I fished the cap with steelietrav this week for a few hours...I have fished the cap a lot over the years, I know it well, but often this time of year I would leave the steelies be...but we hit the river in the late afternoon for an evening bite anyways, just to see if there might be some fresh fish around...
What I noticed up there were several guys fishin the base of cable pool off the rocks....I was a bit dismayed with this, as it seems pretty hard on the fish to be played from there, not to mention dangerous for the angler. Some anglers were practicing flossing techniques, with long leaders etc, while others were fishing more traditionally. But that area has a bunch of redds through there and the fish will stack up and can be pestered by anglers who might not treat the fish with the care they deserve in their weakened state. One guy busted his rod on a steelie after he climbed down and chased it downstream...I think the fish was snagged as he had no control over it...
My concern is, most of those fish in there right now a very colored up. They are on their redds now, and as spawning habitat is fairly limited on that river, many anglers are targeting fish on their redds. Now, the last few years those fish have been doing very poorly, thus the release all steelhead regs. What do you guys think of this targeting of spawning fish? Do you think the river should be closed at some point? I was thinking it would be good for the fish if the river were closed for all of april and may...but I realize there might be some anglers who would disagree...
Let me know your thoughts on this please,
Thx,
rib