Congratulations! You killed a beautiful Native Steelhead. Washington State, the only placed left where you can bonk what's left of the Wild Steelhead. You should get a Gillnet. Hang with the Indians and Guides,who charge you to kill them.

Wow Smashmouth... I do take this comment to heart!

Ya I would have bonked it too.

Welcome to the siteoldredmohican! smashmouth - if you have a problem with the regs, take it up with the WDFW - not here. thanks

You guys can say what yoy want, but killing Native Steelhead anymore is wrong whether the state allows it or not. If a Guide allows his Clients to kill em, and than complains about the Indians Killing them than that's wrong too. They're both killing Wild Seelhead for profit. Smash all of the Hatchery fish you want, we can produce more.

Nice catch, that fish would have made a nice addition to my smoker, you have bragging rights there.

That's messed up

We used to catch two a day, a piece, kill them all and eat everyone of them. Then, we would do it a gain the next day. The run will survive. Nice fish!

I wouldn't seek applause from my peers if I kept something this beautiful. It's more disgusting than it is cool and actions like this are the reason why the wild population will be GONE in no time. It's the downfall of man- kill it all, eat it all, clear it all, pave it all

It tasted good i smoked half of it Tom gave the rest to neighbors friends ;) Was a great fight on 12lb test spinning reel 10 foot pole.Ya i should get gillnet make things easier LOL.

in this day and age.......sad!

Wdfw would not allow one trophy fish a year if they felt they weren't getting sufficient returns to accommodate these low retention numbers. I say nice catch, I hope he atleast spent the buck to get a mount, cuz who knows if hell ever cross paths with a steelhead of this stature again.

Brian, I'm glad you have so much confidence in the WDFW. All of our state agencies are awesome right.

Smashmouth, Your really going to compare Sportsman who are only allowed one a year, to the Indian's who can pretty much keep as many as they want per day? Furthermore if he wants to keep his one Native per year where it's legal to do so, more power to him! If you want to get the rule changed contact WDFW as Gringo said, instead of coming on here and bashing somone's fish which was perfectly legal to retain. Btw Oldredmohican, Nice fish!!

Wow smashmouth has issues. He better take it somewhere else this is not the place. He must suck at fishing. He must be a basser.... Lol loosers.

Sorry guys. I've been Steelhead Fishing this State for 40 years, and rowing a Driftboat for almost 30 all over Washington. I've seen what's happened to the Wild Steelhead Runs. We used to have 10 Fish days on the Sauk, gone. Big Pigs on the Skykomish in March and April. Gone. I know (at least for now) the stocks are okay on the Coast, but for how much longer? I guess it's just a sore subject for me. Washington State needs to wake up and change the rules. PS. Colin. I am a Basser and Steelheader and Salmon and anything else that swims. I'm a fishermen.

I agree with smashmouth. You should have taken pics, got measurements and let the fish go. Yea its a once in a lifetime fish, yea its awesome you got to eat it, but it would have been way cooler if those genes could have been put back into the population of natives for the up and coming generations who probably won't have a chance to anything like that. That being said, nice fish.

Hope you are happy, soon all the rivers in the state will be managed to death. Last year there were 10 steelhead in the Cedar river. Good job WDFW!! None of our runs of native fish are healthy. NO wild fish should be removed from our rivers.

anyone that is against him keeping this fish it's time to go chain your self to a tree you tree huggers. It's legal to do so and guess what there are more native steelhead in our rivers then you think. Just cuz you can't catch a fish of this magnitude doesnt mean you should bash someone for doing what his god given right is. Damn PETA members here I swear.

Nice fish too bad its gone. Got to look at the bright side! Maybe we can all save a copy of this link to show our children of what the last ones looked like.
The Tree Hugger.

Lol tree huggers just to good. Im 48 and ive seen it all. Im not saying the next one hasnt but gosh darn it the rules are there for a reason. He is not poching it are keeping it for bragging rights we are what we eat and he was just in the right spot at the right time. Btw I just bought a 16' clackacraft drifter fully loaded with trailer excellent condition all the way around for 2grand... Im happy to say the least.

Lol tree huggers just to good. Im 48 and ive seen it all. Im not saying the next one hasnt but gosh darn it the rules are there for a reason. He is not poching it are keeping it for bragging rights we are what we eat and he was just in the right spot at the right time. Btw I just bought a 16' clackacraft drifter fully loaded with trailer excellent condition all the way around for 2grand... Im happy to say the least.

And people complain when I call people out for breaking regs. and posting it. If the regs say you can keep one wild fish a year I say that it's a personal choice to keep it or not. If you get this upset over a legal fish kept you prob. SHOULD try to get the regs changed. BTW, not all native americans(you know, indians!)get to keep steelhead, the Nisqually tribe shut down ALL fishing for steelhead when the run went to hell. It pays not to generalize. According to latest data a LOT of smolts are being lost on their way out in the upper sound. Sea lions are at an all time high, I've never seen this many in 30+ years here.LOTS of reasons to complain, picking on people for posting legal fish is lame. I have friends who fly fish and jokingly comment on what murderers Melanie and I are, we laugh and say"yeah it's pretty premeditated" And some folks think I'm too negative(lol) Bob R

"if you have a problem with the regs, take it up with the WDFW - not here. thanks"
"Wdfw would not allow one trophy fish a year if they felt they weren't getting sufficient returns to accommodate these low retention numbers."

