Picked up a couple of wild fish the past few days. It's been a few years since we've had a couple before the 15th ...

Coupled with the pretty good returns of hatchery fish in many areas so far, I (we, many) hope this perhaps will be an indicator of a strong return of wild fish.

Since we didn't take any pix at all of our fish the past few days, I don't have a full shot of the fish, but I grabbed the camera from under the seat to grab a quick shot of this before I let today's simply gorgeous hen go ... I don't think I could have painted these lice on in a more perfect line



A reminder though ... even the state admits the health of these early stocks is way down. There aren't many left in the wake of 5 day a week netting on hatchery fish and the take of them that comes with the hatchery sport fishery.

They are a very fragile stock and regardless of your feelings on wild fish release ... I urge all anglers to let these early wild fish go so that they don't all disappear and perhaps one day we'll have the opportunity to see their numbers rebound to natural levels!

AMEN!

Agreed! Thx, Bob.

What Bob said.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

i hear about all this talk of good steelie fishin in this state, ive never really did good on em out here, i usually have to go to idaho to catch steelies..salmon are a differant story..

All I can say BB75 is fish for them different than you are now.

BB,
Living in Auburn you probably spend too much time on the Green....... that'll dampen one's hopes......

Sure glad to see that integration has finally come to sea lice too !

According to the hatchery smolt realease report on the WDFW home page, the Green had more smolts released than any other river in the state (besides the Cow that is...) One would think that the fishing on that river should be stellar right now....

What's up with that??

I must be "one pickle short of a full jar" I see some parsites on a fish and it gets my heart thumping.

IB

cutthroat is right.. ya, ive mostly fished the green cuz its closer than any other.. not much fish in it tho..

Pretty simple, Piper, those poor Green River smolts have to migrate through and feed in the most polluted and industrialized waterway in the state. The one's that don't pick up terminal liver disease from eating critters contaminated with arsenic, anthazene, chrysene, etc. are going to get pushed up against a vertical rock wall by a cormorant or grebe and eaten, or they are going to be killed from the shock waves produced by pile driving. No habitat=no fish

Well said Bob!! I know when I see a big hen like that I always say"Show me your lice,baby".

Fish have an incredible sense of smell and if you aren't catching any...well....it might tell you something. Do you drive to Idaho with the window down?

Piper, could it be that they are just paper fish?

(kinda like it looks good on paper)

after fishing the green quite a bit the last few years with not much success for hatchery fish and from hearing the same from others, somethings up,

Well,I don't fish the Green for steelhead . And from what I've been told, it's not anything like it use to be but, tell all this to Jigman and he'll probably just smile then go out the next day and hook five. Some people catch fish and some people don't.

I got to thinking about my last post and re-read it. Sure enough, it may have sounded a little harsh/cruel. So I thought maybe a kinder, gentler approach would be more appropriate,and hopefully more productive for those having troubles catching fish. Helpful tips for me were to pickup a copy of Drift Fishing For Steelhead/ Herzog and Reading The Water/ Hughes. The reading of these two books coupled with spending some time on the water practicing what I had read,really made me a better fisherman. So I apologize for my previous post if it offended any of you, that was not my intent or the best use of this forum.

Sid, yes there are a handful of people who fish the Green all the time and do well even when things get tough, but with the numbers of fish the state reports being released the average fisherman that shows up on the weekends should be hooking at least a few steelhead a season. But its not happening, the numbers being caught are pisspoor compared to the numbers being released. Thanks Bob for your thoughts on early natives. The Green used to have a late Nov. early Dec. run of natives but I hav'nt seen one in 10years. They disapeared long before people even began thinking about protecting them.

the green gets plenty of chum, i can catch those..but steelies are few and far between, ive hooked 2 hatchery and landed one, and ive hooked some natives, there seems to be a better native run, but its to bad people have to keep em jus cuz they can..

I believe it's illegal (at least the last two years) to retain native steelhead on the Green. Or is it a time period? When I fished in February for nates, it was C&R only.