HB2

Drop backs are the best steelheads on the fly of the year. They have so much power & they can smash the fly ,jump and tear up the creek. . Might be a little late but there will be some left in the fast water & riffles of the Salmon if not real warm early.

I have older easi trolls on my small boat and use #10 herbies for the last 10 years ,no problems . I usually only fish in decent weather waves . 60' or less mostly but I have had them down to 90 ' .The drag washers dried up so I drilled a few holes in the spool and use a screwdriver across housing through spool to hold it at depth. It works.

I like # 3 & # 4 Jplugs,tiger plugs , And some old #3 canadian plugs ( J plug type with single treble attached. ) I redo the hook harnesses w #65 braid and use size 1 on 3's and 1/0 on 4's ls374 trebs . I use them almost exclusivly after labor day for staging fish in my small boat. Off riggers 25-150' back . I run 1 or 2 and that's it. I like the old glo green flouresent w/ or W/o ladderback, silver bullet , cut plug ,and my first thing in the morning hands down favorite pearl white red head w/ black dots. I have a gold one that catches fish when nothing else works, a watermelon that has its days also a jet black w/ purple ladder back and others I painted . Found at least half of them floating. I have had days over the past 10 years where I alone have boated 7-8 kings by 8 am. This past year I went out 7 times and had 1 on, so go figure. i

Anyone who can say Brady is not the best ever to play the position must be blind . What bothers me is as a Bills fan is how far we have to go. Epic collapse for Atlanta. Atlanta fans , I feel your pain . An interception last min against the SEA Hawks and now this.

Picks I'll be first Atlanta 33 NE 31

When I bought my 21 fter I wanted a roller trailer and was willing to pay more for it . Guy talked me into bunks & I am glad he did. Launch easy, loads easy as my 16 fter and always goes on straight. Safer. & better for hull .

Yes , but all the fish up there are wild , or at least I think . So that makes our problem , a little more fixable. The Creel survey boats with the big orange bumpers ( what a job, how do I get paid for that ) could say to the SR hatchery ," these guys pounded the kings this year, better grab some extra eggs so they have some kings to catch in a few years". Could be as simple as that . Maybe they are doing that already , or I would hope.

Chick Fillet soon!!!!!!!!!!!!! Read many years ago shortly after the Zebra invasion that Ohio was considering dumping raw sewage into lake erie for the bottom of the food chain to eat. Was probably knee jerk and don;t think anything came of it.

Id rather choke on the water and catch more fish

Fully agree w/ the phosphorus thing. Phosphates in fertilizers & laundry detergents way back found its way into the lake and exploded the bottom of the food chain. Legislation & Zebras cleaned out the lake .

We are in what, the 15th or so generation of the original pacific salmon stocks? Could be the fish are evolving from ocean habitat to LO. maybe why nat rep fish are smaller. Mother nature. But that is a different issue. All your reasons may be legit ,Rol . But if the kings ,or any fish or animal,nat repro, the more taken out , the less you have in latter years. To me that is just common sense. So all these guys who go out and boat 50 lakers in an hr and C&R them are actually killing them. Well, that ain't good. But I don't think that's the case. Didn't I see a study somewhere that most survive?

Now I'm even more convinced. Longline , you are always on time .one smart dude. Anglers have gotten more profishent (pun intended ) at catching kings.

Ever hear of compound interest ? We have had harsh winters before. Also hear a lot on here about how much bait is out there. Zebra have been out there since mid 80's . Seems to me they are on the decline or have stabilized. Don't feds stock high numbers of them ? They also nat reproduce. Seems to me they are C&Red more with no trib fishery except for the niagara. I'm sure they eat their share , but once the fish reach 20" or so , they only real threat is a fish hook , or a bear. I'm looking for reason, not trying to lay blame.

And there lies the $ 64,000 question . King numbers are down , way down . We had great ,or at least I did , king fishing 3-5 years back. Then it got king slow so steelhead/rainbows were targeted with great fishing. Now that is slow and rainbow numbers are down . That being considered and stocking being about the same , what caused this ? Maybe taking all these fish had a big impact on our present day fishing . 40% is a lot. Kind of like taking money out of a retirement investment and expecting the same yearly income to live on. A kind of reverse pyrimid effect.

I understand all that , Jimski. I don't think a cormorant cares if it was a stocked or wild fish. I just wonder what percentage of fish, stocked to wild,make it to spawning age.