When Did Steelhead Evolve Into Trout? It’s Not Clear

Sometimes you wonder whether those who write fish and game rules graduated from grade school.

Case in point: Rules for the Grande Ronde River, on page 98 of the current fishing regulations pamphlet. They’re so confusing that it’s nearly impossible to determine what they mean.

As a result, some anglers, including at least one fishing guide’s clients, kept steelhead they caught this fall along the lower 2-1/2-mile section of the popular stream.

For many years, regulations clearly stated that all steelhead hooked in the section from the mouth to the Asotin County bridge had to be released. The regulations in this year’s pamphlet are as clear as the river after two days of hard rainstorms.

To fly fishers, the catch-and-release rule has made it possible for them to fish the section without much competition from spin fishermen. Of course, a few spin fishermen who rarely kill steelhead occasionally have fished the section, but nearly all spin fishermen operate where they can keep steelhead.

To understand why fly fishers have regarded the catch-and-release rules as good for them, you should know that fly fishers and other anglers fish differently. Generally, spin and bait fishermen fish in one spot for long periods. Fly fishers move steadily through a “drift,” casting out and down, taking a step or two and casting out and down.

This practice makes it possible for all fly fishers, despite heavy fishing pressure, to get a chance to fish the best steelhead holding and traveling spots.

Fly fishers consider it unethical for a fly fisher to hog a hot spot. Those who do are resented and, occasionally, told by their peers that they’re violating the unwritten, but generally understood, ethics of fly fishing for steelhead.

Incidentally, it’s also considered unethical for a fly fisher to step in front of another fly fisher and start casting for steelhead. Fly fishers know that the right thing to do is to move in behind the other fly fisher.

Because fly and spin anglers fish differently and because anglers have had to release steelhead hooked in the lower 2-1/2 miles of the river, the lower Ronde has become a magnet for steelhead fly fishers.

Then the Fish and Wildlife Department published this year’s fishing pamphlet. No longer do the regulations for the Ronde say clearly that steelhead hooked in the lower section had to be released.

To the agency, a steelhead is a trout. So, incidentally, are kokanee and landlocked Atlantic salmon. A steelhead is considered a trout that is more than 20 inches long.

The current pamphlet indicates that the lower Ronde is open the year around, that the daily limit is two trout between 12 and 20 inches in length. In addition, selective-fishery regulations apply for all species between Sept. 1 and May 31. Nowhere, in clear, simple language, does the regulation indicate that steelhead hooked in the lower river must be released.

Anglers, nearly all of whom call a steelhead a steelhead, not a trout, are supposed to deduce from those regulations that they must release all the steelhead they hook. To fishermen, to paraphrase the legendary writer Gertrude Stein, a steelhead is a steelhead is a steelhead.

Naturally, a few anglers, not knowing that the department considers a steelhead a trout, assumed that steelhead could be kept. They read and re-read the regulation, but still concluded that the department had decided to eliminate the catch-and-release rule for the lower river.

Fly fishers started seeing an occasional angler kill a steelhead hooked in the lower river. When they told an angler that all steelhead must be released, they were advised to read the regulations.

Alarmed, fly fishers kept quiet, not wanting the word to spread that anglers could keep steelhead hooked in the lower river. They had nightmares of spin fishermen lining the banks of the river and not moving, ending fly fishing along one of the most productive steelhead rivers in the Northwest.

The matter came to a head during an informational meeting last week in Spokane on proposals for changes in the fishing regulations for the 1996-97 seasons. Mark Pinch, an avid steelheader, asked for an interpretation.

Bruce Smith, Spokane region manager for the Fish and Wildlife Department, interpreted the regulation. Yes, he concluded, anglers still must release steelhead hooked in the lower 2-1/2 miles of the river.

Most steelheaders wonder why those who write regulations can’t say clearly that steelhead must be released. Maybe they’ll get it right in the next pamphlet.

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Fenton Roskelley The Spokesman-Review