No more diver-and-bait for me!

[Gone Fishin]

I use diver-and-bait when hatchery fish are present. When the boat see's it's first native, I put the diver-and-bait setups away and switch to plugs. Well, yesterday was my second trip for steelhead for the season (due to the water conditions we've had). I ran a plug out each side with a diver-and-bait in the middle. Guess which rod catches the native That's right, fish takes the bait and is bleeding as it comes to the boat=dead native. Now I feel sick, all I can do is not use this method any more this season and I won't!

PLEASE, WHEN NATIVE FISH ARE PRESENT, DON'T RUN BAIT-DIVERS!

---------------------
A native fish is a terrible thing to waste!

[fish forever]

Gone Fishing,
Which river were you on?

Has anyone else gotten into Native's yet? If so, which rivers?

[David Johnson]

Three of our fish on Monday were wild fish. Today one of our fish was a broodstock.

Fishing the Wilson.

[MasterCaster]

fished Three rivers today and saw my first Native fish of the year there.
saw about 10 or so hatchery fish also not too bad of a day all in all. I missed my chances hooked one that broke off and "stuck" many others without a hook up.
The Native was realeased unharmed.

[First Bite]

Marty, I take my hat off to you. Your concern for the native fish is an example that I wish all anglers would have.

Mark

[Thumper]

We stuck two natives out of 6 fish landed yesterday over here in sunny SW Washington. Guess they are everywhere.

[RichH]

I'm with you on that one Marty. I haven't managed to get out much this year but it seems like last year nearly everything I caught had all its fins. :grin: :grin:

Gotta like that.

[Gone Fishin]

I was on the Wilson as well. On Monday, we got a broodstock fish as well. I'm going to make a seperate post for the broodstock program. It was on Tuesday that we got the native. Sounds like there's quite a few around all over, even in Washington as well. Thanks all! Keep up the good work!

-Marty