The NI fleet does, or used to, get lots of Columbia River steelhead in the springer season. I recall discussions with one gill netter who brought back, and distributed to the hungry, 20 fish that arrived in the boat dead. Over 400 pounds. He threw the live ones back but would not "waste" an already dead one.

On the issue of steelhead, the gillnets hammer them two ways. Even if all directed netting was outlawed, they would be incidentally taken in coho and chum fisheries. Even worse, to my mind, is that in some springer fisheries the kelts are caught. They are simply wasted as being unsuitable for sale.

As I get deeper into steelhead biology (which is odd because that is actually where the circus of a career began 40+ years ago) they are so much more complex than salmon. We treat them like salmon. I think that an anadromous adult is actually a response freshwater conditions. They don't exist as a wholly independent "stock". The residents and anadromous are not only the same but need each other for maximum population diversity.

When the Cedar had all those "resident" rainbow and few anadromous it was, I believe, more a case of being resident was a better way to reach reproductive age than being anadromous. If conditions change, they'll switch.

For whatever reason, we are trying to force rainbows to be anadromous and maybe they are smarter than us and know that path is not currently wise.