Education is the key as long as it is legal to retain wild steelhead.I will not condem one for doing what the law allows.I do how ever try to help people understand why preserving these fish is important ,at least to me.It does not always work but is the most I can do at this point.

As alot of you know I do most of my early steelhead fishing on the canal tribs.This year I took a backseat and Guided a few of my good friends into there first steelhead.It was more enjoyable I found than catching them myself.All of them struggled at first with the idea of releasing their very first steelhead.

After it was alll said and done two of them thanked me for persuading them to release their fish.I believe that they got to start there fishing expierience with a extra bang releasing there fish.Maybe I started a deeper love afair for the magnificant steelhead in these two.

Last june i stumbled on a couple of people in a zlip spot of mine killing trout[the regs are c/r exept hatch steelhead].I tried to help them understand why killing these trout was wrong.I went into this spot last weekend and could not find a fish anywhere where the norm is 6 or so beautiful trout and dollys.As I got to the end of the hike at the trail out I found the empty worm containers and quad tracks.I just hope they at least get eaten.I am looking next spring to have these two arrested.

Now it is off to join the hordes of people invading the west end. if you see a long haired idiot tossing ltlcleos in any of the c/r water say hi!