When I first was involved with steelhead the conventional wisdom as put out by WDG was that it took a long time to catch one steelhead. Those numbers, spread over the season, actually don't conflict with what I remember people saying. I fished the Lyre a few time in Jan/Feb and the fish I got were the only ones I saw folks with. But, a co-worker went there on the last day, Feb 28, and lost 10 before landing one.

I began to learn, and it has only been reinforced over the decades, that steelhead are actually very easy to catch and are very dumb, as in catch, take scales, release, catch agin on same fly next cast. What they are is really hard to find. Put the hook in front of him and he'll bite, but you must put it there.

I have known too many good steel headers who always get multiple fish in a day.

Not saying that Krijck is wrong about the lack of fish but checking anglers is probably not the way to gauge abundance. I have walked (spawner surveying) streams where I knew the number of fish and saw like 5-10%. We have electrofished sections where you could see no adults until you tickled them.