Nick,

I agree that western wa will never rival the dry states in quantity, however all the elements are in place for sustainable river trout fisheries for SRC, Rez cutts and bows. Our trout derive their nutrients in the former of insect life AND nutrients carried in by salmon and other anadromous species! Take a look at the rainbow fishing in AK, I would put that up against anything in MT, CO, Wy, etc.... We have the same strain of rainbows here, they just have a hard time reaching their potential. There are very big resident fish in our S-Rivers. Ask anyone who chases summer steelhead religiously and they'll tell you about some of our big residential trout. When I lived 5 min from the Sky i would catch around 50+ resident rainbows a summer, most 12-16" with the occasional 20"+. I wasn't targeting them either. The Yakima has anadromous fish AND a great trout fishery! So does a bunch of rivers in Idaho.

Ahhhhhhhh the days of going out in mid September and catching chrome coho, summer steel, and finishing off the day with the fly rod on SRC.... Tough to impossible to beat that