What can you do but laugh?
I've been depressed for a month. . .like Tug3 said in a different thread, it's killing me. It's not rationale why a grown man should have his happiness dependent on being able to C&R a steelhead, but here I am. It's just really depressing, might as well try to laugh it off, at least that will help me function at work, so I don't shank one of your biopsies.
See you out there Salmo!
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I guess I just need to find out why for myself. Helps me cope. After looking over lots of smolt plant data, I discovered lots of river plants have not changed all that much over the years. There are exceptions of big plants river specific in certain years and some plants reduced or curtailed altogether. In those that remained somewhat consistent, the last few years have had return issues compared to the past. At least the ones that I have fished. I still plan on getting out somehow, somewhere. Would love to go to Russia!

Not in the winter!

Back a few seasons during a local brood stocking event, a couple of the game & hatchery guys coordinating the event stated off the record , that all we had to do to have good Steelhead fishing was the following.

Work to spread out the fishing pressure among a number of rivers. Stop the early season timed steelhead plantings and allow a no bait, single hook lures only, with a punch carded two fish limit of catch and release fishing on the Green, Puyallup , Skykomish, and others here in the PS region. They could start it February 1st and fish through April 15, then shut it all down until the next year.

The fish will all be wild, so take care and don’t kill. That’s when the fish are here...