It's funny how so many people claim to be "catch and release" fisherman when it comes to native steelhead. Yes, I kept my first two natives I ever caught on the Hoh years ago. I haven't kept one since. That's the truth. I am strongly for the release of native fish. I still feel bad when I look at the pictures (they were nice fish though)...
Here's my point. Two or three weeks ago I made my annual trip to the Hoh to try my luck down by Barlows. Unfortunately, things didn't work out. A big no fish day. I got to chatting with a couple of guys and we started talking about the bulletin board. So we continue talking and one of the gentlemen (a frequent poster on this site) gets a fish on. He brings it in and bonks it on the head. After this he looked at me kind of funny because he knew that I knew he was one of those guys that always posted about the importance of releasing native steelhead. Funny how things work isn't it. I'm not judging by any means. If someone wants to keep a native when it's legal to do so go ahead. I don't do it. Thanks in large part to Rich G. He has truly educated me on the importance of the species. Come on guys. Practice what you preach. I'm not mad or anything I just feel that if you keep native steelhead don't sit there and tell us all that you don't. My gut feeling tells me that probably close to 50% of the guys that post against killing native fish keep them when they go fishing. Just a thought......
Cuttie

Ok, I'm a hypocrite.

I release all native steelhead I catch (that I am aware of), but will bonk a native salmon if legally allowed to do so.

I also fish on the Quinault/Salmon Rivers with a tribal guide several times a year. I generally will keep most of those fish, and most are not clipped...although since the tribes do not clip most of their fish, it's any one's guess as to what is being bonked.

Every now and then, you see a fish you just know is a native on the Quinault. Perfect fins and the whole 9 yards. I will let those go. I have kept just about everything on the Salmon, and I have no way of knowing if those are hatchery or native fish. I've been told they are all hatchery...but how does one really know without a fin clip? I've seen hatchery fish with perfect fins, so that's not a good indication of nativeness, or not.

So yeah, I'm a hypocrite, I guess.

Release all native steelhead!

I think your 50% is too high, but alot of people are hypocrites in life and work so why not fishing also.

Wow. Whacked it right in front of you huh?

Maybe he took something away from the experience though.........perhaps he'll either stop preaching or stop whacking.

Hypocracy does not surprise me here or anywhere else.

For some, preaching don't seem to help.

Reports like this might...?

I'd go a bit farther and name some names for some good old-fashioned public flogging!


So how did it taste? Or did it go into the freezer with the others?


GS

Oh BOY! Here we go.

Not really surprised.

Wild fish for wild people...

Hope thats not concidered a "bite"

Hi! I'm Plunker and I'm a BONKER! Yes, I eat wild steelhead. I just can't seem to break myself of that consumption function. They taste to damn good.

I must confess to my hypocrisy though. I release all wild large scale suckers, pea-mouth chubs, bullheads and whitefish and most of the wild dollies, chum and humpies I catch.

I also catch and release wild perch. How many of you keep wild perch? If you do you should learn to release them.

THAT SHOULD BE THE LAW!

Did you know that without wild perch to provide sustenance for some of our larger and better eating gamefish like bass we would have fewer of the larger of these delicacies to bonk?

Please join me in founding the "Wild Perch Coalition" to lobby for the preservation of these unique and valuable fish. We must stop the slaughter! We must initiate sensible legislation making it criminal to purposely kill perch.

If we can save even one perch it will be worth any measure of energy we can direct towards this cause. Remember! You can make a difference.

:p

Plunker ?? Porn must be off line?? or did your Visa max out??

I am all for wild fish harvest seasons. Otherwise before long I end with a dead wild steelhead I must waste. From my perspective, the hypocrits are those who flog the harvester, and glamorize the pointless torture.

B-run, thats cold man. So the guy likes to eat wild steelhead, big deal. He isn't breaking any laws, can't kill over 5 a year= zero impact. Most of these C&R guides on the OP kill at least that many if not more over the season due to the stress put on the fish. And they go to the otters & eagles or whatever.......IMO

Cementhead ... all TWO of us???

Seems to make sense that letting them all go (and yes, having a few persih here and there) has far less impact than killing one for each client and then continuing to release fish (and likely having that few perish or more since most guides that allow retention utilize higher mortality methods).

New reg proposal coming up:

You kill your one wild fish for the day, and you are done sportfishing for the day, period

Lots of precedent for this reg ...

Plunk,

Long time, no talk. How ya doin'?

My only comment on your last post is this...Can you really, with a straight face, say that a bass is a better tasting gamefish than a yellow perch?

If so...I invite you over to perch dinner some time this summer. I live right near Lk. Sammamish and have private access...we could fill a cooler with 10+ inchers in a few hours.

You'll never eat a [nasty-tasting] bass again!!

Later!

Todd.

i still don't understand why people bonk nates, when they have a chance to get brats all year. i mean come on guys are you deprived of fish. BUY A CAMERA! they are reasonably priced. a picture is worth more than no future native returns. take the measurements and a picture to the taxidermy shop and get a re creation done. i don't think you''ll starve by letting nates go.

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!

I disagree, because the pennies do add up. An annual catch of 5 natives per fisherman multiplied by one or two dozen people is still significant. You say zero impact huh... well try this equation, 0 wild fish/year= 0 impact. How do ya like that?!

I wonder what it was like on the Skagit River 100 years ago?? No hatchery fish, buttloads of volkswagen size Native steel... What do we have left in this state - scrawny hatchery 3-6 lb waste of space, and a few good runs of Native Steel. They are basically all we have left of the past, fish with the same genes as Ralph Wahl, Enos Bradner and the like fished for and made famous.
Anyone who kills Native steel in this day and age has no respect for the race and the future of the greatest fricken game fish ever... Your a desperate, disgraceful, poor excuse for a steelheader and a sportsmen!
Hatchery fish are for filling freezers, if you cant get enough of those stay home

Put that under your pillow

It surprises me that more C&R advocates are not oppossed to bonking nates for yet another reason (as if the obvious-WE NEED MORE FISH was not enough):

I call it the "Fish Welfare Principle":

One big factor in returns we are getting now has got to be the fact that for the past ten years or so a lot of fish that could have been retained have been released and lived to spawn. No, I don't have scientific data to back this up. How many more people fish OP streams than 20 yrs ago? Many of them are very effective fishermen. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that if everyone killed every fish caught, the escapement would be impacted horribly.

So these released fish are spawning. The next generation returns, and the bonkers do their thing. "Thanks, C&R guys, I'm barbecuing tonight!"

What this amounts to is "Bonker Welfare" if you will. Catch and release fishers are subsidizing it. How does it feel to be exploited in yet another way?

Bonkers, how does it feel to be "on the dole"?

Shush Todd - Pretty soon the masses wil be killing them sweet little perches.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

bank walker - Are you saying that just because Ralph Wahl, Enos Bradner and the like had no respect for the race and the future of the greatest fricken game fish ever... that they were all a desperate, disgraceful, poor excuse for a steelheader and a sportsmen?

I'll have to disagree. Most all of the famous old timers killed and ate a few steelhead, but those old time bonkers did more to conserve our fishing resources than all the hot air and misdirected efforts of today's neo-sportsmen. Hypocrites they were not.

It is only recently that the C&R syndrome has become prevalent and that primarily with those who learned to fish on the internet. Most recently those fervent "netters" have been spreading their obsession far and wide.

Luckily there are still some with common sense to help us make our way into the future.

Release Wild Perch and doles