I, like the majority of you who post in this forum, am 100% for the release of ALL wild fish. Something came to mind when I was reading all of your posts about native steelhead. My very first steelhead was caught on the Hoh river in 1999. I knew nothing about the species and proceeded to harvest what was a "native fish." Before I went to fish there, I had heard that we should practice catch and release on all native steelhead, but had never really thought about it. I'll never forget that day for the rest of my life for two reasons: #1, I caught my first steelhead. #2 I will never stop feeling "guilty" about what I did. My question is this... I was down there recently and headed to my usual spot about 2 miles up from the mouth. It was an hour after high tide and within minutes there were multiple hook ups. I, unfortunately was not one of them. However, amidst the 5 or 10 anglers that were there, I saw 6 fish landed in a matter of 10-20 minutes. Every fish was a native, and yes, every fish was kept. I have only seen a handful of people release their native catch in this river system below highway 101. Are people REALLY practicing what they preach. I spoke with a man last year while I was fishing who went on and on about how we need to release all wild fish. As I was headed back to my car, I witnessed the same guy carrying out what must have been a 18 pound native buck. Coincidence, I think not.....He didn't see me as I left but that particular incident really made me think. Last night, I was looking at the fishing report on the WDFW page and couldn't believe that so many native fish were being kept. Where are all the guys who practice what they preach? I feel like I'm missing something.....
Cuthroat