I fished the Nisqually from the middle 70's in to the 80's before it closed. I agree with fishbreath about the quality of the fishing for steelhead. I also think Bill's numbers are very high. Maybe Bill assumed that all steelheaders were as accomplished as him. I would like to know whose "claim" it was that the tribe was not that interested in netting steelhead. I had friends who would go down and buy steelhead from the tribal netters on the river bank at Frank's Landing. Those fish were not counted in their catch. Steelhead in the round $3/ lb. Like fishbreath, I can remember there was a small plant of summerrruns and maybe a small plant of winters for a while. If anyone is interested, look into the work of steelhead bio John McMillan of TU and and the people of the Wild Steelhead Coalition. They have done some interesting studies on how wild steelhead runs in the Skagit and some of the South Puget Sound streams (Nisqually, Puyallup) have recovered.
It would be interesting to know Tug3's thoughts on the tribal netting in the Nisqually.