Berkley Boy75

Gill nets are still used in high water, but they are not as effective, and get fouled up by debris (though I have seen some creative cabling to catch debris so that tribal commercials could continue to net). It is my opinion, that the only reason why some of the coastal rivers haven't been totally wiped out for good is that gill nets can't be used effectively, during extreme high water flows. Some low water years have been absolutely disgusting, when looking at the amount of tribal commercial steelhead harvest amounts.

There are many factors leading to declines, but commercial gill netting is a major impact.