I have been struggling over this for a few years now. I can't with good conscience target our beautiful wild Steelhead any more. This decision is not an easy one to make. I've had my share of fun for 25 years and caught my share of fish. I just don't want to be part of the problem. I don't buy the mortality rate numbers that the "experts" have come up with. I don't really care fishing for brats, but I'm sure that will fit the bill when I want a tug. I can see more trips to Yakutat in the future. I'm not preaching to anyone who wants to fish for Nates, just venting. Does anyone else feel this way?

I do it a lot less, and don't fish nearly as hard as I used to when targeting wild fish...a bite or two a day suffices.

Fish on...

Todd

If I can make it past June 1 I may actually not buy a punch card for the first time in about 30 years .

My freshwater days are decreasing each year. No steelhead trips so far this year.
Thank goodness for saltwater......
SF

Steelhead are just a fish, just my favorite fish. They seem elusive and ghostly at the bottom of the river. Once you know what to do - they are highly exploitable - extremely vulnerable. People make their living selling the fish themselves, and everything associated with them. I fished almost every day as a private boater on the Olympic Peninsula through the 2015 season; I'm not sure I'll be back. I caught lots of steelhead, but I'm not sure what fishing means to me anymore...

I truly believe that in many instances a few expert anglers can effectively fish out a stream nearly as well as a crowd of people. Try boating behind 3-4 excellent guides on any stream, clear or glacial. You can still do very well, but the experience definitely changes. You often start "re-catching" darker fish by changing techniques or by targeting different water. Steelhead love to bite things - they travel great distances to inspect and bite objects with reckless abandon. They are so vulnerable...

I think that the reality of it is that near maximum exploitation is occurring whether or not I decide to fish. With the number of anglers out there I can't see how it matters whether I catch the fish, or client X in a guides boat catches the fish, or whether a bankie gets the fish...

As an experienced boat angler, I believe the best thing the sports angler can do is limit fishing from a floating platform. At the very least if you have to get out of the boat to cast, people can't race through the river catching the most aggressive fish... How can you "leave a bankie his hole" if he was low-holed at first light before he ever got there?

I'm not sure what I want - I don't want steelhead fishing to close! But with the number of people it simply doesn't always provide a quality experience for everyone... The pie is cut up so many ways... If there are no fishermen, I worry that there will be no advocates for the fish...

Yes it really eats me up.
Good work guys, we got em.

To end on a positive note and reflect what Todd said:

Do I plan on quitting fishing for wild steelhead - absolutely not. Do I plan on finding mellower ways to enjoy catching less of them - DEFINITELY. It's something I'd like to apply to many parts of my life - instead of constantly wanting more I'll try to get more out of less.

Nice post, Supertrout.

What is best for fish is not best for anglers.
I'm an angler.
But I love fish.

I'm not sure how it all balances out but the times they are a changin and if the time isn't now, it is right around the corner. In general, money wins so I'd say there will always be opportunity for someone. Now throw in native rights that trump it all. All you can do is give a dejected laugh.

I've had the same thoughts for the last 5+ years. Especially in years where I hear the returns are low. I've told friends I'd feel guilty even hooking one and I do my best to make sure when I do, that I impact them as little as possible.

The problem is, I'm also feeling that way about OP Chinook for 10+ years. I was lucky enough to fish out there in the late 80's and early 90's. And I think I worry more about the King runs than I do about the Steelhead. Last year I made 4 multi-day trips, fished hard, did good on Coho and I NEVER saw a King hooked never mind landed. I know there were a few around but it was dismal and scary.

Yep, I didn't wet a line after ps closure, wanted to go but decided not to.

I applaud this attitude.

Making a commitment to tread lighter on a precious and limited natural resource.

BUT...

At what point of depletion is it no longer acceptable to put ANY pressure on them? This where the consumptive user (yes, even CNR guys are consumptive in the sense of "impact' from release mortalities) must look long and hard in the mirror and make a very personal decision.

If there is reasonable certainty that the resource will rebound, then "treading lighter" in times of cyclical or periodic scarcity makes sense. But what if the trajectory points to constant and perpetual depletion?

