Fishing

alot of fellow steelheaders i run into complain alot about guys taking all the females of the beds and ruining the fishing for everybody else.what is your opinion and posible options.

two points on this issue,

one there is already a limit of fish that can be taken, "3 per day" and a "two day possesion limit"

the second point is, depending on where you are fishing, the majority of fish in those rivers are planted from fisheries and are not born there. it is true they do return to where they were releassed from

also remember this, when there are several species of salmon spawning in the same areas, beds are distroyd before the previous runs' eggs has had a chance to hatch.

there is no doubt that it is disturbing to see, but when harvey comes by with the rest of the story, things that seem disturbing and apualing becomes aperent that all is right in the world.

You can bet on this, if it were a threat to the fishery the season would be closed during the spawning periods.

i watched 2 kids draging 3 female steelhead a each and letting the eggs run out leaving atrail al the way to there car.they caught all these fish by sight fishing the beds.that means all the fish hanging in the rins bellow these beds have also left in search of more females leaving no fish left for anybody else.this is not an ethical or considerate way to fish.has nothing to do with the reproduction

seen that picture several times my self, not just kids doin it..

sounds like you could write a bit of an artical on the ethics of salmon fishing....

and by all means give it a go, I am sure others would like to read your views and compare notes...

I'd have to agree with both of you.

Taking a female on a bed obviously has an effect on the population but in the larger scope of things probably isn't going to make a huge impact.

on the other hand....

Taking 2-3 females off the beds has a very LARGE effect on anyone else who would like to fish the area as well.

Sad thing is... the kids probably didn't even realize what they were doing and were just happy that they caught some fish.

Education is the only way. Next time stop them and tell them ...."the rest of the story" maybe next time things will be different.

beleve it or not i took your advice before you gave it to me ...e.s.p maybe..or just common sense..it actualy worked to..

We need to limit the taking cause it can hurt the population in the rivers but then again there are alot of steelies out there.