We'll see!
I sincerely hope we do see an increase of wild steelhead over the next three years.
I'm going to end on this
You take a number of wild spawning steelhead out of the equation. You take their eggs and their milt and all the genetics that make them unique. You do this every year for almost a decade.
Do the math!
The abundance you talk about has not been there. Sure you and JB are hooking a lot of fish because you know the river and fish a lot of holes that no one else goes to and you are both good fishermen.
I float the Nestucca and for the past few years we are seeing the wild redds number dwindle.
ODFW does creel surveys but they don't do redd surveys like they should.
The guides want to keep this BS thing going because it gives them a late winter fishery that they never had in the past when it was only the lower river Alsea strain that were available. Do you really think they are going to tell ODFW that the fishing sucks and there are few wild steelhead? There is money to be made and the wild fish be damned.
Think about it!