Are we there? I don't know for certain, but it's looking more and more like that all the time. If so, are we called to even greater restraint?

It is also like, when is enough enough. Just because there is a limit, does one have to take it? As an example, one OD I got 3 geese, the limit was 4. Took quite a while to process them and then quite a while to consume them. I am now pretty satisfied with just one. At the same time, a friend served some really good goose pepperoni made from Canadian Snows. From something like 200 of them as the group hit a really good spring hunt.

How much (fill in your game of choice) is enough?

It's all about the numbers for far 2MANY.

If those people measured their dicks some other way the fish would benefit.

I don't feel this way. Oh, I find it plenty depressing that the state of our fisheries has come to this situation. And I used to have a reverence for steelhead that exceeded my interest for all other species. Then I came to realize that I'm just a steelhead addict, and that steelhead are just another salmonid. The things that makes steelhead special is that they are usually the least abundant salmonid, and they take artificial flies better than salmon do, but not any better than cutthroat and bull trout.

Although fishing regulations still allow wild steelhead retention on the OP, a survey report I recently read inidicated that only 3% of the wild steelhead caught were killed and retained. This makes CNR incidental mortality the primary sport fishing impact on wild steelhead. Who'da' thunk that 20 years ago? The upshot is that sport fishing mortality barely registers as a factor affecting wild steelhead abundance in WA state. I'm not saying that incidental mortality from CNR fishing doesn't matter; rather I'm saying that at this point it doesn't appear to have enough of an effect to be affecting population abundance.

The crowds of steelhead anglers have a more degrading effect on the quality of the steelhead fishing experience than they do on the wild steelhead resource. What that means for the future is that management of recreational steelhead fisheries is more about social engineering than it is about steelhead ecology and meeting spawning escapement objectives.

I still fish for wild steelhead. And I will continue to do so as long as I find satisfaction in doing so. I've long since selected a fishing method that limits my direct impact on the resource. If the time comes where I have reason to believe that my impact is having an adverse effect on the resource in terms of reducing population abundance, I'll quit. However, I expect that the continuing reduction in the quality of the angling experience will drive me away from steelhead fishing before the lack of steelhead does.

Sg

It blows my mind now days with the CnR fisheries we participate in. To most of the anglers nowdays it's a numbers game, people want to rack up the numbers of fish they hooked and released. Myself am getting up there in age 56 this June. Now days I am just happy getting a few bites and maybe landing a few Wild fish during the season,Hell I am happy to just have gotten out on a river enjoying the scenery and sharing fellowship with those I fish with. I have had my days of racking up the numbers on my old zipper lip rivers on the coast. Which there is almost no access to these days because of gates across the logging roads.

If the "HAWK's" keep winning and playing well into January I'll be fishing less & less each winter............When they start losing again in a couple years I'll have to scratch my itch for a tug. Cause the tug is the drug.Good luck,

SZ


PS, My winter run trips are becoming fewer & fewer each year.......

Like Sg, I'll keep fishing until it's no longer worthwhile, feeling confident in that my impact is essentially negligible.

The troubling thing about steelhead is that we don't really understand the reasons why they don't seem to respond to our (fairly honest) efforts to recover them. I don't think there's good evidence to suggest that us stopping fishing will keep them around any longer than what we're doing now, so I think overall, it's better for the future of the fish to have a voice in the human community. Without sport fishing, there will be no voice, so I say keep fishing, and be as respectful to the fish you catch as possible.

I sure fish wild fish a lot less than I use to when Sol was around, but I don't plan to, nor hopefully have to, quit all together

I've probably had more than my share of time with wild steelhead for one life time and will always remember the perfect days of 33 degree snow on an unoccupied pristine river and a battle with a fish of unearthly beauty. I'll leave my space for others ............for the most part.

So many trees to hug.
So little time.




Fill the rivers with hatchery fish or soon we will have neither.

I never targeted wild fish, I didn't see the logic in killing what you enjoy most & still don't... But the nets don't care either...

Good post! Memories are a powerful thing.