Salmon. In between all that he tries to make a few trips to the coast. It would take me 3-4 years of fishing every weekend to catch the number of fish he does. Guess how many steelhead he kills each year. You could probably count the number on 2 hands. All of them are hatchery except 2-3. This guy has been releasing fish since the day you learned to wipe your ass. We was doing it before C&R was the popular thing to do and he was doing it before everyone with the same attitude as you started viewing Steelhead as the "Holy Grail".

You seem to think you are better than anyone who chooses to keep a wild fish when it is legal to do so. I would imagine 99% of the people on this board have taken a wild steelhead at some point in their life. So I guess your better than 99% of this board. Those that have taken one great it was probably legal to do so but now your not as good a person as salmontackler. I would also wager that many of those that have kept a wild steelhead have probably released a lot they could have kept.

I personally keep 1 - 2 steelhead a year and its ussually a hatchery fish since their smaller and I don't like to freeze fish so it gets cooked that night. Maybe one day I will want a wild fish, I never know if I will keep a fish until I get it to the boat. My opinion on this whole Wild issue is that if its legal and someone wants to kill a fish so they can take it home, roll it in grease, and sleep with it thats fine by me. They have that right. Its not my right to be rude to someone because their opinions do not agree with my own. I do think catch and release is a good thing and if I could I would spend most of my time fishing C&R waters because the fishing is always better and its less crowded. Salmontackler I don't disagree that C&R isn't a good thing. I think its great that someone makes a choice to let a fish live to spawn. Letting a fish go is a great feeling on a personal level and it does help the species. On the other hand I think its also great for a beginning steelheader who has been fishing for a year trying to figure out how to catch a steelhead, that when they finally get one, and its wild they are still able to take it home. They are so excited to show the family who thinks they are crazy, to be standing in the rain and snow every weekend and never catch anything that they have finally succeeded. They can finally announce that tonight we Barbecue. 4 weeks later the wife can hear all about how you need a drift boat , 3-4 GLoomis rods, and 4 boxes of tackle so you can catch 2 steelhead next year.

Now that I have said my peace you can continue your preaching