There are so many problems with this kind of attitude.

Better he takes it then a sealion or a native net.Was it hard to keep lit while smoking it. ?

Lol tree huggers just to good. Im 48 and ive seen it all. Im not saying the next one hasnt but gosh darn it the rules are there for a reason. He is not poching it are keeping it for bragging rights we are what we eat and he was just in the right spot at the right time. Btw I just bought a 16' clackacraft drifter fully loaded with trailer excellent condition all the way around for 2grand... Im happy to say the least.

Its easy to call someone a tree hugger on a website that shows no name or face Mikeel1987. But seriously dude, you throw an attitude like that towards some at the river, I guarantee you will be tossed in. Ill be fishing the skookumchuck river this weekend. When I here some body screaming and crying to their mommy about how they just got thrown in, Ill just think to myself "oh must have been Mikeel 1987". Then I will chuckle.

As for the issue with the Indians and Sealions as well, those are two totally different catagories that have nothing to do with us, the fishermen(or women for quite a few). We are the ones who are supposed to be maintaining the habitat, promoting a healthy ecosystem, and re-establishing future salmon and steelhead runs. Unfortunately, I see the opposite. People taking snagged fish Illegally, filthy banks with garbage left behind, rude behavior towards each other. I think everyone needs to re-assess themselves, screw the wdfw they always side with commercial fishing and cut the sportsman out anyway. No need to worry, though I mean, I don't mind having all this fishing gear and spending all this money to eventually not be able to use it. Think about your actions today, because tomorrow there will be an equal or greater re-action. Even if it is legal to keep the giant native steelhead you just caught, don't you want to come back and catch another huge steelie next year or the year after? Let it go next time and go slay some hatchery fish to eat on the bbq or throw in the smoker.

Gunna have to agree that bonking that fish was a huge mistake. Why do you think people don't catch 20 lb fish very often anymore? Because we have eliminated the genetic lineage from the population. Bonking fish like that ensures no trophies for our children, and our children's children.

Way to go.

Oh, also..... Do you like how ALL Puget Sound rivers are now closing Feb 1st due to low native escapement? Most river fisherman paying for our licenses here in Washington do not. Keep killing nates on the OP and see what happens to the season over there withing the next 10 years.............

How long you guys going to beat on this? No matter what your opinion is he kept it legally. Let me remind you all, the rules for commenting posted at the bottom of this page: "we do not appreciate negative or threatening comments posted anywhere on our site. If you have something negative to say, please keep it to yourself or you might find your account deleted and your IP banned." If you see an report posted of illegal acts - let myself or another mod know and we will deal with it. As far as I can tell there are none here. Now grab your gear and go wet a line!

LOl guys is interesting here I let 15 lb. native go on the snoqalmie 2 weeks ago kept it in water pulled the net back fish swam away great ;) hope that run comes back .But I really doubt it .I've got some good pictures big hoh fish if you want to see them all bucks like this one.Also have picture of 33lb and 17lb native king's I let go on Skykomish 2 years ago.

oh wow look at me, i bonked a native beauty and gave half of it to the nieghbors because i really didn't want the fish ... der der der

Ya i gave have to my neighbors who are not very wealthy they have never had steelhead before cant aford fresh fish DER DER DER you are a sad fisherman LOL to bad you cant catch a fish D***head.

You sir are no "fisherman" my guess is you are the type of guy most of us cringe at when we see you on the river bank. The type of guy that proudly posts pictures of dead native fish. It really is a shame that rare specimen had to cross paths with the likes of you. By the way I've caught a few fish over the years but its people like you and some of your other ignorant supporters that are going to make it impossible to do so in the future. You are old enough to know better!

Nice Fish!! Good job following the regs! Fish On!!

Wow, someone should remove this thread.

I want to say that, regardless of my first post, I do not kill fish, not any. I am pro catch and release. My point was that not too many years ago we were allowed to keep two fish everyday for months. Try to figure how many fish, native fish were killed then, and this run is still pretty dang strong. They really needed to do something to save these native fish and they did. It now is what it is and if you people really think that one fish will destroy an entire run of fish, you are absolutely out of your minds.

There is a rather large escapement of native fish in the coastal rivers. There was when we were killing 30 native fish a year, a piece. I still feel your frustration, but really? You are getting all worked up for no reason. There are guys out there that still kill every fish that they catch. I have seen it. Turn your emotion based argument towards that crowd. They are doing way more damage than a guy that killed one lousy fish.

And to the guy that said keeping fish like this is why it you don't catch 20 pounders much, anymore, haha, like when has that ever been easy? I have fished over 20 years and have caught one, and my Dad, who used to guide, fished for 40 years and caught only one. It was not even easy in the 60's, lol. I have a picture of a 30 pounder just caught in the Sol Duc last week. Does that count for anything? Because 20 years ago people like you guys were saying that our runs will be depleted and we will have no fish in 20 years because we killed natives.

Thanks ARNIEJL you see picture of king on Skykomish easy to let that big old hen go I love fishing and the regs are good now guys.I only take native bucks king salmon and steelhead.If its coho or pink those are good eggs for fishing lol.

Nice fish. So now that we have all put a fork in it, let's put one in this thread too.

And your pictures are out of focus too!

And your pictures are out of focus too!

I would never keep a native steelhead.

yes, let's move this debate to the forum.